User interfaces for developing enterprise applications

• US 20050246656A1
• Filed: 04/30/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Dimitrov, Dimiter G., Vasilev, Vasil G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,734 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/805
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for providing a user interface for editing and deploying an enterprise application are described herein. In one embodiment, an exemplary user interface includes, but not limited to, a first window to display a graphical representation of a first component, a second window to display one or more properties associated with the first component when the graphical representation is activated, and wherein the one or more properties include a reference field to display a dependency relationship with a second component, the dependency relationship including an indication indicating strength of the dependency relationship. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Claims

1. A graphical user interface (GUI) for developing an enterprise application, the GUI comprising:

a first window to display a graphical representation of a first component; and

a second window to display one or more properties associated with the first component when the graphical representation is activated,

wherein the one or more properties include a reference field to display a dependency relationship with a second component, the dependency relationship including an indication indicating strength of the dependency relationship.

2. The GUI of claim 1, wherein the reference field comprises a name field and a type field to specify a name and type of the second component, and a strength field to specify the strength of the dependency relationship between the first and second component.

3. The GUI of claim 2, wherein the reference field further comprises:

an add button to add the second component into the reference field;

a remove button to remove the second component from the reference field; and

an edit button to edit the name, type, and strength of the relationship with respect to the second component.

4. The GUI of claim 1, wherein the strength of the dependency relationship includes a first level relationship and a second level relationship, wherein with the first level relationship, the first component uses one or more classes of the second component.

5. The GUI of claim 4, wherein with the second level relationship, the first component uses the one or more classes and one or more runtime objects of the second component.

6. The GUI of claim 5, wherein with the second level relationship, the first component is possibly terminated upon a termination of the second component.

7. The GUI of claim 1, wherein the second window further comprises a version field to specify one or more versions of the first component including at least one of a major version, a minor version, and a micro version.

8. The GUI of claim 7, wherein the second window further comprises a description field to provide a description of the first component.

9. The GUI of claim 8, wherein the second window further comprises:

a provider field to specify a name of a provider that provides the first component;

a component name field to specify a name of the first component;

a display name field to specify a display name associated with the first component; and

a group name field to specify a group name where the first component is a member.

10. The GUI of claim 1, wherein the first component is a server component selected from the group consisting of a library, an interface, and a service.

11. The GUI of claim 1, further comprising a control to deploy the first component, when activated, to display the first window to display the graphical representation of the first component.

12. The GUI of claim 1, wherein the first window further displays a graphical representation of a deployment package for deploying one or more components including the first component.

13. The GUI of claim 12, further comprising a third window to display one or more components within the deployment package when the graphical representation of the deployable package is activated, wherein the third window includes a package path field to specify a location of the deployment package and a mapping field to map the deployment package to a representation name.

14. The GUI of claim 13, wherein the third window further comprises:

an add button to add one or more components into the deployment package;

a browse button to browse for a component suitable to be added by the add button; and

a remove button to remove one or more components from the deployment package.

15. A method for developing an enterprise application, the method comprising:

displaying a graphical representation of a first component in a first window; and

in response to an input of an activation of the graphical representation, displaying one or more properties of the first component in a second window,

wherein the one or more properties include a reference field to display a dependency relationship with a second component, the dependency relationship including an indication indicating strength of the dependency relationship.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

specifying a name of the second component in a name field of the reference field;

specifying a type of the second component in a type field of the reference field; and

specifying a strength of the second component in a strength field of the reference field to specify the strength of the dependency relationship between the first and second component.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the strength of the dependency relationship includes a first level relationship and a second level relationship, wherein with the first level relationship, the first component uses one or more classes of the second component.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein with the second level relationship, the first component uses the one or more classes and one or more runtime objects of the second component.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein with the second level relationship, the first component is possibly terminated upon a termination of the second component.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the second window further comprises a version field to specify one or more versions of the first component including at least one of a major version, a minor version, and a micro version.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising providing a description of the first component within the second window.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the second window further comprises:

a provider field to specify a name of a provider that provides the first component;

a component name field to specify a name of the first component;

a display name field to specify a display name associated with the first component; and

a group name field to specify a group name where the first component is a member.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the first component is a server component selected from the group consisting of a library, an interface, and a service.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising displaying a graphical representation of a deployment package in the first window for deploying one or more components including the first component.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising displaying a third window one or more components within the deployment package when the graphical representation of the deployable package is activated, wherein the third window includes a package path field to specify a location of the deployment package and a mapping field to map the deployment package to a representation name.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the third window further comprises:

an add button to add one or more components into the deployment package;

a browse button to browse for a component suitable to be added by the add button; and

a remove button to remove one or more components from the deployment package.

27. A machine-readable medium having executable code to cause a machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

displaying a graphical representation of a first component in a first window; and

in response to an input of an activation of the graphical representation, displaying one or more properties of the first component in a second window,

wherein the one or more properties include a reference field to display a dependency relationship with a second component, the dependency relationship including an indication indicating strength of the dependency relationship.

28. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

a process, when executed from the memory, causes the processor to display a graphical representation of a first component in a first window,

in response to an input of an activation of the graphical representation, display one or more properties of the first component in a second window, and

wherein the one or more properties include a reference field to display a dependency relationship with a second component, the dependency relationship including an indication indicating strength of the dependency relationship.

29. A graphical user interface (GUI) for developing an enterprise application, the GUI comprising:

a first page selectable via a first page selector, the first page being used to create an archive file including at least one of an enterprise Java bean (EJB) Java application archive (JAR), a Web archive (WAR), an application client JAR, and a resource adapter archive (RAR);

a second page selectable via a second page selector, the second page being used to combine at least one of the EJB JAR, the WAR, the client JAR, and a RAR into an enterprise application archive (EAR) file;

a third page selectable via a third page selector, the third page being used to specify one or more deployment properties and one or more Java engine properties to deploy the enterprise application; and

a fourth page selectable via a fourth page selector, the fourth page being used to deploy one or more server components of an enterprise system, wherein the fourth page includes

a first window to display a graphical representation of a server component being deployed, and

a second window to display one or more properties of the server component being deployed, when the graphical representation of the first window is activated.

30. The GUI of claim.29, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth pages are stackable within an single instant of an application and are selectable via the respective first, second, third, and fourth page selectors.