System and method of managing software product-line customizations

• US 20050267889A1
• Filed: 02/08/2005
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acoustic, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Coremetrics Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Wan, Jimmy, Lai, Harry, Snyder, James, Reddy, Shirish
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,344 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

A method of managing application service provider product line variations is disclosed. The method includes receiving a client customization request, creating a configuration managed file tailored to the client customization request, binding the configuration managed file to at least one customizable resource, and deploying the customizable resource to a data store. The customizable resource is instantiated after disposition at the data store.

Claims

1. A method of managing application service provider product line variations, the method comprising:

receiving a client customization request;

creating a configuration managed file tailored to the client customization request;

binding the configuration managed file to at least one customizable resource;

deploying the customizable resource to a data store, wherein the customizable resource is instantiated after disposition at the data store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes identifying a scope of the customizable resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data store is an active data warehouse.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizable resource is instantiated upon invocation by an analytic platform services module.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein binding includes binding a single file to multiple customizable resources for one of a client customization and an industry customization.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the scope of customizable resources includes identifying a first scope associated with an industry vertical and a second scope associated with a particular client in an industry vertical.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a first of the customizable resources is associated with a first industry vertical and wherein a second of the customizable resources is associated with a second industry vertical, the first of the customizable resources includes a first set of resource definitional components and wherein the second of the customizable resources includes a second set of resource definitional components.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the first set of resource definitional components has a resource type selected from the group consisting of client descriptors, page descriptors, navigation descriptors, workflow templates, resource bundles, content generators, report definition language templates, Schematron schema, view tree descriptors, page type descriptors, view controller templates, and skin descriptors.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the scope of customizable resources includes extension inheritance, extension inheritance allowing undefined customizable resources of a second scope associated with a particular client to be defined by customizable resources bound to the first scope associated with an industry vertical.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a customizable resource defined by extension inheritance includes runtime binding defined by a second portion of the customizable resource being instantiated after deploying the customizable resource to a data store and after instantiating the first portion of the customizable resource.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the customizable resource includes taking the contents of the bound configuration managed file and writing the bound configuration managed file to a persistent representation of the customizable resource in the data store.

12. A method comprising:

creating a configuration managed file tailored to a client customization request;

binding the configuration managed file to a customizable resource;

deploying the customizable resource to a data store creating a customized resource abstraction; and

dynamically instantiating the customizable resource abstraction for use in an analytic platform services module.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data store is an active data warehouse.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further includes identifying a scope of the customizable resource.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein dynamically instantiating the customizable resource includes instantiating a first portion and a second portion of the customizable resource.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first portion of the customizable resource is instantiated after deployment to the data store, but before an output is communicated to the analytic platform services module.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second portion of the customizable resource is instantiated after content is communicated to the analytic platform services module, but before the content is displayed by a publishing module.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the analytic platform services module includes a reporting module, a security module, a navigation module, and a globalization module.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the analytic platform services completes instantiation of the customized resources and provides content in XML format.

20. A method of producing data comprising:

storing a plurality of Internet transactions and identifying the transactions with an industry segment identifier and a client identifier;

retrieving a plurality of customized resources responsive to a customer request;

utilizing the plurality of customized resources to process the plurality of stored Internet transactions, the customized resources utilizing the industry segment identifier and the client identifier to aggregate data;

customizing a publishing module to produce subscriber focused data by organizing the aggregated data such that the data can be utilized by the subscriber.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising identifying a customer and retrieving the at least one customized resource based on the identity of the customer.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the industry segment identifiers codified by one of financial, retail or travel industry segment.

23. A system comprising:

a data store including a plurality of customizable resources;

an analytic platform services module having access to the data store; and

a web publishing module, having at least one input to receive content to be displayed, the content retrieved from the analytic platform services module wherein at least one of the plurality of customizable resources includes a variant aspect, the variant aspect being instantiated with data at the data store after a time of deployment of the customizable resources.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the data store is an active data warehouse.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the variant aspect is instantiated after the at least one customizable resource is accessed by the analytic platform services module.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of customizable resources includes a non-variant element.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one of the plurality of customizable resources includes a first component having a first scope of customization and a second component having a second scope of customization.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the first scope of customization is associated with an industry vertical and the second scope of customization is associated with a particular client within an industry vertical.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the industry vertical is selected from the group consisting of a financial vertical, a travel vertical, and a retail vertical, and wherein at least two different clients are associated with at least one of the industry verticals.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein a first of the customizable resources is associated with a first industry vertical and wherein a second of the customizable resources is associated with a second industry vertical, the first of the customizable resources includes a first set of resource definitional components and wherein the second of the customizable resources includes a second set of resource definitional components.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the first set of resource definitional components has a resource type selected from the group consisting of client descriptors, page descriptors, navigation descriptors, workflow templates, resource bundles, content generators, report definition language templates, Schematron schema, view tree descriptors, page type descriptors, view controller templates, and skin descriptors.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein at least one of the second set of resource definitional components has a resource type selected from the group consisting of client descriptors, page descriptors, navigation descriptors, workflow templates, resource bundles, content generators, report definition language templates, Schematron schema, view tree descriptors, page type descriptors, view controller templates, and skin descriptors.

33. The system of claim 23, wherein the analytic platform services module includes a non-variant software component and wherein at least one of the customizable resources includes a variant software component.

34. The system of claim 24, wherein at least a portion of one of the customizable resources is instantiated after the time of deployment but before communication of a data descriptor file from the analytic platform services module to the web publishing module.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the data descriptor file from the analytic platform services module is an XML file.

36. The system of claim 24, wherein the active data warehouse includes a core data platform, the core data platform defining a set of data that is customizable.

37. The system of claim 23, wherein the analytic platform services module includes a reporting module, a security module, a navigation module, and a globalization module.

38. A system comprising:

a data aggregation module;

a data store in communication with the data aggregation module, the data store including a plurality of customizable resources, the plurality of customizable resources providing functionality that is variant as a function of one of a particular industry and a particular client; and

an analytic application and reporting module in communication with the data store.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the data store is an active data warehouse, the active data warehouse including a core data platform, the core data platform defining a set of data that is customizable.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein at least one of the customizable resources includes a variant aspect, the variant aspect being instantiated with data at the active data warehouse after a time of deployment of the customizable resources.

41. The system of claim 38, wherein a first of the customizable resources is associated with a first particular industry and wherein a second of the customizable resources is associated with a second particular industry, the first of the customizable resources including a first set of resource definitional components and wherein the second of the customizable resources including a second set of resource definitional components.

42. The system of claim 38, wherein at least one of the first set of resource definitional components has a resource type selected from the group consisting of client descriptors, page descriptors, navigation descriptors, workflow templates, resource bundles, content generators, report definition language templates, Schematron schema, view tree descriptors, page type descriptors, view controller templates, and skin descriptors.

43. The system of claim 38, wherein at least a portion of one of the customizable resources is instantiated after the time of deployment but before communication of content file from the analytic platform services module to the web publishing module.

44. A system comprising:

a data file associated with a data store, the data file bound to a first collection of resources including a customizable component that is instantiated after a time of deployment, the first collection of resources defining a first scope of customization, the data file further bound to a second collection of resources including a customizable component that is instantiated after a time of deployment, the second collection of resources defining a second scope of customization, wherein the data file and the first and second collection of resources are loadable to the data store.

45. The system of claim 44 wherein the first scope is within a first industry vertical and the second scope is within a second industry vertical.

46. A system comprising:

a partially defined resource having undefined customizable resources for use in a web application when instantiated at runtime;

an inheritance resolution mechanism, defining the undefined customizable resources of the partially defined resource from customizable resource types of a broader scope.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the web application is used in an application services provider environment.

48. A system presenting customized data, the system comprising:

a data store;

a plurality of customized resources configured to retrieve data from the data store;

a software selector module configured to select resources from the plurality of customized resources based on a client request made during operation;

a navigation module configured to structure execution of the plurality of customized resources to create organized content; and

a publishing module configured to receive the organized content and render the organized content into a customized display format.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the modules are remotely located from a subscriber.

50. The system of claim 48, wherein the navigation module controls access to the customized resources and the data store.

51. The system of claim 48, further comprising a subscriber identification module wherein the customized resources are selected based on identifying a subscriber.

52. The system of claim 48, wherein the data store is configured to collect data based on Internet transactions, and wherein the data is codified into retail, financial and travel transactions.