Encapsulating changes to a software application

• US 20050268280A1
• Filed: 05/26/2004
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Fildebrandt, Ulf
• Application Number:
  US10/853,905
• Publication Number:
  US 20050268280A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

Described are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application. A template is defined that includes a plurality of tasks to accomplish the set of changes to the software application. The template is associated with a plurality of development objects. An identification of a development object is received and one or more templates associated with the development object are identified. An identification of a selected template from the one or more templates is received and the selected template is applied to generate the development object.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

define a template that includes a plurality of tasks to accomplish a set of changes to a software application; and

associate the template with a plurality of development objects.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the template comprises a wizard portion and a generation portion.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the wizard portion comprises a wizard class.

4. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the wizard portion comprises an applicable class and a data class.

5. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the generation portion comprises a generation class.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to associate the template with a plurality of wizard pages corresponding to the plurality of tasks.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the template corresponds to changes associated with metadata of one of the development objects.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the template corresponds to changes associated with a fragment of source code associated with one of the development objects.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the template is defined using an extended markup language.

10. A system for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application, the system comprising a computing device configured to:

define a template that includes a plurality of tasks to accomplish the set of changes to the software application; and

associate the template with a plurality of development objects.

11. A computer-implemented method for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application, the method comprising:

defining a template that includes a plurality of tasks to accomplish the set of changes to the software application; and

associating the template with a plurality of development objects.

12. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, for applying an encapsulated set of changes to a software application, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive an identification of a development object;

identify one or more templates associated with the development object, each template comprising a plurality of tasks to accomplish a set of changes to a software application;

receive an identification of a selected template from the one or more templates; and

apply the selected template to generate the development object.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to generate one or more additional development objects by applying the selected template.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to:

generate a data object corresponding to the selected template; and

assign data to the data object based on a user input.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to generate source code based on the data object.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to display wizard pages to a user to obtain a user input.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to enable a user to select the selected template.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein instructions to enable a user to select the selected template comprise instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to present to a user a list including the selected template.

19. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to associate the selected template with a user coding area of the development object.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to generate an identifier for a source code fragment generated by a user in the user coding area of the development object.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to insert a source code fragment generated by a user in the user coding area of the development object.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to insert a source code fragment generated by a user in generated source code corresponding to the user coding area.

23. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to generate an instance of the selected template based on a user input.

24. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the instance of the selected template is not a typed object.

25. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to reapply values of the instance of the selected template to the development object.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to enable a user to edit a first one of the values of the instance of the selected template before the first one of the values is reapplied.

27. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to associate the instance of the selected template with the development object.

28. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to associate the instance of the selected template with the development object using a template marker.

29. A system for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application, the system comprising a computing device configured to:

receive an identification of a development object;

identify one or more templates associated with the development object, each template comprising a plurality of tasks to accomplish a set of changes to a software application;

receive an identification of a selected template from the one or more templates; and

apply the selected template to generate the development object.

30. A computer-implemented method for encapsulating a set of changes to a software application, the method comprising:

receiving an identification of a development object;

identifying one or more templates associated with the development object, each template comprising a plurality of tasks to accomplish a set of changes to a software application;

receiving an identification of a selected template from the one or more templates; and

applying the selected template to generate the development object.