System and method for non-programmatically constructing software solutions

• US 20060150148A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pegasystems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: OpenSpan, Inc. (Pegasystems Incorporated)
• Inventors: McDougald, Horace Daniel, Castagno, Antony J., Beckett, Stephen Marshall, Lockwood, Damon Gerard
• Granted Patent: US 9,766,953 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A visual software development system in which a user can graphically build a design or software solution without having to write software code includes one or more adapters that interrogate interfaces of the software platform that a software system or systems is built in accordance with and generate descriptions that the user can then incorporate into the design. The software systems can be of disparate technology platforms, an adapter provided that suits each platform. The descriptions can be represented graphically for the user with icons in an integrated development environment (IDE), and the user can build the design by dragging or otherwise selecting descriptions to be used and connecting them together to graphically represent the flow of information or communication of events among the descriptions.

Claims

1. A visual software development system, comprising:

a first adapter to generate descriptions for a first software system, the first software system built in accordance with a first platform of a plurality of software platforms, the first adapter being associated with the same software platform as the first software system, the first adapter interrogating at least one element of the first software system utilizing the first platform and generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the first software system without altering or extending the first software system, the first adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation;

an integrated development environment (IDE) to build a design using the descriptions, the IDE having a user interface to graphically select descriptions and create the interconnections, the design comprising user-selected descriptions and interconnections between descriptions and graphical icons representing the user-selected descriptions and interconnections, the user-selected descriptions and interconnections together defining a user-defined algorithm; and

a loader to enable the user-defined algorithm to be effected in response to the descriptions and interconnections.

2. The visual software development system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second adapter to generate descriptions for a second software system, the second software system built in accordance with a second platform of the plurality of software platforms, the second adapter being associated with the same software platform as the second software system, the second adapter interrogating at least one element of the second software system utilizing the second platform generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the second software system without altering or extending the second software system, the second adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation; and

the IDE is used to build a design using both descriptions generated from the first adapter and descriptions generated from the second adapter.

3. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein the first adapter comprises:

a driver to interrogate at least one element of the first software system utilizing an interface of the first platform; and

a designer to provide a graphical user interface for browsing and selecting elements exposed by the driver and to generate the descriptions.

4. The visual software development system of claim 3, wherein the driver further operates on the elements corresponding to the descriptions generated by the designer when the user-defined algorithm is effected.

5. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein a description comprises a hierarchical graph of objects.

6. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein a description is described in metadata.

7. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein a description is described in source code.

8. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein the IDE persists designs as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.

9. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein the interconnections comprise:

a source host object that raises an event representing an output control port;

a target host object having a target delegate that can receive an event representing an input control port;

a link object graphically designed between a visual representation of a source output control port and a target input control port, wherein the link object is stored as data identifying the source host object, an event name of the event, the target host object, and a target delegate name of the target delegate;

wherein in response to loading the link object, the link object uses the target delegate name to query the target delegate from a target host object; and

wherein in response to loading the link object, the link object uses the target event name to query the event from the source host object, and the link object adds the target delegate to the source event.

10. The visual software development system of claim 1, wherein the interconnections comprise:

a source host object hosting a source description object that contains the identity of a source software system element and is connected to a source adapter driver corresponding to a source software platform;

a target host object hosting a target description object that knows the identity of a target software system element and connected to target adapter driver to a target software platform;

a link having a reference to the first source host object and a reference to the target host object, the source host object having a reference to the link;

wherein in response to a delegate receiving an event, the link is invoked;

wherein in response to being invoked, the link invokes the source description object;

wherein in response to being invoked, the source description object utilizes the source adapter driver to carry out an action on the source software system element to produce a result and return the result to the link; and

wherein in response to receiving the result, the link invokes the target description object with the result and utilizes the target adapter driver to carry out an action on the target software system element utilizing the result, wherein the source software system element action directly effects the target software system element in response to an input.

11. A computer-implemented visual software development method, comprising:

generating descriptions for a first software system using a first adapter, the first software system built in accordance with a first platform of a plurality of software platforms, the first adapter being associated with the same software platform as the first software system, the first adapter interrogating at least one element of the first software system utilizing the first platform and generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the first software system without altering or extending the first software system, the first adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation;

building a design in an integrated development environment (IDE) using the descriptions by selecting descriptions and interconnecting the descriptions with graphical icons representing the user-selected descriptions and interconnections, the user-selected descriptions and interconnections together defining a user-defined algorithm; and

preparing the user-defined algorithm to be effected in response to the descriptions and interconnections.

12. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating descriptions for a second software system using a second adapter, the second software system built in accordance with a second platform of the plurality of software platforms, the second adapter being associated with the same software platform as the second software system, the second adapter interrogating at least one element of the second software system utilizing the second platform generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the second software system without altering or extending the second software system, the second adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation; and

the IDE is used to build a design using both descriptions generated from the first adapter and descriptions generated from the second adapter.

13. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein the step of generating descriptions comprises:

interrogating at least one element of the first software system by utilizing an interface of the first platform; and

browsing and selecting elements exposed by the driver using a graphical user interface.

14. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 13, further comprising operating on the elements corresponding to the descriptions when the user-defined algorithm is effected.

15. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein a description comprises a hierarchical graph of objects.

16. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein a description is described in metadata.

17. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein a description is described in source code.

18. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein the IDE persists designs as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.

19. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein the step of interconnecting the descriptions comprises:

a source host object raising an event representing an output control port, wherein a target host object has a target delegate that can receive an event representing an input control port, wherein a link object is graphically designed between a visual representation of a source output control port and a target input control port, wherein the link object is stored as data identifying the source host object, an event name of the event, the target host object, and a target delegate name of the target delegate;

in response to loading the link object, the link object uses the target delegate name to query the target delegate from a target host object; and

in response to loading the link object, the link object uses the target event name to query the event from the source host object, and the link object adds the target delegate to the source event.

20. The computer-implemented visual software development method of claim 11, wherein the step of interconnecting the descriptions comprises:

wherein a source host object hosts a source description object that contains the identity of a source software system element and is connected to a source adapter driver corresponding to a source software platform, wherein a target host object hosts a target description object that knows the identity of a target software system element and connected to target adapter driver to a target software platform, and wherein a link has a reference to the first source host object and a reference to the target host object, and the source host object has a reference to the link;

invoking the link in response to a delegate receiving an event;

the link invoking the source description object in response to being invoked;

the source description object, in response to being invoked, utilizing the source adapter driver to carry out an action on the source software system element to produce a result and return the result to the link; and

the link, in response to receiving the result, invoking the target description object with the result and utilizing the target adapter driver to carry out an action on the target software system element utilizing the result, wherein the source software system element action directly effects the target software system element in response to an input.

23. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions for generating descriptions comprise:

instructions for interrogating at least one element of the first software system by utilizing an interface of the first platform; and

instructions for enabling browsing and selecting elements exposed by the driver using a graphical user interface.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising instructions for operating on the elements corresponding to the descriptions when the user-defined algorithm is effected.

21. A computer program product for visual software development comprising a computer-usable medium carrying thereon:

instructions for generating descriptions for a first software system using a first adapter, the first software system built in accordance with a first platform of a plurality of software platforms, the first adapter being associated with the same software platform as the first software system, the first adapter interrogating at least one element of the first software system utilizing the first platform and generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the first software system without altering or extending the first software system, the first adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation;

instructions for building a design in an integrated development environment (IDE) using the descriptions by selecting descriptions and interconnecting the descriptions with graphical icons representing the user-selected descriptions and interconnections, the user-selected descriptions and interconnections together defining a user-defined algorithm; and

instructions for preparing the user-defined algorithm to be effected in response to the descriptions and interconnections.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising:

instructions for generating descriptions for a second software system using a second adapter, the second software system built in accordance with a second platform of the plurality of software platforms, the second adapter being associated with the same software platform as the second software system, the second adapter interrogating at least one element of the second software system utilizing the second platform generating at least one description corresponding to an element of the second software system without altering or extending the second software system, the second adapter having a user interface to initiate interrogation; and

instructions for enabling use of the IDE to build a design using both descriptions generated from the first adapter and descriptions generated from the second adapter.

25. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein a description comprises a hierarchical graph of objects.

26. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein a description is described in metadata.

27. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein a description is described in source code.

28. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the IDE persists designs as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.