Mapping assurance method and apparatus for integrating systems

• US 20060190931A1
• Filed: 02/18/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cast Iron Systems Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Patrascu, Vasile, Scott, George M., Schroepfer, Erin Hoffmann
• Granted Patent: US 9,052,879 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided to assure transformations between applications in an integration project. This assurance of transformations between applications includes mapping one or more related fields from a set of fields between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications according to a set of integration objectives, checking a type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields mapped between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications and indicating a mapping status according to the type compatibility between the source applications and the target applications.

Claims

1. A method of assuring transformations between applications, comprising:

mapping one or more related fields from a set of fields between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications according to a set of integration objectives;

checking a type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields mapped between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications; and

indicating a mapping status according to the type compatibility between the source applications and the target applications.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a set of fields derived from metadata associated with the source applications and target applications;

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping creates a correspondence between a field in at least one source application to another field in at least one target application.

9. The method claim 1 wherein the mapping further includes one or more data transformations to be performed as data associated with the one or more related fields is exchanged between the one or more target applications and the one or more source applications.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein checking the type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields further includes:

identifying a potential set of values associated with the one or more related fields to be generated by the one or more source applications and;

identifying an acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields; and

determining whether the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications overlaps with the acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein a set of type compatibility rules are used to determine when the values to be generated by the one or more source applications overlap with the acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the set of type compatibility rules further includes comparing a cardinality of field values to be generated against an acceptable cardinality of field values to be stored.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising ensuring a guaranteed mapping when the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications are all capable of being stored by the one or more target applications.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing a map warning as at least one but not all possible field values between the one or more mapped fields are compatible.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing a map error as no possible field values between the mapped fields are compatible.

3. The method of claim I wherein the displaying further comprises discovering metadata for one or more source applications and one or more target applications in an integration project.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the metadata is derived from a schema compatible with XML.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the metadata for an XML compatible documents is derived from an XML schema (XSD).

6. The method of claim 3 wherein displaying the set of fields exposes data relationship information between the source applications and the target applications.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the displaying further includes a set of data types corresponding to the set of fields.

16. A system for assuring transformations between applications, comprising:

a processor capable of executing instructions;

a memory containing instructions when executed on the processor map one or more related fields from a set of fields between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications according to a set of integration objectives, check a type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields mapped between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications and indicate a mapping status according to the type compatibility between the source applications and the target applications.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising instructions that display a set of fields derived from metadata associated with the source applications and target applications;

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the instructions that display further comprise instructions that discover metadata for one or more source applications and one or more target applications in an integration project.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the metadata is derived from a schema compatible with XML.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the metadata is derived from a schema compatible with a XSD format.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the instructions that display the set of fields exposes data relationship information between the source applications and the target applications.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the instructions that display further include a set of data types corresponding to the set of fields when displayed.

23. The system of claim 16 wherein the instructions that map create a correspondence between a field in at least one source application to another field in at least one target application.

24. The system of claim 16 wherein the instructions that map are further capable of one or more data transformations to be performed as data associated with the one or more related fields is exchanged between the one or more target applications and the one or more source applications.

25. The system of claim 16 wherein instructions that check the type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields further includes instructions that:

identify a potential set of values associated with the one or more related fields to be generated by the one or more source applications, identify an acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields and determine whether the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications overlaps with the acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein a set of type compatibility rules are used to determine when the values to be generated by the one or more source applications overlap with the acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the set of type compatibility rules further includes instructions that compare a cardinality of field values to be generated against an acceptable cardinality of field values to be stored.

28. The system of claim 25 further comprising instructions that ensure a guaranteed mapping when the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications are all capable of being stored by the one or more target applications.

29. The system of claim 25 further comprising instructions that provide a map warning as at least one but not all possible field values between the one or more mapped fields are compatible.

30. The system of claim 25 further comprising instructions that provide a map error as no possible field values between the mapped fields are compatible.

31. A computer program product for assuring transformations between applications, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

map one or more related fields from a set of fields between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications according to a set of integration objectives;

check a type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields mapped between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications; and

indicate a mapping status according to the type compatibility between the source applications and the target applications.

32. The computer program product of claim 31 further comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

display a set of fields derived from metadata associated with the source applications and target applications;

33. The computer program product of claim 31 wherein the display instructions further comprises instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to discover metadata for one or more source applications and one or more target applications in an integration project.

34. The computer program product of claim 33 wherein the metadata is derived from a schema compatible with XML.

35. The computer program product of claim 33 wherein the metadata for an XML document is derived from an XML schema (XSD).

36. The computer program product of claim 31 wherein instructions that check the type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields further comprises instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

identify a potential set of values associated with the one or more related fields to be generated by the one or more source applications and;

identify an acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields; and

determine whether the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications overlaps with the acceptable set of values capable of being stored by the one or more target applications in the one or more related fields.

37. The computer program product of claim 36 further comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to ensure a guaranteed mapping when the potential set of values to be generated by the one or more source applications are all capable of being stored by the one or more target applications.

38. The computer program product of claim 36 further comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to provide a map warning as at least one but not all possible field values between the one or more mapped fields are compatible.

39. The computer program product of claim 36 further comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to provide a map error as no possible field values between the mapped fields are compatible.

40. A method of providing status between a set of fields being mapped between applications, comprising:

receiving a set of mappings between a source application and a target application;

identify one or more required fields and one or more optional fields to be mapped between source application and target application; and

indicating a mapping complete status according to a percentage of mappings made in the set of mappings compared with the required fields identified between a source application and a target application.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the mappings between the source application and the target application include a warning indicator when a field in the source application may not always be compatible with a field in the target application.

42. The method of claim 40 wherein the mappings between the source application and the target application include a guarantee indicator when fields in the source application are always compatible one or more fields in the target application.

43. The method of claim 40 wherein the required fields are determined according to one or more fields provided in the target application.

44. The method of claim 40 wherein the required fields are determined according to one or more fields provided in the target application.