Architectural design for product catalog management application software

• US 20070156538A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Moosmann, Gerd, Kaetker, Stefan, Freund, Jens, Latocha, Peter, Peter, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,703 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing a software architecture design for a software application implementing catalog management useful to create or update published catalogs based on product master data changes or external supplier catalogs. The application is structured as multiple process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, and multiple service interface operations, each being implemented for a respective process component. The process components include a Purchasing Contract Processing process component that handles agreements between a purchaser and a supplier; a Product Catalogue Authoring process component that creates and edits product catalogs by collecting product information from relevant sources, controls the quality of the product catalogs'"'"' contents, and controls when and to what extent Product Catalogues can be published; and a Product Catalogue Publishing process component that makes published product catalogs available to a large number of users electronically for use in other business processes.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising application software encoded on a tangible machine-readable information carrier, the application software being structured as process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, the software comprising:

a plurality of process components, each of the process components being a package of software implementing a respective and distinct business process, the plurality of process components including;

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component that handles agreements between a purchaser and a supplier that cover the supply of goods or the performance of services;

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component that creates and edits product catalogs by collecting product information from relevant sources, controls the quality of the product catalogs'"'"' contents, and controls when and to what extent Product Catalogues can be published for use in other business processes; and

a Product Catalogue Publishing process component that makes published product catalogs available to a large number of users electronically as a means to interactively search for and select products for use in other business processes; and

a plurality of service interface operations, each service interface operation being implemented for a respective process component, the operations comprising inbound and outbound operations, the outbound operation for a first process component being operable to send a message to a second process component of the plurality of process components, the second process component having an inbound operation for receiving the message, the passing of messages between an inbound and an outbound operation defining a message-based pair-wise interaction between the respective process components of the respective operations, the pair-wise interactions between pairs of the process components including interactions between;

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component and a Product Catalogue Authoring process component; and

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component and a Product Catalogue Publishing component.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of process components is assigned to exactly one deployment unit among multiple deployment units, and each deployment unit is deployable on a separate computer hardware platform independent of every other deployment unit; and

all interaction between a process component in one deployment unit and any other process component in any other deployment unit takes place through the respective service interfaces of the two process components.

3. The product of claim 2, wherein the deployment units comprise:

a Purchasing deployment unit that includes the Purchasing Contract Processing process component;

a Catalogue Authoring deployment unit that includes the Product Catalogue Authoring process component;

a Catalogue Publishing deployment unit that includes the Product Catalogue Publishing process component.

4. The product of claim 1, wherein:

each of the process components includes one or more business objects; and

none of the business objects of any one of the process components interacts directly with any of the business objects included in any of the other process components.

5. The product of claim 4, wherein the business objects comprise a business process object.

6. The product of claim 4, wherein:

none of the business objects included in any one of the process components is included in any of the other process components.

7. The product of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of process agents, each process agent being either an inbound process agent or an outbound process agent, an inbound process agent being operable to receive a message from an inbound operation, an outbound process agent being operable to cause an outbound operation to send a message, each process agent being associated with exactly one process component.

8. The product of claim 7, wherein:

the inbound process agents comprise a first inbound process agent operable to start the execution of step requested in a first inbound message by creating or updating one or more business object instances.

9. The product of claim 7, wherein:

the outbound process agents comprise a first asynchronous outbound process agent that is called after a business object that is associated with the first outbound process agent changes.

10. The product of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise synchronous and asynchronous operations.

11. A system, comprising:

a computer system comprising one or more hardware platforms for executing a computer software application;

a plurality of process components, each of the process components being a package of software implementing a respective and distinct business process, the plurality of process components including;

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component that handles agreements between a purchaser and a supplier that cover the supply of goods or the performance of services;

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component that creates and edits product catalogs by collecting product information from relevant sources, controls the quality of the product catalogs'"'"' contents, and controls when and to what extent Product Catalogues can be published for use in other business processes; and

a Product Catalogue Publishing process component that makes published product catalogs available to a large number of users electronically as a means to interactively search for and select products for use in other business processes; and

a plurality of service interface operations, each service interface operation being implemented for a respective process component, the operations comprising inbound and outbound operations, the outbound operation for a first process component being operable to send a message to a second process component of the plurality of process components, the second process component having an inbound operation for receiving the message, the passing of messages between an inbound and an outbound operation defining a message-based pair-wise interaction between the respective process components of the respective operations, the pair-wise interactions between pairs of the process components including interactions between;

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component and a Product Catalogue Authoring process component; and

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component and a Product Catalogue Publishing component.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

each of the process components includes one or more business objects; and

none of the business objects of any one of the process components interacts directly with any of the business objects included in any of the other process components.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein:

none of the business objects included in any one of the process components is included in any of the other process components.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein:

a plurality of process agents, each process agent being either an inbound process agent or an outbound process agent, an inbound process agent being operable to receive a message from an inbound operation, an outbound process agent being operable to cause an outbound operation to send a message, each process agent being associated with exactly one process component.

15. The system of claim 11, the system comprising multiple hardware platforms, wherein:

the Purchasing Contract Processing process component is deployed on a first hardware platform;

the Product Catalogue Authoring process component is deployed on a second hardware platform; and

the Product Catalogue Publishing process component is deployed on a third hardware platform.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the first through the third hardware platforms are distinct and separate from each other.

17. A method for developing a computer software application, comprising:

obtaining in a computer system digital data representing an architectural design for a set of processes implementing an end-to-end application process, the design specifying a process component for each process in the set of processes, the design specifying further specifying a set of process component interactions, wherein

the specified process components include

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component that handles agreements between a purchaser and a supplier that cover the supply of goods or the performance of services;

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component that creates and edits product catalogs by collecting product information from relevant sources, controls the quality of the product catalogs'"'"' contents, and controls when and to what extent Product Catalogues can be published for use in other business processes; and

a Product Catalogue Publishing process component that makes published product catalogs available to a large number of users electronically as a means to interactively search for and select products for use in other business processes; and

wherein

the process component interactions include interactions between

a Purchasing Contract Processing process component and a Product Catalogue Authoring process component; and

a Product Catalogue Authoring process component and a Product Catalogue Publishing component; and

using the design including the specified process components and the specified process component interactions to develop a computer software application to perform the set of processes.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

each process in the set of processes is a business process transforming a defined business input into a defined business outcome.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

obtaining digital data representing the architectural design further comprises editing the design before using the design.