Architectural design for product catalog management application software
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
19 Claims
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for developing a computer software application, comprising:
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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
whereinthe 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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification