SYMMETRIC TRANSFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20070299854A1
• Filed: 09/05/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Blumenthal, Andreas, Stork, Christian, Wiechers, Volker, Wedler, Christoph, Bresch, Stefan, Bohlmann, Karsten
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

An application system includes a first process configured to execute an application program, wherein the application program is operable to use a set of data structures. The application system also includes a second process configured to interpret a markup language document. A transformation template is configured to specify a symmetric mapping between the markup language document and the set of data structures. A transformation virtual machine runs in association with the first process and is operable to execute the transformation template. The transformation virtual machine is operable to perform a symmetric transformation between the markup language document and the set of data structures to allow the first process and the second process to exchange information.

Claims

1. A method for transforming an XML data structure into an application programming language data structure comprising:

receiving a request for an XML data structure from an application;

retrieving the requested XML data structure;

transforming the requested XML data structure into an application programming language data structure; and

sending the application programming language data structure to the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application programming language structure is an Advanced Business Application Programming language data structure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application programming language data structure is a Java data structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure further comprises:

executing a transformation program associated with the application programming language data structure, and

transforming the XML data structure into the application programming language data structure using the transformation program.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transformation program is executed on a virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine runs on a web application server.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the transformation program is bidirectional.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the transformation program includes a transformation template that defines programming constructs responsible for transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transformation template includes a conditional element, a looping construct, and a reference expression.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the transformation template includes tt namespace elements, literal XML elements, attributes and text.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure further comprises:

consuming an XML data structure element; and

assigning a value to a node in the application programming language data structure based on the consumed XML data structure element, using a tt;

value element.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure further comprises matching a literal XML element within the transformation template with an XML input.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein the literal XML element is a literal text element, and

wherein the literal XML element is matched using a tt:

text element.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure further comprises matching a value of an attribute name in the requested XML data structure, using a tt:

attribute command.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into the application programming language data structure further comprises skipping an element of the requested XML data structure based on receiving a tt:

skip command.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising altering, based on an element in the transformation template, a path of control followed through the transformation template.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein transforming the requested XML data structure into an application programming language data structure further comprises performing conditional deserialization based on XML pattern matching.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the application programming language data structure is an Advanced Business Application Programming data structure.

18. A method for transforming an application programming language data structure into an XML data structure:

receiving an application programming language data structure from an application;

transforming the application programming language data structure into an XML data structure; and

storing the XML data structure.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the first application programming language data structure is an Advanced Business Application Programming data structure.

20. A method for sharing data between applications comprising:

receiving a first application programming language data structure from a first application;

transforming the first application programming language data structure into an XML data structure;

transforming the XML data structure into a second application programming language data structure; and

sending the second application programming language data structure to a second application.

22. An apparatus for transforming an XML data structure into an application programming language data structure comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a request for an XML data structure from an application,

retrieve the requested XML data structure, and

transform the requested XML data structure into an application programming language data structure; and

a memory configured to store the application programming language data structure.

23. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions that, when read by a machine, cause a data processing apparatus to:

receive a first application programming language data structure from a first application;

transform the first application programming language data structure into an XML data structure;

transform the XML data structure into a second application programming language data structure; and

send the second application programming language data structure to a second application.