Service composition environment

• US 20080059450A1
• Filed: 09/06/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekhar, Arun, Joseph, Joshy, Ramanathan, Anand C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,135,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A service composition environment is used to create a collaborative application that links services, composite services as well as with other collaborative applications. An application that is created using the service composition environment may include any combination of composite services, individual services and aggregated composite services. Metadata is obtained from the services that includes functional and non-functional policies, governance regulations, management aspects, and programmable binding information that relates to the services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a virtualized collaboration environment, comprising:

defining services within a service composition environment;

wherein each of the services relate to an individual service;

or a composite service;

or an aggregated composite service;

obtaining information relating to each of the services;

wherein the information includes functional and non-functional policies, governance regulations, management aspects, and programmable binding information that relates to each of the services;

obtaining information relating to the execution environment;

wherein the information includes functional and non-functional policies, governance regulations, management aspects, and programmable binding information that relates to a hosting environment;

defining routing information to link each of the services;

defining a collaborative context that includes rules that are used during runtime to control the exchange and the routing of messages between the services in the service composition environment; and

creating a definition of the environment based on the services;

the obtained information;

the routing information; and

the collaborative context.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the information relating to each of the services comprises obtaining metadata either directly from each of the services or from a service repository.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the metadata for each of the services comprises obtaining the metadata from the execution environment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the definition comprises generating an XML representation that defines the services, the routing rules associated with the services;

properties relating to the services and the collaborative context.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising setting attributes for each of the services;

wherein the attributes specify how the service is to interact with messages associated with one or more of the services.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising simulating an execution of the environment and validating the services defined within the service composition environment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the routing information to link each of the services and defining the collaborative context further comprises applying a design pattern to the services;

wherein the design pattern includes routing rules that define allowed connections between the services.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the design pattern specifies the routing rules for system services, composite services and public wrappers.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for providing a graphical tool for defining a context, the instructions comprising:

displaying a work area that is used to define participants;

routing rules and collaborative context rules for the context;

displaying participants for the context within the work area;

displaying routing information within the work area;

wherein the routing information connects the participants; and

displaying the collaborative context rules within the work area;

wherein the collaborative context rules control the exchange and the routing of messages between the participants in the context.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising determining when a participant is added to the work area.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising automatically determining metadata information that is associated with the participant after the participant is added to the work area.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising determining when a web service is added to the work area.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising displaying a dialog box to locate Web Service Description Language (WSDL) for the web service.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising determining when a route is added to the work area;

and when a route is added to the work area creating a routing rule between at least two of the participants.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising displaying a dialog box to set participant attributes.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising determining when a service logic component is added to the work area;

wherein the service logic component adds rules to the context and manages ambiguities and exceptions.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising determining when a user component is added to the work area;

wherein the user component specifies credentials for one or more services in the context.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;

a display; and

an application operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to perform actions, including;

editing services within a service composition environment;

wherein the services within the service composition environment comprise an individual service and a composite service;

determining when a service is added and when the service is added;

obtaining metadata relating to the service;

wherein the metadata includes functional and non-functional policies, governance regulations, management aspects, and programmable binding information that relates to the service;

editing routing rules;

wherein the routing rules link each of the services;

editing a collaborative context that controls the exchange and the routing of messages between the services; and

generating an XML definition that defines the services, the routing rules;

properties relating to the services and the collaborative context.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the application is further configured to set attributes for each of the services;

wherein the attributes specify how the service is to interact with messages associated with one or more of the services.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the application is further configured to graphically display the services and routing information on the display.