Web services mashup designer

• US 20080222599A1
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nathan, Adam D., Montgomery, John I.
• Application Number:
  US11/714,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222599A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/315 Object-oriented languages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for creating mashups using a visual mashup designer application. The system can interact with a mashup component wrapper creation process to create a wrapper for a selected web service. A design surface displays a graphical representation of components that can be used to create a mashup application, including the wrapper created during the wrapper creation process. The system automatically generates source code in a dynamic language when a component is added to the design surface. The code created contains the logic for which operations can be called in a respective underlying web service and what parameters the operations take. The user can select operations to invoke in the first and second components, and can then map an output of an operation of the first component to an input of an operation of the second component. Additional components can also be mapped.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

interact with a mashup component wrapper creation process to create a wrapper for a selected web service;

provide a design surface that displays a graphical representation of a plurality of components that can be used to create a mashup application, at least one of the components being the wrapper created during the wrapper creation process; and

automatically generate source code in a dynamic language when a particular component of the plurality of components is added to the design surface.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium further has computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the step comprising:

receive input from a user to place multiple components on the design surface.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium further has computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the step comprising:

graphically represent one or more operations available for each of the multiple components on the design surface.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the source code is generated using a dynamic language.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the dynamic language is JavaScript.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of components are displayed in a component toolbox.

7. A method for creating a mashup application comprising the steps of:

receiving input from a user to place components from a toolbox onto a design surface for use in a mashup application; and

when each component is dropped onto the design surface, creating the code that contains the logic for which operations can be called in a respective underlying web service and what parameters the respective operations take.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein prior to selecting the one or more component to display, the user initiates the creation of one or more of the components from an existing web service.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the code is generated in JavaScript.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

iterating through known input and output parameters of the operations.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

displaying the known input and output parameters graphically on the design surface.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving input from the user to map the components with each other using mappings.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

once the user has mapped the components with each other using mappings, saving the mappings as a block of code in the web services mashup.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the mapping code can iterate through results returned by each respective underlying web service that represents the components.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 7.

16. A method for mapping one component to another for use in a mashup application comprising the steps of:

receiving input from a user to place a first component onto a design surface;

receiving input from the user to place a second component onto the design surface;

receiving input from the user to select an operation to invoke on the first component and what parameters to send to the first component;

receiving input from the user to select an operation to invoke on the second component; and

receiving input from the user to map an output of the first component to an input of the second component.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the user adds custom logic.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein additional components are added beyond the first component and the second component.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving input from the user to run a resulting mashup application.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 16.