Method of Deriving Web Service Interfaces From Form and Table Metadata

• US 20080271047A1
• Filed: 04/27/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rafnsson, Rognvaldur Kristinn
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/311
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A system and method of deriving web service interfaces from form and table metadata is disclosed. The method uses a discovery subsystem to discover services that are available on an application server, retrieves the metadata descriptions of the services on the application server and uses the services discovered and the metadata descriptions to create web services interfaces such that the service is available using web services description language.

Claims

1. A method of deriving web service interfaces from form and table metadata comprising:

using a discovery subsystem to discover services that are available on an application server;

retrieving the metadata descriptions of the services on the application server; and

using the services discovered and the metadata descriptions from a discovery subsystem to create web services interfaces such that the service is available using web services description language.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is retrieved using a web services definition language request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating to the application server using http for discovery and metadata retrieval.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating from a service client to the application server using soap over http for service interactions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein abstractions intended to be web accessible as a web-service are registered in a database table.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the discovery subsystem is populated from the database table.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each record in the database becomes an entry in the response if the record has been marked as a service.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each entry in the response contains a uniform resource locator (url) pointing to the web services description language (wsdl) description of the service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a metadata provider provides the description of the service interface that can be used by standard tools that are compatible with the WSDL format.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the metadata is used to define the value types that are passed to the services in addition to the messages.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the form metadata points out what fields from what tables the form saves its data to and wherein the form metadata points out what fields from the tables are shown on the form.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the table metadata contains the fields and their properties.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein an XML type is built from form metadata and table metadata and the name of the service.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each field on the form appears as fields on the value type where the name and type of field is used.

5. The method of claim wherein the discovery subsystem response is in DISCO format.

16. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable code for deriving web service interfaces from form and table metadata, wherein the computer code further comprises code for:

using a discovery subsystem to discover services that are available on an application server;

retrieving the metadata descriptions of the services on the application server wherein the metadata is retrieved using a web services definition language request; and

using the services discovered and the metadata descriptions from a discovery subsystem to create web services interfaces such that the service is available using web services description language.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein abstractions intended to be web accessible as a web-service are registered in a database table and wherein the discovery subsystem is populated from the database table.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein each entry in the response contains a uniform resource locator (url) pointing to the web services description language (wsdl) description of the service.

19. A computer system comprising a processor for executing computer executable code, a memory for storing computer executable code and an input/output circuit, the computer executable code further comprising code for deriving web service interfaces from form and table metadata, wherein the computer code further comprises code for:

using a discovery subsystem to discover services that are available on an application server;

retrieving the metadata descriptions of the services on the application server wherein the metadata is retrieved using a web services definition language request; and

using the services discovered and the metadata descriptions from a discovery subsystem to create web services interfaces such that the service is available using web services description language.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein a metadata provider provides the description of the service interface that can be used by standard tools that are compatible with the WSDL format;

wherein the form metadata points out what fields from what tables the form saves its data to and wherein the form metadata points out what fields from the tables are shown on the for; and

wherein the table metadata contains the fields and their properties.