Tool for automated transformation of a business process definition into a web application package

• US 20090063225A1
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Baeyens, Tom, Guizar, Alejandro
• Granted Patent: US 9,058,571 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method and apparatus for automatically transforming a business process definition into a web application package. The method may include receiving a definition of a business process, and transforming the definition of the business process into a web application package, where the transformation is performed automatically without requiring a user to specify deployment descriptors for executing the business process as a web application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a definition of a business process; and

transforming the definition of the business process into a web application package, without requiring a user to specify deployment descriptors for executing the business process as a web application.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the definition of the business process is in business process execution language (BPEL).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the definition of the business process comprises a BPEL process definition document and one or more web services description language (WSDL) interface documents.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving a user command to deploy the definition of the business process to a business process management (BPM) database; and

in response to the user command, automatically packaging the BPEL process definition document and the WSDL interface documents into a process archive, and deploying the process archive to the BPM database.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the definition of the business process specifies one or more partner links and one or more roles associated with the partner links; and

transforming the definition of the business process into the web application package comprises

building a port component for each partner link associated with a role, and

building a web archive for the web application using port components created for the partner links.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

deploying the web archive of the web application to an application server.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein building the port component comprises:

generating WSDL implementation documents using the definition of the business process;

generating Java mapping artifacts using the WSDL implementation documents;

creating a web component deployment descriptor; and

creating a web services deployment descriptor.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the WSDL implementation documents comprise an interface document, a SOAP port binding document, and a service element document.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the Java mapping artifacts are generated using a configuration file associated with an application server.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the web component deployment descriptor comprises a servlet context listener that registers a partner integration configurator to enable inbound message activities.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

facilitating testing of the business process using an application client compliant with Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

12. The method of claim 11 wherein facilitating testing of the business process comprises:

generate an application client deployment descriptor;

providing an environment context for the application client;

creating a test case; and

receiving a command to execute the test case.

13. A system comprising:

a process repository to store definitions of business processes; and

a deployment server, coupled to the process repository, to receive input identifying one of the definitions of business processes, and to transform the identified definition of the business process into a web application package, without requiring a user to specify deployment descriptors for executing the business process as a web application.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein:

the definition of the business process is in business process execution language (BPEL); and

the definition of the business process comprises a BPEL process definition document and one or more web services description language (WSDL) interface documents.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein:

the definition of the business process specifies one or more partner links and one or more roles associated with the partner links; and

the process deployer is to transform the definition of the business process into the web application package by building a port component for each partner link associated with a role, and building a web archive for a web application using port components created for the partner links, the process deployer is further to deploy the web archive of the web application to an application server.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the process deployer is to build the port component by

generating WSDL implementation documents using the definition of the business process,

generating Java mapping artifacts using the WSDL implementation documents,

creating a web component deployment descriptor, and

creating a web services deployment descriptor.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the process deployer is further to facilitate testing of the business process using an application client compliant with Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the process deployer is to facilitate testing of the business process by

generating an application client deployment descriptor,

providing an environment context for the application client,

creating a test case, and

receiving a command to execute the test case.

19. A machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving a definition of a business process; and

transforming the definition of the business process into a web application package, without requiring a user to specify deployment descriptors for executing the business process as a web application.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 19 wherein:

the definition of the business process is in business process execution language (BPEL); and

the definition of the business process comprises a BPEL process definition document and one or more web services description language (WSDL) interface documents.

21. The machine-accessible medium of claim 19 wherein:

the definition of the business process specifies one or more partner links and one or more roles associated with the partner links;

transforming the definition of the business process into the web application package comprises building a port component for each partner link associated with a role, and building a web archive for the web application using port components created for the partner links; and

the method further comprises deploying the web archive of the web application to an application server.

22. The machine-accessible medium of claim 21 wherein building the port component comprises:

generating WSDL implementation documents using the definition of the business process;

generating Java mapping artifacts using the WSDL implementation documents;

creating a web component deployment descriptor; and

creating a web services deployment descriptor.