MULTI-LAYER XML CUSTOMIZATION

• US 20090204884A1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Barrow, Chris, Triggs, Nicholas St. John, Farrell, Ted, Konduri, Gangadhar
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for customizing aspects of a metadata-driven software application. In particular, embodiments of the present invention provide (1) a self-contained metadata engine for generating customized metadata documents from base metadata documents and customizations; (2) a customization syntax for defining customizations; (3) a customization creation/update component for creating and updating customizations; (4) a customization restriction mechanism for restricting the creation of new customizations by specific users or groups of users; and (5) memory and caching optimizations for optimizing the storage and lookup of customized metadata documents.

Claims

1. A method for customizing a software application, the method comprising:

receiving a base metadata document defining one or more characteristics of at least a portion of the software application;

identifying one or more customizations defining modifications to the base metadata document, wherein the one or more customizations are stored separately from the base metadata document; and

generating a customized metadata document based on the one or more customizations and the base metadata document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of receiving, identifying, and generating are performed at runtime of the software application.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the customized metadata document to generate a user interface of the software application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the base metadata document, the one or more customizations, and the customized metadata document are Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of receiving, identifying, and generating are performed by a metadata engine configured to provide application metadata to one or more components of the software application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the metadata engine is capable of interoperating with any software application that makes use of XML-based application metadata.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more customizations are stored in a predefined location relative to the base metadata document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more customizations and the base metadata document are stored in separate storage repositories.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more customizations comprises:

determining one or more customization levels; and

for each customization level, identifying a customization based on one or more runtime attributes of the software application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more customization levels are configurable.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more customization levels are sorted in a precedence order, and wherein the customized metadata document is generated by applying the one or more customizations to the base metadata document in the precedence order.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more customizations are applied cumulatively.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more customization levels are stored in an XML-based configuration file.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more customizations include at least one seeded customization provided by a supplier of the software application.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of one or more customizations include at least one user customization created by a user of the software application.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application may be upgraded without modifying the one or more customizations.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more customizations may include an arbitrary number of customizations.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics include content, behavior, or appearance.

19. A system for customizing a software application, the system comprising:

a repository configured to store a base metadata document and one or more customizations, wherein the base metadata document defines one or more characteristics of at least a portion of the software application, wherein the one or more customizations define modifications to the base metadata document, and wherein the one or more customizations are stored separately from the base metadata document; and

a metadata engine configured to;

receive the base metadata document;

identify the one or more customizations; and

generate a customized metadata document based on the one or more customizations and the base metadata document.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the metadata engine is configured to perform the steps of receiving, identifying, and generating at runtime of the software application.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein identifying the one or more customizations comprises:

determining one or more customization levels; and

for each customization level, identifying a customization based on one or more runtime attributes of the software application.

22. A machine-readable medium for a computer system, the machine-readable medium having stored thereon a series of instructions which, when executed by a processing component, cause the processing component to customize a software application by:

receiving a base metadata document defining one or more characteristics of at least a portion of the software application;

identifying one or more customizations defining modifications to the base metadata document, wherein the one or more customizations are stored separately from the base metadata document; and

generating a customized metadata document based on the one or more customizations and the base metadata document.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the steps of receiving, identifying, and generating are performed at runtime of the software application.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 22, wherein identifying the one or more customizations comprises:

determining one or more customization levels; and

for each customization level, identifying a customization based on one or more runtime attributes of the software application.