Systems and Methods for Linking Software Applications

• US 20090235204A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Hsu, Shi-Ping, Kaehler, Adrian
• Granted Patent: US 8,281,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/804
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/547 Messaging middleware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A system is provided for linking software applications. The system comprises a message backplane configured to linked software applications by sharing messages associated with events occurring in a respective linked software application with one or more other linked software applications and a controller configured to instruct the message backplane to link software applications.

Claims

1. A system for linking software applications, the system comprising:

a message backplane configured to link software applications by sharing messages associated with events occurring in a respective linked software application with one or more other linked software applications; and

a controller configured to instruct the message backplane to link software applications.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a software application is configured to register with the message backplane to share messages associated with events in the software application with other registered software applications.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the message backplane routes messages that have been transmitted from a front end to a back end of a first registered software application to a back end of a second registered software application, such that the back end of the second registered application extracts and responds to information of a type that the second registered software application understands and generates instructions to the front end of the second registered software application to cause events to occur in the front end of the second registered software application based on the received information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the message backplane monitors TCP/IP connections of registered software applications and transmits messages that have been transmitted from a front end to a back end of a first registered software application to a back end of a second registered software application via a TCP/IP connection.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein messages associated with events are transmitted employing an extensible markup language (XML) based message protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a message adapter configured to convert commercial off the shelf (COTS) application messages from a COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and message backplane message format to a COTS application message format.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a message backplane transformer configured to link data types of a first data type understandable by a first application program to data types of a second data type understandable by a second application program.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a database accessible by the transformer that contains a third data type that links data of the first data type to data of the second data type.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller further comprises a GUI controller work space that contains icons that represent application programs that are currently running, and wherein a user can drag one icon associated with a first application program over another icon associated with a second application program that causes the controller to instruct the message backplane to link events in the first and second application program.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the GUI controller work space includes a linking portion in which icons that represent linked application programs reside.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein a user can select a transformer to link data types of a first data type understandable by a first application program to data types of a second data type understandable by a second application program.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first application program is linked to a second GUI of a second application program when the message backplane links the first and second application programs, such that movement of one of the first and second GUIs causes concurrent movement of the other of the first and second GUIs.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second GUIs reside in a side by side relationship linked together by a graphical idiom that represents the linking of the first and second application programs.

14. A computer readable medium having computer executable components for linking software applications, the computer readable medium comprising:

a message backplane component configured to register software application programs for sharing messages and to capture and forward messages that are transmitted between a front end and a back end of a registered software application with other registered software applications; and

a controller configured to instruct the message backplane to at least one of register and unregister a given software application.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the message backplane monitors TCP/IP connections of registered software applications, extracts data types from messages passed between a front end to a back end of a first registered software application, builds a message based on the extracted data types and transmits the built message to a back end of a second registered software application via a TCP/IP connection.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising a message adapter configured to convert commercial off the shelf (COTS) application messages from a COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and a message backplane message format to a COTS application message format.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising a message backplane transformer configured to link data types of a first data type understandable by a first registered application program to data types of a second data type understandable by a second registered application program.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising a database accessible by the transformer that contains a third data type that links data of the first data type to data of the second data type.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first registered application program is linked to a second GUI of a second registered application program when the message backplane links the first and second application programs, such that movement of one of the first and second GUIs causes concurrent movement of the other of the first and second GUIs, wherein the first and second GUIs reside in a side by side relationship linked together by a graphical idiom that represents the linking of the first and second application programs.

20. A method for linking software applications, the method comprising:

receiving instructions for linking events between two or more software applications;

monitoring messages between a front end and a back end of each linked software application;

extracting data types of a given message provided in response to an event of a linked software application;

building a message based on the extracted data types; and

transmitting the built message to a back end of each other linked software applications.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the monitoring messages comprises monitoring TCP/IP connections associated with a linked software application.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the built messages are built employing an extensible markup language (XML) based message protocol.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising converting the given message from a commercial off the shelf (COTS) application message format to a message backplane message format and converting the built message from a message backplane message format to a COTS application message format.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising linking data types of a first data type understandable by a first application program to data types of a second data type understandable by a second application program via a third data type.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising linking a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first application program to a second GUI of a second application program, such that movement of one of the first and second GUIs causes concurrent movement of the other of the first and second GUIs.