METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING ENTERPRISE CONTENT

• US 20090249290A1
• Filed: 10/22/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Open TEXT SA (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Muller, Florian, Sumner-Smith, Martin, McKinnon, Cheryl Lynne, Jenkins, Paul Thomas, Timmermans, Matthew David George, Barkley, Daniel Wray, Morton, Willard Carter JR., Boender, Robert W., Howatson, Adam Murray
• Granted Patent: US 8,464,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method and system for providing a consistent flow documents and data content across different organizational units of a company or agency where the documents and data come from different enterprise systems and data stores but are related to linked processes that share models for organizing the content in the business context and in a format that enables a user to relate the content to the process step or steps they are performing. The system includes a network service that enables a configuration utility to automatically discover the objects and metadata and provides for a mapping of selected fields of the metadata to regions displayed in the user interface view with provision for filtering the data by mapping selected fields to a user input form. Thereby, a business analyst can create solutions without writing and maintaining complex program logic for each combination of presentation environment, enterprise system and data store.

Claims

1. An application development framework for software development for a productivity application environment, comprising:

an computer component for receiving an abstract definition of interfaces for providing a plurality of content of different types discoverable and consumable within a process flow manager;

a computer component for receiving a model metadata for the plurality of content of different types; and

a computer component for generating computer readable instructions for operating the productivity application environment based on the abstract definitions and the model metadata, wherein a processor-executing instance of the computer readable instructions communicates with the process flow manager to provision a user interface object property, action object property, or event object property of the content within the productivity application environment.

2. The application development framework of claim 1, wherein the productivity application environment comprises at least one of a plurality of business enterprise applications.

3. The application development framework of claim 1, wherein the process flow manager is configured to perform actions comprising:

receiving a request for visualizing a content;

determining a model metadata configured for provisioning in a productivity application environment, wherein the productivity application environment is configured to interpret a user interface model (UI model) for rendering the content.

4. The application development framework of claim 3, wherein the actions further comprises:

sending a discovery query for the content to a plurality of productivity application environment configured to provide content of the plurality of different types.

5. The application development framework of claim 3, wherein the actions further comprises:

determining an property-to-property mapping of an object property of the content metadata to an object property of the model metadata, wherein the object properties comprises at least one of the user interface object property, event object property, or action object property.

6. The application development framework of claim 3, wherein the actions further comprises:

providing an interactive instance of a portion of the content within the productivity application environment based on the property-to-property mapping and ordered by the attribute-to-attribute mapping.

7. The application development framework of claim 3, wherein the UI model comprises platform independent user interface instructions, and wherein the UI model is configured to provide the content within the productivity application environment based on the model metadata.

8. The application development framework of claim 1, wherein the abstract definition is in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

9. An method for providing a development framework for software development for a specific application environment, comprising:

receiving an abstract definition of interfaces for providing a plurality of content of different types discoverable and consumable within a process flow manager;

a model metadata for the plurality of content of different types; and

generating computer readable instructions for operating the specific application environment based on the abstract definitions and the model metadata, wherein a processor-executing instance of the computer readable instructions communicates with the process flow manager to provision a user interface object property, action object property, or event object property of the content within the specific application environment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the specific application environment comprises at least one of a plurality of business enterprise applications.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the process flow manager is configured to perform actions comprising:

determining an property-to-property mapping of an object property of a content metadata that defines a content for visualizing within the specific application environment, to an object property of a model metadata, wherein the object properties comprises at least one of the user interface object property, event object property, or action object property; and

providing an interactive instance of a portion of the content within the specific application environment based on the property-to-property mapping.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the UI model comprises platform independent user interface instructions, and wherein the UI model is configured to provide the content within the specific application environment based on the model metadata.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the abstract definition is in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

19. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform the steps of claim 9.

20. An apparatus comprising a processor configured to perform the steps of claim 9.

14. A system for software development for a specific application environment, comprising:

an computer component for receiving an abstract definition of interfaces for providing a plurality of content of different types discoverable and consumable within a process flow manager;

a computer component for receiving a model metadata for the plurality of content of different types; and

a computer component for generating computer readable instructions for operating the specific application environment based on the abstract definitions and the model metadata, wherein a processor-executing instance of the computer readable instructions communicates with the process flow manager to provision a user interface object property, action object property, or event object property of the content within the specific application environment.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the specific application environment comprises at least one of a plurality of business enterprise applications.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the process flow manager is configured to perform actions comprising:

receiving a request for visualizing a content;

determining a model metadata configured for provisioning in a specific application environment;

sending a discovery query for the content to a plurality of content repositories configured to store the content of the plurality of different types;

receiving a content metadata for the content from a responding content repository;

determining a attribute-to-attribute mapping of a key field of the content metadata to a key field of the model metadata;

determining an property-to-property mapping of an object property of the content metadata to an object property of the model metadata, wherein the object properties comprises at least one of the user interface object property, event object property, or action object property; and

providing an interactive instance of a portion of the content within the specific application environment based on the property-to-property mapping and ordered by the attribute-to-attribute mapping.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the UI model comprises platform independent user interface instructions, and wherein the UI model is configured to provide the content within the specific application environment based on the model metadata.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the abstract definition is in Extensible Markup Language (XML).