UNIFIED CONFIGURATION OF MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

• US 20100153443A1
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Viehmann, Robert, Sattler, Juergen, Gaffga, Joachim, Markert, Frank, Wolf, Werner
• Granted Patent: US 8,396,893 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide systems, methods, and software for unified configuration of multiple computer applications. Some embodiments include receiving input configuring a set of distinct computer applications in an application configuration environment. The application configuration environment may include a configuration repository that stores the settings of each distinct computer application. Such embodiments may further deploy the configuration settings from the configuration repository of the application configuration environment to at least one application execution environment including an instance of at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving input configuring a set of distinct computer applications in an application configuration environment, the application configuration environment including a configuration repository stored in a memory, the configuration repository including configuration settings of each distinct computer application; and

deploying the configuration settings of the set of distinct computer applications from the configuration repository of the application configuration environment to at least one application execution environment including an instance of at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the application configuration environment further includes a data repository stored in the memory, the data repository including data to be included with at least one of the distinct computer applications when deployed; and

the deploying further includes deploying data from the data repository to a data store of at least one of the distinct computer applications in the at least one application execution environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application configuration environment includes a dataset with regard to each distinct computer application, each dataset representative of at least some configuration settings of the respective distinct computer application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving input configuring the set of distinct computer applications includes:

receiving input in response to scoping questions, the input related to configuring the set of distinct computer applications;

applying an adaptation catalog to the received input to translate the received input to configuration settings for the set of distinct computer applications; and

storing the configuration settings in the configuration repository.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the adaptation catalog includes an entry for each scoping question and a mapping from each possible answer to the scoping question of the entry to at least one configuration setting of one or more of the set of distinct computer applications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of distinct computer applications includes two computer applications, each of the two computer applications developed by distinct software development organizations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application execution environment includes at least one computing device operable to execute at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the at least one application execution environment includes two application execution environments communicatively coupled via a network to one another and the application execution environment; and

each of the two application execution environments includes at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of distinct computer applications includes two computer applications, each of the two computer applications developed by distinct software development organizations.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, with instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the computer to:

receive input configuring a set of distinct computer applications in an application configuration environment, the application configuration environment including a configuration repository stored in a memory, the configuration repository including configuration settings of each distinct computer application; and

deploy the configuration settings of the set of distinct computer applications from the configuration repository of the application configuration environment to at least one application execution environment including instances of the set of distinct computer applications.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein:

the application configuration environment further includes a data repository stored in the memory, the data repository including data to be included with at least one of the distinct computer applications when deployed; and

the deploying further includes deploying data from the data repository to a data store of at least one of the distinct computer applications in the at least one application execution environment.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the application configuration environment includes a dataset with regard to each distinct computer application, each dataset representative of at least some configuration settings of the respective distinct computer application.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein instructions when executed to receive the input configuring the set of distinct computer applications are further executable to:

receive input in response to scoping questions, the input related to configuring the set of distinct computer applications;

apply an adaptation catalog to the received input to translate the received input to configuration settings for the set of distinct computer applications; and

store the configuration settings in the configuration repository.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the adaptation catalog includes an entry for each scoping question and a mapping from each possible answer to the scoping question of the entry to at least one configuration setting of one or more of the set of distinct computer applications.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the set of distinct computer applications includes two computer applications, each of the two computer applications developed by distinct software development organizations.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the at least one application execution environment includes at least one computing device operable to execute at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein:

the at least one application execution environment includes two application execution environments communicatively coupled via a network to one another and the application execution environment; and

each of the two application execution environments includes at least one of the set of distinct computer applications.

17. A system comprising:

at least one processor coupled to a bus;

at least one memory device coupled to the bus;

a network interface coupled to the bus;

a configuration environment database stored in at least one of the at least one memory devices, the configuration environment database to store received configuration input for a set of distinct computer applications; and

an instruction set stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the processor to;

identify which distinct computer application configurations are affected by the received configuration input;

translate received configuration input to configuration settings of the identified distinct computer applications; and

deploy the translated configuration settings to the identified distinct computer applications over the network interface.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the instruction set is further executable by the processor to receive configuration input in response to scoping questions, and wherein the translating of the received configuration input includes applying an adaptation catalog to the received input to translate the received input to configuration settings for the identified distinct computer application.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein translated configuration settings are stored in the configuration environment database.