SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WEB BASED APPLICATION MODELING AND GENERATION

• US 20130073969A1
• Filed: 09/20/2011
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: Amir Naor, Gil Friedman, Guy Blank, Guy Soffer, Shahar Man
• Inventors: Blank, Guy, Naor, Amir, Soffer, Guy, Friedman, Gil, Man, Shahar
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

According to some embodiments, a service list including a plurality of available services is displayed via a web-based display on a remote client device. Each available service may be, for example, associated with meta-data available at a server. A user selection of at least one of the available services may then be received. A platform list, including a plurality of potential execution platforms, may be displayed to the user and a user selection of one of the potential execution platforms may be received. The server may then automatically generate application code based on the selected available service, the meta-data associated with the selected available service, and the selected execution platform.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

displaying, via a web-based display on a remote client device, a service list including a plurality of available services, each available service being associated with meta-data available at a server;

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of at least one of the available services;

displaying, on the remote client device, a platform list including a plurality of potential execution platforms;

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of one of the potential execution platforms;

automatically generating, by the server, application code based on the selected available service, the meta-data associated with the selected available service, and the selected execution platform.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the available services comprise at least one of:

(i) an enterprise service, (ii) a web service, (iii) a customer list web service, (iv) a sales order list web service, or (v) an employee list web service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the display of available services is performed in response to a search request entered by the user via the remote client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the meta-data comprises at least one of:

(i) open data protocol information, (ii) an association between an entity and a service, (iii) a text label of a property entity, (iv) supported page layouts for entities, (v) a semantic attribute, (vi) an indication that a data field is associated with a telephone number, (vii) an indication that a data field is associated with an email address, (viii) an indication that a data field is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator address, or (ix) business object information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the potential execution platforms comprise at least one of:

(i) a wireless telephone, (ii) a smartphone, (iii) a hypertext preprocessor platform, (iv) an application service provider device, or (v) a platform-specific operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

arranging to download at least one application code file to the remote client device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one downloaded file is associated with an integrated development environment.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one downloaded file is associated with at least one of:

(i) a stand-alone application, (ii) proxy code, or (iii) a framework component.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of one of (i) a generic table user interface template, or (ii) a list style user interface template.

14. The medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

arranging to download at least one application code file to the remote client device, wherein at least one downloaded file is associated with an integrated development environment, and further wherein at least one downloaded file is associated with at least one of;

(i) a stand-alone application, (ii) proxy code, or (iii) a framework component.

10. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program code executable by a computer to perform a method, comprising:

displaying, via a web-based display on a remote client device, a service list including a plurality of available services, each available service being associated with meta-data available at a server;

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of at least one of the available services;

displaying, on the remote client device, a platform list including a plurality of potential execution platforms;

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of one of the potential execution platforms;

automatically generating, by the server, application code based on the selected available service, the meta-data associated with the selected available service, and the selected execution platform.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein at least one of the available services comprise at least one of:

(i) an enterprise service, (ii) a web service, (iii) a customer list web service, (iv) a sales order list web service, or (v) an employee list web service.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the display of available services is performed in response to a search request entered by the user via the remote client device.

13. The medium of claim 10, wherein at least some of the meta-data comprises at least one of:

(i) open data protocol information, (ii) an association between an entity and a service, (iii) a text label of a property entity, (iv) supported page layouts for entities, (v) a semantic attribute, (vi) an indication that a data field is associated with a telephone number, (vii) an indication that a data field is associated with an email address, (viii) an indication that a data field is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator address, or (ix) business object information.

15. The medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, via the remote client device, a user selection of one of (i) a generic table user interface template, or (ii) a list style user interface template.

16. A system, comprising:

a back end device, including;

a service directory storing available services, and

a service N meta-data storage device storing information about the available services in the service director; and

a web application device coupled to the back end device, including;

a service browser to (i) display available services to a user, (ii) receive selected available service, from the user, (iii) display potential execution platforms to the user, and (iv) receive a selected execution platform from the user,

an application modeler to receive page flow information from the user, and

a generation framework to automatically generate application code based on the selected available services, the information in the service N meta-data storage device associated with the selected available services, the selected execution platform, and the page flow information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the generation framework comprises pluggable application generators associated with multiple potential execution platforms.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein service N meta-data storage device stores at least one of:

(i) open data protocol information, (ii) an association between an entity and a service, (iii) a text label of a property entity, (iv) supported page layouts for entities, (v) a semantic attribute, (vi) an indication that a data field is associated with a telephone number, (vii) an indication that a data field is associated with an email address, (viii) an indication that a data field is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator address, or (ix) business object information.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the service browser communicates with a remote client device associated with the user via the Internet.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the generation framework is further to arrange for the application code to be transmitted to the remote client device.