TEMPLATE BASED SOFTWARE CONTAINER

• US 20160170743A1
• Filed: 06/25/2015
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Shmulevich, Igor, Pack, Richard Perry III, Macklem, Walter
• Granted Patent: US 9,646,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code

Abstract

A hierarchical template framework may include lower tier templates that identify groups of software components for discrete software services. The template framework also may include upper tier templates that include one or more lower tier templates and identify software components for a prearranged group of the software services configured to support and operate with an associated category of core software functions. A software developer may build a software application from the software components identified in a selected upper tier template, lower tier templates, and any other core software components identified for the core software functions. The templates prevent the software developer from having to manually locate and test all of the software components for different software services used in a software application.

Claims

1. A software development system for creating applications for operating within a database system, comprising:

a processing system; and

a memory device coupled to the processing system, the memory device having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising;

storing, by the processing system, lower tier templates identifying groups of software components for discrete software services;

storing, by the processing system, upper tier templates including one or more lower tier templates and identifying software components for a prearranged group of the software services configured to support and operate with an associated category of different core software functions;

receiving, by the processing system, selection of one of the upper tier templates;

receiving, by the processing system, selection of core software components for some of the core software functions; and

building, by the processing system, a software application from the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected core software components.

2. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the prearranged group of the software services comprise a generic set of support software services used by the core software functions for operating with an enterprise software system.

3. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the processing device, selection of one of the lower tier templates that identifies the core software components; and

building, by the processing device, the software application from the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected one of the lower tier templates.

4. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the processing system, a custom set of software components for providing custom core software functions;

combining, by the processing system, the custom set of software components with the software components identified by the selected one of the upper tier templates; and

building, by the processing system, the software application from the combined software components.

5. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the software components for the prearranged group of software services support a user interface (UI) tier category of core software functions.

6. The software development system of claim 5, wherein an additional one of the upper tier templates identifies software components for an additional prearranged group of software services that support a headless application category of core software functions.

7. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the upper tier templates and lower tier templates include extensible markup language (XML) code identifying the software components.

8. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

downloading, by the processing system, the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected core software components; and

packaging, by the processing system, the downloaded software components into a single java uber jar.

9. The software development system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

assigning, by the processing system, a first port address to the software application; and

launching, by the processing system, the software application in conjunction with a legacy software system having a second port address, wherein a client operating on a user system is configured to use the first port address to access the software application and use the second port address to access the legacy software system.

10. The software development system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the lower-tier templates in the selected one of the upper-tier templates identifies a group of software components providing an application programmer interface (API) client for accessing an API service in the legacy software system.

11. A method for developing a software application for operating within a database system, comprising:

storing, by the database system, lower tier templates identifying groups of software components for discrete software services;

storing, by the database system, upper tier templates including one or more lower tier templates and identifying software components for a prearranged group of the software services configured to support and operate with an associated category of core software functions;

receiving, by the database system, selection of one of the upper tier templates;

receiving, by the database system, selection of core software components for some of the core software functions; and

building, by the database system, a new software application from the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected core software components.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the prearranged group of the software services comprise a generic set of support software services used by the core software functions for operating with an enterprise software system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising launching the new software application independently from the enterprise software system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving, by the database system, a first request from a user system communicating with the enterprise software system, the first request having a first address;

sending, by the database system, the first request to the enterprise software system;

receiving, by the database system, a second request from the user system while communicating with the enterprise software system, the second request having a second address;

sending, by the database system, the second request to the new software application.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the database system, selection of one of the lower tier templates identifying software components for an application programmer interface (API) client service;

combining, by the database system, the software components for the API client service with the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates;

building, by the database system, the new software application with the API client service;

receiving, by the database system, a data request from the API client service; and

sending, by the database system, the data request to a public API service in the enterprise software system.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

packaging, by the database system, the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected core software components into a java uber jar; and

generating, by the database system, a digital certificate for the java uber jar preventing modification to the new application.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the database system, selection of one of the lower tier templates that identifies a first portion of the core software components; and

receiving, by the database system, a custom set of software components as a second portion of the core software components;

combining, by the database system, the first and second portion of the core software components with the software components identified on the selected one of the upper tier templates; and

building, by the processing system, the new software application from the combined software components.

18. A computer program stored on a tangible medium for a database system, the computer program comprising a set of instructions operable to:

identify lower tier templates for groups of software components providing discrete software services;

identify upper tier templates including lower tier templates and prearranged groups of the software services configured to support and operate with associated categories of core software functions;

receive selection of one of the upper tier templates;

receive selection of core software components for some of the core software functions; and

build a software application from the software components identified in the selected one of the upper tier templates and the selected core software components.

19. The computer program of claim 18, including instructions operable to:

receive selection of one of the lower tier templates that identifies a first portion of the core software components; and

receive a custom set of software components for a second portion of the core software functions;

combine the first and second portion of the core software components with the software components identified on the selected one of the upper tier templates; and

build the software application from the combined software components.

20. The computer program of claim 18, wherein:

the selected one of the upper tier templates is associated with a user interface tier application; and

an additional one of the upper tier templates is associated with a headless application.

21. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the prearranged group of software services include a logging service, an error reporting service, a rendering service and a monitoring service.