REUSABLE ENTITY MODELING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20170322716A1
• Filed: 05/04/2017
• Published: 11/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Open Text Sa Ulc (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Open Text Sa Ulc (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Khoyi, Dana Lawrence, Roos, Albertus Hendrik, Bolling, Richard Winfield, Prins, Renatus Cornelis, Muthuvinayagam, Cheranthian
• Application Number:
  US15/587,014
• Publication Number:
  US 20170322716A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

Embodiments of systems and methods disclosed herein provide an application development platform in an enterprise computing environment. More specifically, in certain embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed that enable an application development platform to reuse, extend, and/or customize entity-based applications in an enterprise computing environment. The application development platform can extend an entity to include user configured settings including zero or at least one of a property, a permission, an action, a behavior, or a resource to the entity to generate user customized versions of the entity. The applications may be customized by an end user, while allowing the underlying application to be updated without losing any user customizations.

Claims

1. An entity modeling system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a data store storing a plurality of entity building blocks;

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium; and

stored instructions embodied on the at least one non-transitory computer readable medium and translatable by the at least one processor to perform;

providing, by a computer having at least one processor and at least one non-transitory computer readable medium, an entity modeling tool having a plurality of components including a graphical user interface, an entity model import function, and an entity composition function;

responsive to an instruction from a user via the graphical user interface, creating, by the entity model designer tool, a new entity model within an application development project which acts as a placeholder;

determining a previously generated entity model available for reuse, the previously generated entity model representing a solution process and containing entities that are linked with each other by relationships, the entities comprising entity building block, the previously generated entity model having an associated entity model contract that specify dependencies and requirements between the entities in a particular problem domain;

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, importing, via the entity model import function, the previously generated entity model into the placeholder such that settings for the entity building blocks are available for customization via the entity composition function of the graphical user interface; and

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, changing at least one of the settings so as to customize the new entity model.

2. The entity modeling system of claim 1, wherein the imported entity model is part of an application package.

3. The entity modeling system of claim 1, wherein the imported entity model includes information relating to design-time application programming interfaces (APIs).

4. The entity modeling system of claim 3, wherein the imported entity model includes a run-time model.

5. The entity modeling system of claim 1, wherein the entity model contract includes property names and associated data types.

6. The entity modeling system of claim 1, wherein the entity model contract includes design-time translation information.

7. The entity modeling system of claim 1, wherein the entity model contract includes worklists and forms.

8. A method of reusing an entity model, the method comprising:

providing, by a computer having at least one processor and at least one non-transitory computer readable medium, an entity modeling tool having a plurality of components including a graphical user interface, an entity model import function, and an entity composition function;

responsive to an instruction from a user via the graphical user interface, creating, by the entity model designer tool, a new entity model within an application development project which acts as a placeholder;

determining a previously generated entity model available for reuse, the previously generated entity model representing a solution process and containing entities that are linked with each other by relationships, the entities comprising entity building block, the previously generated entity model having an associated entity model contract that specify dependencies and requirements between the entities in a particular problem domain;

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, importing, via the entity model import function, the previously generated entity model into the placeholder such that settings for the entity building blocks are available for customization via the entity composition function of the graphical user interface; and

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, changing at least one of the settings so as to customize the new entity model.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the imported entity model is part of an application package.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the imported entity model includes information relating to design-time application programming interfaces (APIs).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the imported entity model includes a run-time model.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the entity model contract includes property names and associated data types.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the entity model contract includes design-time translation information.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the entity model contract includes worklists and forms.

15. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

providing an entity modeling tool having a plurality of components including a graphical user interface, an entity model import function, and an entity composition function;

responsive to an instruction from a user via the graphical user interface, creating, by the entity model designer tool, a new entity model within an application development project which acts as a placeholder;

determining a previously generated entity model available for reuse, the previously generated entity model representing a solution process and containing entities that are linked with each other by relationships, the entities comprising entity building block, the previously generated entity model having an associated entity model contract that specify dependencies and requirements between the entities in a particular problem domain;

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, importing, via the entity model import function, the previously generated entity model into the placeholder such that settings for the entity building blocks are available for customization via the entity composition function of the graphical user interface; and

responsive to an instruction from the user via the graphical user interface, changing at least one of the settings so as to customize the new entity model.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the imported entity model is part of an application package.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the imported entity model includes information relating to design-time application programming interfaces (APIs).

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the imported entity model includes a run-time model.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the entity model contract includes property names and associated data types.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the entity model contract includes design-time translation information.