Inter-application data transmitting system and method

• US 6,782,403 B1
• Filed: 11/22/2000
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Koike, Kazuhiro, Mizuguchi, Takehisa, Mochizuki, Yasuyuki, Kino, Shigenori
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US09/717,289
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/7, 707/10, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/203, 709/232, 709/301, 709/202, 709/203, 709/201, 709/223, 715/503, 715/509, 715/511
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

An inter-application data transmitting system having an application intermediary unit which mediates data to be transmitted between a network and one of multiple business applications for exchanging the data among the multiple applications interconnected over the network without changing the business application even if the access procedures, data formats, and communication protocols of the multiple applications are different from each other. The application intermediary unit is provided with an access procedure control unit for controlling an access procedure, a data format conversion unit for converting a data format, and a communication control unit for controlling communication between the multiple business applications having different communication protocols. The application intermediary unit further includes an application control unit for controlling those elements.

Claims

1. An inter-application data transmitting system for exchanging data among a plurality of applications interconnected over a network, the plurality of applications each storing the data in a predetermined application dependent data format, the inter-application data transmitting system comprising an application intermediary unit for mediating the data to be transmitted between the network and one of the plurality of applications,

wherein the application intermediary unit includes,

an application control unit for controlling a transmission of the data between the one of the plurality of applications and the application intermediary unit,

an access procedure rule memory for storing an access procedure rule which defines a procedure to be used for gaining access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

an access procedure control unit, controlled by the application control unit, for gaining access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications in accordance with the access procedure rule stored in the access procedure rule memory,

a data format conversion rule memory for storing a data exchange format which is a data format predefined to be used for exchanging the data among the plurality of applications interconnected over the network, and further storing a data format conversion rule to be used for converting at least one of an application dependent data format of the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications which is accessed by the access procedure control unit into the data exchange format and the data exchange format into the application dependent format of the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

a data format conversion unit for converting the data from one data format to another based on the data format conversion rule stored in the data format conversion rule memory,

a communication control rule memory for storing a communication control rule which defines a communication rule, and

a communication control unit for controlling a transmission over the network of converted data in the data exchange format which is converted by the data format conversion unit based on the communication control rule stored in the communication control rule memory.

2. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the application control unit includes a monitoring area table for setting data stored in the one of the plurality of applications which is required to be notified to another one of the plurality of applications as data to be notified,

for setting a processing request status which indicates an occurrence of the data to be notified, and for setting a data area of data to be monitored stored in the one of the plurality of applications which is monitored by the application control unit and also setting a data value of the data area in response to the processing request status, and

wherein the application control unit detects the processing request status being set in the monitoring area table, and outputs an instruction corresponding to a detected processing request status to the access procedure control unit.

3. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 2, wherein the access procedure rule memory stores the access procedure rule corresponding to the processing request status, and

wherein the access procedure control unit detects the access procedure rule corresponding to the processing request status stored in the access procedure rule memory based on the instruction received from the application control unit, and gains access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications in accordance with a detected access procedure rule.

4. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 2, wherein the application control unit monitors the data area and the data value of the data area being set in the monitoring area table regularly and so as to detect the processing request status.

5. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 3, wherein the application control unit sets the processing request status including a plurality of types of the processing request status,

wherein the access procedure rule memory stores a plurality of access procedure rules corresponding to the plurality of processing request status types, and

wherein the access procedure control unit selects an access procedure rule corresponding to one of the plurality of processing request status types from among the plurality of access procedure rules based on the instruction received from the application control unit, and gains access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications in accordance with a selected access procedure rule.

6. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of applications includes a first application and a second application,

wherein the first application is provided with a first application intermediary unit between the network and the first application, and the second application is provided with a second application intermediary unit between the network and the second application,

wherein the application control unit of the first application intermediary unit detects the processing request status and transfers the data to the second application intermediary unit based on a detected processing request status, and

wherein the second application intermediary unit writes a transferred data from the first application intermediary unit as data to be stored by the second application.

7. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control rule memory stores the communication control rule corresponding to each of the plurality of applications interconnected over the network which the one of the plurality of applications exchanges the data with.

8. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control rule memory stores the communication control rule having a rule based on data priority which defines a priority of the data to be transmitted from the one of the plurality of applications to another one of the plurality of applications.

9. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control rule memory stores the communication control rule including a rule for communication time defining a time for transmitting data from the one of the plurality of applications to another one of the plurality of applications.

10. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control rule memory stores the communication control rule including an authentication system for authenticating the application intermediary unit of another one of the plurality of applications with which the data of the one of the plurality of applications is exchanged.

11. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control rule memory store the communication control rule including a cryptographic system through which data is to be enciphered for transmission from the one of the plurality of applications to another one of the plurality of applications.

12. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 2, wherein the application control unit, upon reception of a notification of the processing request status of the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications, outputs an instruction to gain access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications to the access procedure control unit in response to a notified processing request status from the one of the plurality of applications.

13. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of interconnected applications each is provided with the application intermediary unit, and

wherein the communication control unit includes,

a mobile agent, including a program and the converted data in the data exchange format, for moving among the communication control units of the application intermediary units provided for the plurality of applications interconnected over the network, and

a mobile agent platform for specifying the communication control unit which the mobile agent is to move towards.

14. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 13, wherein the communication control unit determines whether the mobile agent is used for transmitting the data based on the communication control rule.

15. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the application intermediary unit includes a communication control rule entry interface unit for entering the communication control rule to be stored in the communication control rule memory.

16. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 2, wherein the data format conversion rule memory stores a plurality of data format conversion rules corresponding to the plurality of interconnected applications to which data is to be transmitted, and

wherein the application control unit selects the plurality of data format conversion rules based on the processing request status stored in the monitoring area table.

17. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the application intermediary unit further includes an external data output unit, being connected with an external data storage device for storing external data, for outputting data in the data exchange format which is converted in the data format conversion unit.

18. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the communication control unit exchanges data with another one of the plurality of applications through a mail server for receiving an electronic mail, the mail server being connected with the network.

21. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, wherein the application intermediary unit further includes,

an event control unit for receiving an event which requests the application intermediary unit to respond to and for outputting a received event,

a state transition rule memory for storing a state transition rule which defines a condition for transition which defines a condition for state transition for changing a state in response to the event and a processing item for the state transition corresponding to the condition for transition, and

a state transition control unit for receiving the event from the event control unit, retrieving the state transition rule stored in the state transition rule memory based on a received event, thereby extracting the state transition rule including the condition for transition corresponding to the received event, and executing the processing item of an extracted state transition rule.

22. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 21, wherein the event control unit monitors a predetermined data field, thereby detecting the event indicating that the data field meets a predetermined value, and outputting a detected event to the state transition control unit.

23. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 1, further comprising:

an application dependent rule generation unit for generating an application dependent rule which defines a rule depending on the one of the plurality of applications.

24. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 23, wherein the application dependent rule generation unit includes,

a component arrangement rule creation interface for receiving a plurality of software components which configure the application intermediary unit and for arranging the plurality of software components received so as to create an arrangement rule model, and

a component arrangement rule generation unit for converting the arrangement rule model created by the component arrangement rule creation interface into the arrangement rule model in a predetermined file format, thereby generating a component arrangement rule.

25. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 24, wherein the component arrangement rule creation interface selects one of the plurality of software components being arranged in the arrangement rule model, and calls an interface program for generating the application dependent rule corresponding to a selected one of the plurality of software components.

26. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 23, wherein the application dependent rule generation unit includes,

a data format conversion rule creation interface for receiving conversion corresponding information which is used for establishing a correspondence between the application dependent data format and the data exchange format and creating a conversion rule model based on the conversion corresponding information received, and

a data format conversion rule generation unit for converting the conversion rule model created by the data format conversion rule creation interface into the conversion rule model in a predetermined file format, thereby generating a format conversion rule.

27. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 21, further comprising:

an application dependent rule generation unit for generating an application dependent rule which defines a rule depending on the one of the plurality of applications,

wherein the application dependent rule generation unit includes,

a state transition rule creation interface for receiving the state transition and for creating a state transition model based on a received state transition, and

a state transition rule generation unit for converting the state transition model created by the state transition rule creation interface into the state transition model in a predetermined file format, thereby generating the state transition rule.

28. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 27, wherein the state transition rule creation interface displays a drawing of the state transition model, and

wherein the state transition rule generation unit generates the state transition rule based on the drawing of the state transition model.

29. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 24, wherein the component arrangement rule creation interface arranges the plurality of software components by using a symbol representing each of the plurality of software components, and displays on a screen a connection between the plurality of software components being arranged.

30. The inter-application data transmitting system of claim 24, wherein the component arrangement rule creation interface stores a plurality of connection models, each of which defines the connection between the plurality of software components, and displays one of the plurality of connection models being stored on a screen when a user selects the one of the plurality of connection models.

19. A method for transmitting data to be exchanged among a plurality of applications interconnected over the network, the plurality of applications each storing the data in a predetermined application dependent data format, the method for transmitting data comprising:

mediating the data to be transmitted between the network and one of the plurality of applications,

wherein mediating the data to be transmitted between the network and one of the plurality of applications includes

controlling a transfer of the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

storing an access procedure rule which defines a procedure to be used for gaining access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

gaining access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications controlled in the step of controlling the transfer of the data stored in the one of the applications based on the access procedure rule stored in the step of storing the access procedure rule to the data stored,

storing a data exchange format which is a data format predefined to be used for transmitting the data to be exchanged with the plurality of applications, and further storing a data format conversion rule to be used for converting at least one of the application dependent format depending on the one of the plurality of applications into the data exchange format and the data exchange format into the application dependent format depending on the one of the plurality of applications,

converting the data in one data format to another based on the data format conversion rule stored in the step of storing the data exchange format and the data format conversion rule,

storing a communication control rule which defines a communication rule, and

controlling a transmission of the data in the data exchange format over the network in accordance with the communication control rule stored in the step of storing the communication control rule.

20. A computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code stored therein for causing data to be exchanged among a plurality of interconnected applications over a network, the computer readable program code comprising:

a mediate code segment for causing a computer to mediate the data to be transmitted between the network and one of the plurality of applications;

wherein the mediate code segment includes,

a control code segment for causing the computer to control a transfer of the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

a storing code segment for causing the computer to store an access procedure rule which defines a procedure to be used for gaining access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications,

a gaining access code segment for causing the computer to gain access to the data stored in the one of the plurality of applications controlled by the control code segment for causing the computer to control the transfer of the data stored in the one of the applications based on the access procedure rule stored by the storing code segment for causing the computer to store the access procedure rule to the data stored,

a storing code segment for causing the computer to store a data exchange format which is a data format predefined to be used for transmitting the data to be exchanged with the plurality of applications, and further store a data format conversion rule to be used for converting at least one of the application dependent format depending on the one of the plurality of applications into the data exchange format and the data exchange format into the application dependent format depending on the one of the plurality of applications in another case,

a conversion code segment for causing the computer to convert the data from one data format to another based on the data format conversion rule stored by the store code segment for causing the computer to store the data exchange format and the data format conversion rule,

a storing code segment for causing the computer to store a communication control rule which defines a communication rule, and

a control code segment for causing the computer to control a transmission of the data in the data exchange format over the network in accordance with the communication control rule stored by the storing code segment for causing the computer to store the communication control rule.