Representing IMS transaction definitions as XML documents

• US 6,889,360 B1
• Filed: 04/19/2000
• Issued: 05/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Juschkewitz, Holger, Ho, Shyh-Mei
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hillery, Nathan
• Application Number:
  US09/552,636
• Time in Patent Office: 1,840 Days
• Field of Search: 715/523, 715/522, 715/513, 707/10
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method for communicating with an Information Management System (IMS) using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents includes the steps of receiving a document comprising an IMS transaction definition encoded in XML; obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for decoding the IMS transaction definition; parsing the XML document using the DTD to decode the IMS transaction definition; and providing the decoded IMS transaction definition to the IMS. A system and apparatus for implementing the method are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for communicating with a transaction processing system using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents, the method comprising:

receiving a document comprising a transaction definition encoded in XML, the transaction definition comprising macro statements that at least in part define a transaction;

obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for decoding the transaction definition;

parsing the XML document using the DTD to decode the transaction definition; and

providing the decoded transaction definition to the transaction processing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction definition comprises an APPLCTN macro.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction definition comprises a TRANSACT macro.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the DTD comprises an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) DTD.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step comprises receiving the document at transaction processing system gateway.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining step comprises:

modeling a transaction definition in a Universal Modeling Language (UML) to produce a UML object model;

processing the UML object model using an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) utility to create the DTD.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining transaction definition;

obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for encoding the transaction definition; and

parsing the transaction definition with the DTD to encode the transaction definition in an XML document.

8. A system for communicating with a transaction processing system using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents, the system comprising:

a document reception module configured to receive a document comprising a transaction definition encoded in XML, the transaction definition comprising macro statements that at least in part define a transaction;

a parser configured to obtain a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for decoding the transaction definition and further configured to parse the XML document using the DTD to decode the transaction definition; and

a transaction processing interface module configured to provide the decoded transaction definition to the transaction processing system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction definition comprises an APPLCTN macro.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction of definition comprises a TRANSACT macro.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the DTD comprises an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) DTD.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the document reception module comprises a transaction processing system gateway.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a modeling tool configured to model a transaction definition in a Universal Modeling Language (UML) to produce a UML object model; and

an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) utility configured to process the UML object model to create the DTD.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the parser is further configured to obtain a DTD specifying rules for encoding a transaction definition as an XML document and to parse the transaction definition using the DTD.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a program storage medium readable by a processor and embodying one or more instructions executable by the processor to perform a method for communicating with a transaction processing system using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents, the method comprising;

receiving a document comprising transaction definition encoded in XML, the transaction definition comprising macro statements that at least in part define a transaction

obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for decoding the transaction definition;

parsing the XML document using the DTD to decode the transaction definition; and

providing the decoded transaction definition to the transaction processing system.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the transaction definition comprises an APPLCTN macro.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the transaction definition comprises a TRANSACT macro.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, whrein the DTD comprises an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) DTD.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the receiving step comprises receiving the document at a transaction processing system gateway.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the obtaining step comprises:

modeling the transaction definition in a Universal Modeling Language (UML) to produce a UML object model;

modeling the transaction definition in a Universal Modeling Language (UML) to produce a UML object model;

processing the UML object model using an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) utility to create the DTD.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 15, the method further comprising:

obtaining the transaction definition;

obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for encoding the transaction definition, and

parsing the transaction definition with the DTD to encode the IMS transaction definition in an XML document.