Building distributed software services as aggregations of other services

• US 6,985,939 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2001
• Issued: 01/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fletcher, James C., Lindquist, David B., Wanderski, Michael C., Wesley, Ajamu A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US09/955,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,574 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203, 709/222, 709/218, 709/223, 345/440, 707/2, 707/203, 717101-103, 717/105, 717/168, 717/170, 717/174, 717/176, 717/177
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products are disclosed for dynamically integrating software resources (such as web services and other back-end software resources) using the services of a content framework (such as a portal platform). A portlet model is leveraged to allow programmatic portlets to serve as proxies for web services, thereby extending portlets beyond their traditional visual role. A deployment interface and a system interface are described for these portlet proxies. The deployment interface is used for composing new web services, and a composition tool is described. The system interface allows for run-time management of the web services by the portal platform. The service provider for a particular function may be bound to the portlet proxy at development time or at run-time.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of building distributed software services as aggregations of other services, comprising steps of:

determining a taxonomy of interest for a new distributed software service that is to be accessible using a content aggregation framework;

programmatically scanning a network-accessible registry to locate registered services having the taxonomy of interest; and

for each located service, providing the located service to a service composition tool with which a user can select provided services to build new distributed software services, if the located service has a deployment interface specification associated therewith and a functional interface specification associated therewith, the deployment interface specification adapted for representing the located service in the service composition tool and the functional interface specification adapted for enabling a proxying component to provide access to located service from the content aggregation framework.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

adding the deployment interface specification to the located service when the located service does not have the deployment interface specification; and

then providing the located service to the service composition tool.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining if each located service has a system interface specification associated therewith, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programmatic management of that located service; and

adding the system interface specification to the located service when the step of determining if each located service has a system interface specification has a negative result.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the providing step further comprises the step of placing a representation of the located services on a user interface of the composition tool.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of building the new service, by the user, using selected ones of the provided services.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of obtaining information regarding the provided services for use in the building step.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the obtained information comprises operations available from the provided services.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the obtained information comprises an author of each of the provided services.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the obtained information comprises a descriptive name of each of the provided services.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the obtained information comprises an iconic representation of each of the provided services.

11. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of creating a directed graph representation of the new service.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein nodes of the directed graph represent operations of the new service and edges of the directed graph represent transition conditions for transitioning between the operations of the new service.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein data mapping operations are associated with selected ones of the edges.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of creating a markup language document representing the directed graph representation.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the markup language document is a Web Services Flow Language (“

WSFL”

) document.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of registering the markup language document in a network-accessible registry.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the new service thereby becomes available for locating in subsequent iterations of the programmatically scanning step.

18. The method according to claim 5, wherein the new service is modeled as a portlet.

19. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of defining, in the functional interface specification associated with the new service, a public interface to the new service.

20. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of defining, in the deployment interface specification associated with the new service, a deployment interface to the new service.

21. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of defining, in a system interface specification associated with the new service, a system interface to the new service, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programatic management of the new service using the system interface.

22. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of selecting one or more service providers to fulfill operations of the new service.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

determining a selected taxonomy wherein service providers may be located for binding to the new service;

determining a particular network-accessible registry wherein services available from service providers are registered; and

programmatically scanning the particular registry to locate service providers having registered services in the selected taxonomy, wherein the registered services have the functional interface specification associated therewith, and wherein the functional interface specification indicates that at least one of the operations of the new service is available from the located service provider.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the programmatically scanning step further comprises determining if the registered services of the located service providers have the deployment interface specification associated therewith.

25. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the step of defining a mapping between operations available from the selected service providers and the operations of the new service.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the mapping comprises transformation logic.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the transformation logic specifies service-to-service transformations for particular services.

28. The method according to claim 25, wherein the mapping comprises stylesheet transformations.

29. The method according to claim 25, further comprising the steps of:

determining that no mapping exists; and

prompting the user building the new service to identify a source of the mapping.

30. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the step of creating a static binding to the selected service providers.

31. The method according to claim 30, further comprising the step of creating a markup language document representing the binding.

32. The method according to claim 31, further comprising the step of registering the markup language document in the registry.

33. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the step of creating a dynamic binding to the selected service providers.

34. The method according to claim 33, wherein the dynamic binding includes syntax to programmatically select particular service providers at run-time.

35. The method according to claim 33, further comprising the step of creating a markup language document representing the binding.

36. The method according to claim 25, further comprising the step of registering the markup language document In the registry.

37. The method according to claim 36, wherein the markup language document is a Web Services Flow Language (“

WSFL”

) global model.

38. The method according to claim 1, wherein the new service is a web service.

39. A system for building distributed software services as aggregations of other services, comprising:

means for determining a taxonomy of interest for a new distributed software service that is to be accessible using a content aggregation framework;

means for programmatically scanning a network-accessible registry to locate registered services having the taxonomy of interest; and

means for providing each of the located services to a service composition tool with which a user can select provided services to build new distributed services, if the located service has a deployment interface specification associated therewith and a functional interface specification associated therewith, the deployment interface specification adapted for representing the located service in the service composition tool and the functional interface specification adapted for enabling a proxying component to provide access to the located service from the content aggregation framework.

40. The system according to claim 39, further comprising;

means for adding the deployment interface specification to the located service when the located service does not have the deployment interface specification; and

means for then providing the located service to the service composition tool.

41. The system according to claim 39, further comprising;

means for determining if each located service has a system interface specification associated therewith, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programmatic management of that located service; and

means for adding the system interface specification to the located service when the means for determining has a negative result.

42. The system according to claim 39, further comprising means for building the new service, by the user, using selected ones of the provided services.

43. The system according to claim 42, further comprising means for creating a directed graph representation of the new service, wherein nodes of the directed graph represent operations of the new service and edges of the directed graph represent transition conditions for transitioning between the operations of the new service, and wherein data mapping operations are associated with selected ones of the edges.

44. The system according to claim 43, further comprising means for creating a markup language document representing the directed graph representation and registering the markup language document in a network-accessible registry.

45. The system according to claim 42, wherein the new service is modeled as a portlet and further comprising means for defining, in the functional interface specification associated within the new service, a public interface to the new service.

46. The system according to claim 42, further comprising means for defining at least one of (1) a deployment interface to the new service and (2) a system interface to the new service, the deployment interface specified in the deployment interface specification associated with the new service or the system interface specified in a system interface specification associated with the new service, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programmatic management of the new service using the system interface.

47. The system according to claim 42, further comprising means for selecting one or more service providers to fulfill operations of the new service.

48. The system according to claim 47, further comprising:

means for determining a selected taxonomy wherein service providers may be located for binding to the new service;

means for determining a particular network-accessible registry wherein services available from service providers are registered; and

means for programmatically scanning the particular registry to locate service providers having registered services in the selected taxonomy, wherein the registered services have the functional interface specification associated therewith, and wherein the functional interface specification indicates that at least one of the operations of the new service is available from the located service provider.

49. The system according to claim 47, further comprising means for defining a mapping between operations of the selected service providers and operations of the new service, wherein the mapping comprises at least one of (1) transformation logic, (2) stylesheet transformations, and (3) service-to-service transformations for particular services.

50. A computer program product for building distributed software services as aggregations of other services, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for determining a taxonomy of interest for a new distributed software service that is to be accessible using a content aggregation framework;

computer-readable program code means for programmatically scanning a network-accessible registry to locate registered services having the taxonomy of interest; and

computer-readable program code means for providing each of the located services to a service composition tool with which a user can select provided services to build new distributed services, if the located service has a deployment interface specification associated therewith and a functional interface specification associated therewith, the deployment interface specification adapted for representing the located service in the service composition tool and the functional interface specification adapted for enabling a proxying component to provide access to the located service from the content aggregation frame work.

51. The computer program product according to claim 50, further comprising;

computer-readable program code means for adding the deployment interface specification to the located service when the located service does not have the deployment interface specification; and

computer-readable program code means for then providing the located service to the service composition tool.

52. The computer program product according to claim 50, further comprising;

computer-readable program code means for determining if each located service has a system interface specification associated therewith, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programmatic management of that located service; and

computer-readable program code means for adding the system interface specification to the located service when the computer-readable program code means for determining has a negative result.

53. The computer program product according to claim 50, further comprising computer-readable program code means for building the new service, by the user, using selected ones of the provided services.

54. The computer program product according to claim 53, further comprising computer-readable program code means for creating a directed graph representation of the new service, wherein nodes of the directed graph represent operations of the new service and edges of the directed graph represent transition conditions for transitioning between the operations of the new service, and wherein data mapping operations are associated with selected ones of the edges.

55. The computer program product according to claim 54, further comprising computer-readable program code means for creating a markup language document representing the directed graph representation and registering the markup language document in a network-accessible registry.

56. The computer program product according to claim 53, wherein the new service is modeled as a portlet, and further comprising computer-readable program code means for defining, in the functional interface specification associated with the new service, a public interface to the new service.

57. The computer program product according to claim 53, further comprising computer-readable program code means for defining at least one of (1) a deployment interface to the new service and (2) a system interface to the new service, the deployment interface specified in the deployment interface specification associated with the new service or the system interface specified in a system interface specification associated with the new service, the system interface specification adapted for enabling programmatic management of the new service using the system interface.

58. The computer program product according to claim 53, further comprising computer-readable program code means for selecting one or more service providers to fulfill operations of the new service.

59. The computer program product according to claim 58, further comprising:

computer-readable program code means for determining a selected taxonomy wherein service providers may be located for binding to the new service;

computer-readable program code means for determining a particular network-accessible registry wherein services available from service providers are registered; and

computer-readable program code means for programmatically scanning the particular registry to locate service providers having registered services in the selected taxonomy, wherein the registered services have the functional interface specification associated therewith, and wherein the functional interface specification indicates that at least one of the operations of the new service is available from the located service provider.

60. The computer program product according to claim 58, further comprising computer-readable program code means for defining a mapping between operations of the selected service providers arid operations of the new service, wherein the mapping comprises at least one of (1) transformation logic, (2) stylesheet transformations, and (3) service-to-service transformations for particular services.