Resource creation method and tool

• US 7,019,740 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2001
• Issued: 03/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Georgalas, Nektarios
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K.
• Application Number:
  US10/239,708
• Publication Number:
  US 20030112232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,831 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418, 714/47, 714/48, 707/100, 707/101, 718/100, 718/104
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A method of and tool for resource creation in a distributed computing environment uses a variety of resources which may be located at locations distributed throughout the environment. New resources may be created in this distributed environment. One example of a new resource that may be created is a resource that integrates previously available but heterogeneous resources as to provide new functionality. A method of resource creation is provided using a system including a plurality of sets of one or more resources, each set of resources being associated with a respective representation, the method including receiving the respective representation of each set of resources; transforming the respective representation of each set of resources into a common representation; populating a store with the common representation of each set of resources; permitting the association of component ones of the resources in their common representation to define a new resource; and creating the new resource from the correspondingly associated respective representations of the component resources.

Claims

1. A method of resource creation using a system comprising a plurality of sets of one or more resources, each set of resources being associated with a respective representation, the method comprising:

receiving the respective representation of each set of resources;

transforming the respective representation of each set of resources into a common representation;

populating a store with the common representation of each set of resources;

permitting the rule-based association of component ones of the resources in their common representation to define a new resource; and

creating the new resource from the correspondingly associated respective representations of the component resources.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising utilizing prestored mappings in transforming between the respective representation of each resource and a common resource representation.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising representing each common resource with a chosen combination of semantic elements, wherein the permissible set of semantic elements from which to choose comprises:

a state class representing an element of state;

a behaviour class representing an element of behaviour;

a collection class representing an aggregation of one or more classes;

a relationship class representing an association between two or more classes; and

a constraint representing a logical expression associated with one or more classes.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising providing a user interface tool to facilitate the step of permitting the rule-based association of component ones of the resources in their common representation to define a new resource.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising arranging the user interface tool to utilize a graphic representation of a direct acyclic graph.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising validating the association of the component resources.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising publishing the newly created resource as a new system resource.

8. A computer program storage medium, the medium embodying computer readable code for reading into a computer and executable by the computer to perform the method according to claim 1.

9. An apparatus for resource creation using a system comprising a plurality of sets of one or more resources, each set of resources being associated with a respective representation, the apparatus comprising:

means arranged to receive the respective representation of each set of resources;

means arranged to transform the respective representation of each set of resources into a common representation;

means arranged to populate a store with the common representation of each set of resources;

means arranged to permit a rule-based association of component ones of the resources in their common representation to define a new resource; and

means arranged to create the new resource from the correspondingly associated respective representations of the component resources.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the means arranged to transform the respective representation of each set of resources into a common representation comprises means arranged to represent each common resource with a chosen combination of semantic elements, wherein the permissible set of semantic elements from which to choose comprises:

a state class representing an element of state;

a behaviour class representing an element of behaviour;

a collection class representing an aggregation of one or more classes;

a relationship class representing an association between two or more classes; and

a constraint representing a logical expression associated with one or more classes.