Programmatic management of software resources in a content framework environment

• US 7,035,944 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2001
• Issued: 04/25/2006
• 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): Tran, Nghi
• Application Number:
  US09/956,268
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055878A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/223, 709/203, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5015 Service provider selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

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 method of enabling programmatic management of software resources in a content framework environment, comprising steps of:

defining a system interface for a proxying component that enables a collection of one or more software resources to be accessible from a content framework, the system interface specifying management operations available from the collection of software resources as management operations available from the proxying component;

specifying the system interface in a service description document;

registering the service description document in a network-accessible registry; and

using the system interface at run-time to manage the collection of software resources by invoking, from the content framework, one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the proxying component wherein each of the invocations causes the proxying component to invoke a corresponding management operation available from the collection of software resources, comprising the steps of;

retrieving, by the content framework, the registered service description document of the proxying component from the registry;

binding, by the content framework, to the system interface of the proxying component using the system interface specified in the retrieved service description document;

programmatically notifying the proxying component of an identifier of the content framework;

using the identifier, by the proxying component, to retrieve, from the registry, a previously-registered service description document of the content framework, the previously-registered service description document of the content framework specifying the system interface of the content framework, the system interface of the content framework specifying management operations available from the content framework; and

binding, by the proxying component, to the system interface of the content framework using the system interface specified in its retrieved service description document, such that the proxying component can invoke one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the content framework, thereby establishing 2-way communications between the collection of software resources, via the proxying component, and the content framework.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the management operations invoked in the step of using the system interface comprise life cycle events implemented by the collection of software resources.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of using the 2-way communications to initiate communication of auditing information from one or more of the software resources, via the proxying component, to the content framework.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auditing information comprises quality of service information from one or more of the software resources.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auditing information comprises billing information from one or more of the software resources.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auditing information comprises notification of one or more events occurring at one or more of the software resources, the event notification for logging by the content framework.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auditing information comprises operational messages from one or more of the software resources.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the proxying component is a portlet.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the content framework is a portal platform.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the collection comprises a web service.

11. A system for enabling programmatic management of software resources in a content framework environment comprising:

means for defining a system interface for a proxying component that enables a collection of one or more software resources to be accessible from a content framework, the system interface specifying management operations available from the collection of software resources as management operations available from the proxying component;

means for specifying the system interface in a service description document;

means for registering the service description document in a network-accessible registry; and

means for using the system interface at run-time to manage the collection of software resources by invoking, from the content framework, one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the proxying component wherein each of the invocations causes the proxying component to invoke a corresponding management operation available from the collection of software resources, comprising;

means for retrieving, by the content framework, the registered service description document of the proxying component from the registry;

means for binding, by the content framework, to the system interface of the proxying component using the system interface specified in the retrieved service description document;

means for programmatically notifying the proxying component of an identifier of the content framework;

means for using the identifier, by the proxying component, to retrieve, from the registry, a previously-registered service description document of the content framework, the previously-registered service description document of the content framework specifying the system interface of the content framework, the system interface of the content framework specifying management operations available from the content framework; and

means for binding, by the proxying component, to the system interface of the content framework using the system interface specified in its retrieved service description document, such that the proxying component can invoke one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the content framework, thereby establishing 2-way communications between the collection of software resources, via the proxying component, and the content framework.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising means for using the 2-way communications to initiate communication of auditing information from one or more of the software resources, via the proxying component, to the content framework, wherein the auditing information comprises at least one of (1) quality of service information from one or more of the software resources, (2) billing information from one or more of the software resources, (3) notification of one or more events occurring at one or more of the software resources, the event notification for logging by the content framework, and (4) operational messages from one or more of the software resources.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the means for using the 2-way communications further comprises:

means for programmatically notifying the plugged-in proxying component of an identifier of the content aggregation framework;

means for using the identifier, by the plugged-in proxying component, to retrieve, from the registry, a previously-registered service description document of the content aggregation framework, the previously-registered service description document of the content aggregation framework specifying the system interface of the content aggregation framework, the system interface of the content aggregation framework specifying auditing operations available from the content aggregation framework; and

means for binding, by the plugged-in proxying component, to the system interface of the content aggregation framework using the system interface specified in its retrieved service description document, such that the plugged-in proxying component can invoke one or more of the auditing operations available from the system interface of the content aggregation framework, thereby establishing the 2-way communications between the collection of software resources, via the plugged-in proxying component, and the content aggregation framework.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the collection comprises a web service and the proxying component is a portlet, and wherein the content framework is a portal platform.

15. A computer program product for enabling programmatic management of software resources in a content framework environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for defining a system interface for a proxying component that enables a collection of one or more software resources to be accessible from a content framework, the system interface specifying management operations available from the collection of software resources as management operations available from the proxying component;

computer-readable program code means for specifying the system interface in a service description document;

computer-readable program code means for registering the service description document in a network-accessible registry; and

computer-readable program code means for using the system interface at run-time to manage the collection of software resources by invoking, from the content framework, one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the proxying component, wherein each of the invocations causes the proxying component to invoke a corresponding management operation available from the collection of software resources, comprising;

computer-readable program code means for retrieving, by the content framework, the registered service description document of the proxying component from the registry;

computer-readable program code means for binding, by the content framework, to the system interface of the proxying component using the system interface specified in the retrieved service description document;

computer-readable program code means for programmatically notifying the proxying component of an identifier of the content framework;

computer-readable program code means for using the identifier, by the proxying component, to retrieve, from the registry, a previously-registered service description document of the content framework, the previously-registered service description document of the content framework specifying the system interface of the content framework, the system interface of the content framework specifying management operations available from the content framework; and

computer-readable program code means for binding, by the proxying component, to the system interface of the content framework using the system interface specified in its retrieved service description document, such that the proxying component can invoke one or more of the management operations available from the system interface of the content framework, thereby establishing 2-way communications between the collection of software resources, via the proxying component, and the content framework.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, further comprising computer-readable program code means for using the 2-way communications to initiate communication of auditing information from one or more of the software resources, via the proxying component, to the content framework, wherein the auditing information comprises at least one of (1) quality of service information from one or more of the software resources, (2) billing information from one or more of the software resources, (3) notification of one or more events occurring at one or more of the software resources, the event notification for logging by the content framework, and (4) operational messages from one or more of the software resources.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein the computer-readable program code means for using the 2-way communications further comprises:

computer-readable program code means for programmatically notifying the plugged-in proxying component of an identifier of the content aggregation framework;

computer-readable program code means for using the identifier, by the plugged-in proxying component, to retrieve, from the registry, a previously-registered service description document of the content aggregation framework, the previously-registered service description document of the content aggregation framework specifying an auditing interface of the content aggregation framework, the auditing interface of the content aggregation framework specifying auditing operations available from the content aggregation framework; and

computer-readable program code means for binding, by the plugged-in proxying component, to the auditing interface of the content aggregation framework using the auditing interface specified in its retrieved service description document, such that the plugged-in proxying component can invoke one or more of the auditing operations available from the auditing interface of the content framework, thereby establishing 2-way communications between the collection of software resources, via the plugged-in proxying component, and the content aggregation framework.

18. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the collection comprises a web service and the proxying component is a portlet, and wherein the content framework is a portal platform.