Design and redesign of enterprise applications

• US 7,076,762 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Issued: 07/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Fisher, Marina
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAMPURIA, SATISH
• Application Number:
  US10/113,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20030188291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,565 Days
• Field of Search: 717102-104, 717/108, 717/168, 717/177, 717/107, 705/1, 707/63, 709/316
• US Class Current: 717/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/72 Code refactoring

Abstract

An enterprise application may be constructed or reconstructed according to a system and method for designing or redesigning enterprise applications. The design or redesign process may include identification of the application type, in addition to representation of the application type as a decomposition of software components. The design or redesign may focus on reviewing code level component design and utilization. The code level design or redesign may include an analysis of each component within each use case within each tier based on patterns, frameworks, and/or refactoring. The application design or redesign may yield recommendations for code creation or code improvements. The recommendations may include specific application enhancements. The recommendations may include specific code design to be incorporated during construction or reconstruction. The recommendations may include results for guiding the design or redesign phase for an application.

Claims

1. A method for constructing an enterprise application, comprising:

partitioning an enterprise application into a plurality of tiers;

identifying a use case for the enterprise application; and

for each of a plurality of the tiers of the enterprise application, constructing a plurality of application layer code components to implement the use case, wherein for each of a plurality of the application layer code components, said constructing comprises;

determining at a component-level an applicable pattern for implementing the component in the tier for the use case;

constructing the component according to the applicable pattern; and

storing the component on a tangible computer accessible medium.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising identifying other use cases for the enterprise application and repeating said constructing for each use case.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said constructing further comprises constructing one or more of the components within one or more application frameworks.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said constructing further comprises refactoring common functionality for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising structuring each tier of the enterprise application for one or more systemic qualities.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.

10. A method for constructing an enterprise application, comprising:

partitioning an enterprise application into a plurality of tiers;

identifying a use case for the enterprise application; and

for each of a plurality of the tiers of the enterprise application, constructing a plurality of application layer code components to implement the use case, wherein for each of a plurality of the application layer code components, said constructing comprises;

determining at a component-level an applicable application framework within which to implement the component in the tier for the use case;

constructing the component within the applicable application framework; and

storing the component on a tangible computer accessible medium.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising identifying other use cases for the enterprise application and repeating said constructing for each use case.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said constructing further comprises constructing one or more of the components according to a pattern.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said constructing further comprises refactoring common functionality for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising structuring each tier of the enterprise application for one or more systemic qualities.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

18. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.

19. A method for constructing an enterprise application, comprising:

partitioning an enterprise application into a plurality of tiers;

identifying a use case for the enterprise application; and

for each of a plurality of the tiers of the enterprise application, constructing a plurality of application layer code components to implement the use case, wherein said constructing comprises;

refactoring common functionality at a component-level for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component;

for each of a plurality of the application layer code components;

constructing the component according to said refactoring; and

storing the component on a tangible computer accessible medium.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, further comprising identifying other use cases for the enterprise application and repeating said constructing for each use case.

21. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein one or more of the code components is constructed according to a pattern.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

23. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein said constructing further comprises constructing one or more of the components within one or more application frameworks.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

25. The method as recited in claim 19, further comprising structuring each tier of the enterprise application for one or more systemic qualities.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

27. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.

28. A method for restructuring an enterprise application, comprising:

partitioning the enterprise application into a plurality of tiers;

identifying a use case for the enterprise application; and

restructuring one or more application layer code components for one or more of the tiers of the enterprise application to implement the use case, wherein one or more of the application layer code components is restructured according to one or more of;

a pattern, a framework and refactoring;

wherein said one or more of a pattern, a framework and refactoring is determined according to a component-level analysis for the use case at one of said tiers;

wherein the one or more application layer code components are stored on a tangible computer accessible medium.

29. The method as recited in claim 28, further comprising identifying other use cases for the enterprise application and repeating said restructuring for each use case.

30. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

31. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

32. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein said restructuring further comprises refactoring common functionality for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component.

33. The method as recited in claim 28, further comprising restructuring each tier of the enterprise application for one or more systemic qualities.

34. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

35. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.

36. A tangible computer accessible medium comprising program instructions configured to implement an application layer of an enterprise application, wherein the program instructions are constructed by:

partitioning the enterprise application into a plurality of tiers;

identifying a use case for the enterprise application; and

structuring one or more application layer code components for one of the plurality of tiers of the enterprise application to implement the use case, wherein one or more of the code components is structured according to one or more of;

a pattern, a framework and refactoring;

wherein said one or more of a pattern, a framework and refactoring is determined according to a component-level analysis for the use case.

37. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein the program instructions are additionally constructed by identifying other use cases for the enterprise application and repeating said structuring for each use case.

38. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

39. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

40. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein said structuring further comprises refactoring common functionality for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component.

41. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein the program instructions are additionally constructed by structuring the tier of the enterprise application for one or more systemic qualities.

42. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 41, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

43. The computer accessible medium as recited in claim 36, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.

44. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory operable to store program instructions executable by the processor to implement an application layer of an enterprise application, wherein the program instructions comprise;

one or more code components for one of a plurality of tiers of the enterprise application to implement a use case, wherein the one or more code components is structured according to one or more of;

a pattern, a framework and refactoring;

wherein said one or more of a pattern, a framework and refactoring is determined according to a component-level analysis for the use case.

45. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein the program instructions further comprise one or more other code components for the one of the plurality of tiers of the enterprise application to implement other use cases, wherein the one or more other code components is structured according to one or more of:

a pattern, a framework and refactoring.

46. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein said pattern comprises a J2EE pattern.

47. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein the application framework comprises a logging and error handling framework.

48. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein said refactoring comprises including common functionality for a plurality of the application layer code components into a separate reusable component.

49. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein the one or more code components are structured for one or more systemic qualities for the one of the plurality of tiers of the enterprise application.

50. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein the one or more systemic qualities include one or more of security, scalability, performance, availability and reliability.

51. The system as recited in claim 44, wherein said plurality of tiers include one or more of a client tier, a presentation tier, a business tier, an integration tier and a resource tier.