Application view component for system integration

• US 7,080,092 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2002
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Upton, Mitch
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US10/271,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20030093575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/4, 707/10, 719/311, 719/328, 715/501.1, 715/513, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

An application view, or application view component, can represent a self-describing interface to functionality in a resource such as an application or enterprise system. An application view can abstract away much of the complexity in dealing with the application, such that non-programmers can maintain the services and events exposed by an adapter for that application. Application views can also simplify the way in which adapters are accessed, and can allow the functionality exposed by the adapter to be invoked as a business service. An application view can be specific to a single adapter, and can define a set of functions on the corresponding application.

This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system for integrating applications, comprising:

a resource adapter adapted to invoke functionality in a first application and expose that functionality wherein the functionality in the first application includes a set of executable statements invoked on the first application;

an application view component adapted to allow a second application to access the first application through the resource adapter by defining a set of business functions corresponding to the functionality in the first application as exposed by the resource adapter wherein the set of business functions is specified by a business analyst to achieve a specific business objective; and

wherein the application view component is adapted to be specific to the resource adapter and provides an abstracted interface to the first application via the resource adapter.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is further adapted to provide a way for a second application to access the first application without the second application knowing functional details about the first application.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is a business-focused interface.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component provides a self-describing interface to services and events in the first application.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is adapted to expose functionality in the first application as a business service.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the business analyst is any person in an enterprise having knowledge of the first application'"'"'s business requirements.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is adapted to send and receive messages in XML.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the resource adapter is adapted to invoke functionality in a first application comprising an enterprise system.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is adapted to allow bi-directional communication between the first application and the second application.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component translates messages between the first application and the second application.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component further comprises a Java interface for the second application, wherein the second application comprises a Java application that can use the application view component.

12. A system according to claim 1, wherein

the application view component is a stateless session bean.

13. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a business process management component adapted to allow an application view component to be invoked as a business service.

14. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a web services interface adapted to be used with the application view component to allow a web service to be invoked through the application view component.

15. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an integration framework adapted to host the application view component.

16. A system according to claim 15, wherein:

the integration framework includes a graphical user interface that can be used for creating application view components.

17. A system according to claim 15, wherein:

the application view component provides an abstraction layer between the resource adapter and the usage of functionality exposed by the adapter.

18. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is adapted to allow the definition of integration points corresponding to data for an application.

19. A system according to claim 18, wherein:

the application view component is further adapted to allow the integration points to be organized by business semantics.

20. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is an XML-based interface; and

wherein the first application is an enterprise system; and

wherein the second application is an application server.

21. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second application view component adapted to provide a way for a third application to access the first application through the resource adapter.

22. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is further adapted to expose each service for the first application as a logical business function.

23. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view component is further adapted to provide metadata to describe a procedure for interacting with an enterprise system.

24. A system according to claim 23, wherein:

the application view component provides metadata in the form of an XML schema.

25. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view is adapted to expose features selected from the group consisting of;

outbound messages, inbound requests that return a message, and views of descriptions for message that can be sent outbound or processed inbound.

26. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an application view console adapted to provide a user interface for accessing the application view component.

27. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a container for the application view component, the container having allocated resources for the application view component that can service requests.

28. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the resource adapter is selected from the group consisting of service adapters and event adapters.

29. A computer implemented system of integrating applications, comprising:

a resource adapter adapted to invoke functionality in a first application and expose that functionality wherein the functionality in the first application includes a set of executable statements invoked on the first application;

an application view component adapted to allow a second application to access the first application through the resource adapter by translating the functionality in the first application as exposed by the resource adapter into extensible markup language (XML) statements and allowing the second application to communicate with the first application via XML statements; and

wherein the application view component is adapted to be specific to the resource adapter and provides an abstracted interface to the first application on top of the resource adapter.

30. A computer implemented system for integrating applications, comprising:

means for invoking functionality in a first application wherein the functionality in the first application includes a set of executable statements invoked on the first application; and

means for exposing that functionality to a second application by allowing the second application to access the first application wherein a set of business functions is defined corresponding to the functionality in the first application wherein the set of business functions is specified by a business analyst to achieve a specific business objective; and

wherein the means for exposing the functionality as a business service are adapted to be specific to the means for invoking functionality in the first application.

31. A computer implemented method of integrating applications, comprising:

providing a resource adapter adapted to invoke functionality in a first application and expose that functionality wherein the functionality in the first application includes a set of executable statements invoked on the first application;

providing an application view component adapted to allow a second application to access the first application through the resource adapter by defining a set of business functions corresponding to the functionality in the first application as exposed by the resource adapter wherein the set of business functions is specified by a business analyst to achieve a specific business objective; and

wherein the application view component is adapted to be specific to the resource adapter and provides an abstracted interface to the first application on top of the resource adapter.

32. A computer implemented method for updating records in a database, comprising:

using an application view component to receive an XML message to invoke an update method for updating the records in the database;

translating the XML message into standard query language statements (SQL) for executing updates of the database records;

calling a resource adapter from the application view component and passing the SQL statements to the resource adapter;

accessing enterprise data in an enterprise system using the resource adapter and returning the result to the application view component; and

returning the result from the application view component as a response XML message.

33. A computer implemented method for integrating applications, comprising:

providing a resource adapter to expose functionality in an application wherein the functionality in the application includes a set of executable statements invoked on the application; and

providing an interface for the resource adapter to invoke the exposed functionality wherein the interface is configured to define a set of business functions corresponding to the functionality in the application wherein the set of business functions is specified by a business analyst to achieve a specific business objective; and

wherein the interface is configured to be specific to the resource adapter.

34. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause the system to:

provide a resource adapter adapted to invoke functionality in a first application and expose that functionality wherein the functionality in the first arplication includes a set of executable statements invoked on the first application;

provide an application view component adapted to allow a second application to access the first application through the resource adapter by defining a set of business functions corresponding to the functionality in the first application as exposed by the resource adapter wherein the set of business functions is specified by a business analyst to achieve a specific business objective; and

wherein the application view component is adapted to be specific to the resource adapter and provides an abstracted interface to the first application on top of the resource adapter.

35. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause the system to:

use an application view component to receive an XML message to invoke an update method for updating the records in the database;

translate the XML message into standard query language statements (SQL) for executing updates of the database records;

call a resource adapter from the application view component and pass the SQL statements to the resource adapter;

access enterprise data in an enterprise system using the resource adapter and return the result to the application view component; and

return the result from the application view component as a response XML message.