Transforming data automatically between communications parties in a computing network

• US 7,120,703 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2005
• Issued: 10/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shepard, Spencer H. IV, Li, Yongcheng, Tan, Yih-Shin, Sankaran, Sajan
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet D.
• Application Number:
  US11/059,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 709/219, 709/246, 719/319, 719/329
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically transforming data or business messages to enable communication between parties in a distributed computing environment (e.g. between business partners who exchange data over a public network, and who do not necessarily use the same data formats), where this data transformation preferably occurs at the edge of the computing network. A set of transformation services is described, and include template registration, transformation, forward, and receive services. Services from this set may optionally be combined to create composite transformation services. A template defines how to transform one data format into another. Selection criteria may be provided to enable dynamically selecting a template at run-time. Using these services, one business partner simply hands its data off into the network to a network-accessible transformation service, where the data is automatically transformed into a format usable by its business partner and forwarded to that business partner.

Claims

1. A method of automatically transforming data or business messages between communications parties in a computing network, comprising steps of:

detecting, by a first application program, that a data or business message is to be exchanged with a second application program, wherein a first data format used by the first application program for the data or business message is different from a second data format used by the second application program;

identifying, by the first application program, a network-accessible transformation service from which transformations are dynamically requestable; and

sending, by the first application program, a transformation request to the identified network-accessible transformation service, wherein the transformation request requests the network-accessible transformation service to transform the data or business message from the first data format to the second data format and identifies a transformation template to be used, by the network-accessible transformation service, to perform the requested transformation.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of requesting, by the first application program, delivery of a transformed document from the network-accessible service to the second application program, wherein the transformed document results from the requested transformation.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying an identifier of a particular transformation template previously registered with the network-accessible transformation service.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation request specifies a location from which the network-accessible transformation service can obtain the data or business message.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation request further comprises the data or business message.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the data or business message is specified using a structured document.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying the transformation template therein.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying parameter values usable for selecting, by the network-accessible transformation service, the transformation template from among a plurality of previously-registered transformation templates.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying an address usable for locating, by the network-accessible transformation service, the transformation template.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifying step further comprises discovering, by the first application program, the network-accessible transformation service by consulting services registered in a network-accessible service registry.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the network-accessible service registry is a Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration registry.

12. A system for communicating between application programs in a computing environment, comprising:

means for detecting, by a first application program, that a data or business message is to be exchanged with a second application program, wherein a first data format used by the first application program for the data or business message is different from a second data format used by the second application program;

means for identifying, by the first application program, a network-accessible transformation service from which transformations are dynamically requestable; and

means for sending, by the first application program, a transformation request to the identified network-accessible transformation service, wherein the transformation request requests the network-accessible transformation service to transform the data or business message from the first data format to the second data format and identifies, from among a plurality of transformation templates previously registered with the network-accessible transformation service, a selected one of the transformation templates to be used, by the network-accessible transformation service, to perform the requested transformation.

13. The system according to claim 12, further comprising means for requesting, by the first application program, delivery of a transformed document from the network-accessible service to the second application program, wherein the transformed document results from the requested transformation.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the transformation request specifies a location from which the network-accessible transformation service can obtain the data or business message.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying the transformation template therein.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying an address usable for locating, by the network-accessible transformation service, the transformation template.

17. A computer program product comprising at least one computer useable media, the media embodying computer-usable program code for communicating between application programs in a computing environment, the computer program product comprising:

computer-usable program code for detecting, by a first application program, that a data or business message is to be exchanged with a second application program, wherein a first data format used by the first application program for the data or business message is different from a second data format used by the second application program;

computer-usable program code for identifying, by the first application program, a network-accessible transformation service from which transformations are dynamically requestable; and

computer-usable program code for sending, by the first application program, a transformation request to the identified network-accessible transformation service, wherein the transformation request requests the network-accessible transformation service to transform the data or business message from the first data format to the second data format and identifies, from among a plurality of transformation templates previously registered with the network-accessible transformation service, a selected one of the transformation templates to be used, by the network-accessible transformation service, to perform the requested transformation.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying an identifier of a particular transformation template previously registered with the network-accessible transformation service.

19. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the transformation request further comprises the data or business message.

20. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the transformation template is identified on the transformation request by specifying parameter values usable for selecting, by the network-accessible transformation service, the transformation template from among a plurality of previously-registered transformation templates.