Programmatic management of software resources in a content framework environment

• US 7,266,600 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Issued: 09/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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): Maung; Zarni
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, NGHI V
• Application Number:
  US11/247,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/250, 709/203, 790/203
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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 computer-implemented method of enabling programmatic management of software resources in a content aggregation framework environment, comprising steps of:

providing a system management interface for a proxying component, wherein the proxying component enables operations invocable from one or more software resources in a collection to be invocable from a content aggregation framework and the system management interface enables the software resources in the collection to be managed from the content aggregation framework, the system management interface specifying management operations invocable from the collection as management operations invocable from the proxying component;

specifying the system management interface in a service description document;

registering the service description document in a network-accessible registry, such that the system management interface of the proxying component is locatable from the network-accessible registry; and

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

retrieving, by the content aggregation framework, the registered service description document for the proxying component from the network-accessible registry; and

binding, by the content aggregation framework, to the system management interface of the proxying component using the retrieved service description document, such that the operations invocable from the system management interface of the proxying component are then invocable from the content aggregation framework.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the invoked management operations is a life cycle event implemented by one of the software resources in the collection.

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

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

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

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

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

a content aggregation framework adapted for supporting one or more plug-in components, each of which contributes content for aggregating in the content aggregation framework;

a collection of software resources, each having one or more invocable operations;

a proxying component structured as one of the plug-in components;

means for using the proxying component to surface the invocable operations of the collection of software resources in the content aggregation framework by specifying, for the proxying component, a functional interface in which selected ones of the invocable operations are surfaced as invocable operations of the proxying component;

means for using the proxying component to manage the collection of software resources by specifying, for the proxying component, a system management interface in which other selected ones of the invocable operations are surfaced as invocable management operations of the proxying component, the other selected ones providing management operations that are invocable from the collection of software resources;

means for specifying, for the proxying component, the functional interface and the system interface in a service description document;

means for registering, for the proxying component, the service description document in a network-accessible registry, such that the proxying component can be located at run-time by searching the network-accessible registry and then plugged in to the content aggregation framework, thereby surfacing the selected invocable operations and the other selected invocable operations for invocation from the content aggregation framework, via the plugged-in proxying component; and

means for using the system management interface at run-time to manage the collection of software resources by invoking, from the content aggregation framework, one or more of the other selected invocable operations surfaced therein, wherein each of the invocations causes the plugged-in proxying component to invoke a corresponding one of the management operations that is invocable from the collection of software resources, further comprising;

means for retrieving, by the content aggregation framework, the registered service description document of the proxying component from the network-accessible registry; and

means for binding, by the content aggregation framework, to the system management interface of the proxying component using the system management interface specified in the retrieved service description document, thereby causing the other selected invocable operations to become invocable from the content aggregation framework.

8. The system according to claim 7, further comprising means for using 2-way communications to initiate communication of auditing information from at least one of the software resources, via the plugged-in proxying component, to the content aggregation framework, wherein the auditing information comprises at least one of (1) quality of service information from at least one of the software resources, (2) billing information from at least one of the software resources, (3) notification of at least one event occurring at at least one of the software resources, and (4) operational messages from at least one of the software resources.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the collection comprises a web service and the proxying component is a portlet, and wherein the content aggregation framework is a portal platform.

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the invoked management operations is a life cycle event implemented by one of the software resources in the collection.

11. A computer program product for enabling programmatic management of software resources in a content aggregation framework environment, the computer program product embodied on at least one computer-readable medium and comprising:

computer-readable program code for providing a system management interface for a proxying component, wherein the proxying component enables operations invocable from one or more software resources in a collection to be invocable from a content aggregation framework and the system management interface enables the software resources in the collection to be managed from the content aggregation framework, the system management interface specifying management operations invocable from the collection as management operations invocable from the proxying component;

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

computer-readable program code for registering the service description document in a network-accessible registry, such that the system management interface of the proxying component is locatable from the network-accessible registry; and

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

computer-readable program code for retrieving, by the content aggregation framework, the registered service description document for the proxying component from the network-accessible registry; and

computer-readable program code for binding, by the content aggregation framework, to the system management interface of the proxying component using the retrieved service description document, such that the operations invocable from the system management interface of the proxying component are then invocable from the content aggregation framework.

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

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the collection comprises a web service and the proxying component is a portlet, and wherein the content aggregation framework is a portal platform.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the invoked management operations is a life cycle event implemented by one of the software resources in the collection.