System and method for enabling client applications to interactively obtain and present taxonomy information

• US 7,447,677 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2003
• Issued: 11/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Milligan, Andrew D., Reeves, Charles R. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chace; Christian P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hicks; Michael J
• Application Number:
  US10/607,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20040267718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,957 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A system and method for enabling UDDI client applications to interactively obtain taxonomy information from a UDDI server and thereby present that information to a user, such as to enable navigation through the taxonomy. An application programming interface is provided by which a client application sends a unique taxonomy identifier and a relationship qualifier (e.g., root, parent and/or child) to a server. The client may also identify a reference node within the taxonomy. The server receives the (e.g., XML) request message, and extracts the data to query a database based on the relationship qualifier (or qualifiers) and the taxonomy/reference node. Based on the query results, the server returns a response that provides relationship information to the client, such as information on root, parent and/or child nodes that satisfy the request. The client interprets the response to present the taxonomy, such as for user navigation through the taxonomy.

Claims

1. In a computing environment that includes a network connected client and server database with services organized in a taxonomy, a method for the server database to obtain web service information for one or more related web services represented at different nodes in the taxonomy, the method comprising:

receiving a request for web service information, the request including a user entered reference node identifier and relationship data indicating a first and a second hierarchical relationship the requested node is to have with the reference node, the user entered reference node identifier identifying a specified web service represented at a reference node within the taxonomy, the relationship data indicating that any related web service in any taxonomy having either the first or second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service is a related web service of interest to the user;

extracting the reference node identifier and the relationship data from the request;

querying one or more databases in a plurality of different taxonomies located on one or more different computer systems using the relationship data to obtain web service information for any web services having at least one the first and the second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service of the reference node, the web service information being presentable in a hierarchical format, the hierarchy being based on the specified web service'"'"'s hierarchical relationship with the reference node and other web services in the plurality of different taxonomies, the nodes of each database comprising at least one of a plurality of root nodes;

receiving web service information that corresponds to an equivalent node in a second, different taxonomy in response to the query, the equivalent node providing the same web service as the reference node as indicated in an equivalence relationship tag, the received web service information being displayable in a navigable taxonomy; and

returning the received web service information to the client, the received web service information for graphical presentation at the client to show a user relevant portions of any of the plurality of taxonomies that included related web services.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationship data indicates a root node relationship, and wherein returning the web service information in response to the request comprises returning an identifier of at least one root node within the taxonomy.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request comprises identifying the relationship along with each other node identifier that corresponds to the relationship data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request comprises returning at least one other node identifier that corresponds to the relationship data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the relationship data indicates a parent relationship.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the relationship data indicates a child relationship.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request comprises returning an identifier of another taxonomy.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request further comprises returning at least one node identifier corresponding to at least one node in another taxonomy.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the relationship data indicates an equivalence relationship.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request further comprises returning at least one attribute value that indicates whether a node corresponding to that attribute value comprises a classification node.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein returning the web service information in response to the request further comprises returning at least one text string.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the request includes at least one other reference node identifier and relationship data, and wherein the response returns data corresponding to the request in the order in which the reference node identifier and relationship data were received such that the first set of reference node identifier and relationship data corresponds to a first part of the response and the at least one other set of reference node identifier and relationship data corresponds to a second part of the response.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the request comprises an XML message, and wherein returning the web service information in response to the request further comprises formatting the response as an XML message.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the web service information corresponds to a taxonomy maintained at a UDDI server.

15. A recordable-type computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions configured to execute the method of claim 1 in a computer system.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more nodes include a flag that, when applied to the node, hides the node'"'"'s existence from the user.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching for nodes similar to the reference node by category of service.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the plurality of databases with one or more keys of a key set.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the key set comprises a unique identifier of a taxonomy as one key and a node identifier of a node within that taxonomy as another key.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the received web service information includes information indicating a related node in a third, different taxonomy.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising graphically displaying the web service information in a navigable taxonomy, allowing the client to manually navigate through each node of the taxonomy.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the equivalent node has at least one of the first and the second specified hierarchical relationships with the specified web service of reference node.

23. In a computing environment that includes a network connected client and server database with services organized in a taxonomy, a method for the network connected client to obtain web service information for one or more related web services represented at different nodes in the taxonomy, the method comprising:

constructing a request for web service data regarding one or more related web services, the request including a user entered reference node identifier from which a specified web service represented at the reference node within the taxonomy is identifiable and user entered relationship information that identifies at least a first and a second specified hierarchical relationship, wherein the relationship information indicates that any related web service in any taxonomy having either the first or second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service is a related web service of interest to the user;

communicating the request to a server;

receiving a response from the server regarding the requested web service data including the specified web service of the reference node and the relationship information indicating at least one related web service having either the first or the second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service; and

graphically displaying web service information that corresponds to an equivalent web service in a second, different taxonomy in a navigable taxonomy configured to show a user relevant portions of any of the plurality of taxonomies that included an equivalent web service that provides the same web service as the reference node as indicated in an equivalence relationship tag.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the relationship qualifier indicates a root node relationship with the taxonomy, and wherein the response includes information about at least one root node in the taxonomy.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the reference node identifier further includes node identification data from which a node within the taxonomy is configured to be identified.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the relationship qualifier indicates a parent node of a node identified by the node identification data, and wherein the response includes information about the parent node.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the relationship qualifier indicates a child node of a node identified by the node identification data, and wherein the response includes information about at least one child node, if any exist.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the relationship qualifier indicates an equivalent node of a node identified by the node identification data.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving the response from the server further includes receiving an attribute value that indicates whether a node in the taxonomy is intended as a classification node.

30. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving the response from the server further includes receiving at least one text string that corresponds to a node in the taxonomy.

31. The method of claim 23 wherein constructing a request for taxonomy data comprises constructing an XML message.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein communicating the request to a server comprises sending the XML message to a UDDI server.

33. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions configured to execute the method of claim 23 in a computer system.

34. In a computing environment that includes a network connected client and server database with services organized in a taxonomy, a system that obtains web service information for one or more nodes in a taxonomy, the system comprising:

a request receiving mechanism configured to receiving a request for web service information, the request including a user entered reference node identifier and relationship data indicating a first and a second hierarchical relationship the requested node is to have with the reference node, the user entered reference node identifier identifying a specified web service represented at a reference node within the taxonomy, the relationship data indicating that any related web service in any taxonomy having either the first or second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service is a related web service of interest to the user;

an extracting mechanism configured to extract the reference node identifier and the relationship data from the request;

a database querying mechanism configured to query one or more databases in a plurality of different taxonomies located on one or more different computer systems using the relationship data to obtain web service information for any web services having at least one the first and the second specified hierarchical relationship with the specified web service of the reference node, the web service information being presentable in a hierarchical format, the hierarchy being based on the specified web service'"'"'s hierarchical relationship with the reference node and other web services in the plurality of different taxonomies, the nodes of each database comprising at least one of a plurality of root nodes;

a web service information receiving mechanism configured to receive web service information that corresponds to an equivalent node in a second, different taxonomy in response to the query, the equivalent node providing the same web service as the reference node as indicated in an equivalence relationship tag, the received web service information being displayable in a navigable taxonomy; and

a returning mechanism configured to return the received web service information to the client, the received web service information for graphical presentation at the client to show a user relevant portions of any of the plurality of taxonomies that included an equivalent web service that provides the same web service as the reference node as indicated in an equivalence relationship tag.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the relationship information corresponding to the node in the specified taxonomy comprises a root qualifier.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the relationship information corresponding to the node in the specified taxonomy comprises a parent qualifier.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein the relationship information corresponding to the node in the specified taxonomy comprises a child qualifier.

38. The system of claim 34 further comprising a database in which the server maintains the web service data

39. The system of claim 34 wherein the web service requests from the client comprise XML messages.

40. The system of claim 34 wherein the response to the client comprises an XML message.

41. The system of claim 34 wherein the server comprises a UDDI server.

42. The system of claim 34 wherein the client provides the request to the server by calling an application programming interface, the application programming interface formatting the request as a message to communicate with the server and returning the response to the client in response to the application programming interface call.