Extending data flows

• US 7,505,983 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2006
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Wachs, Daniel, Wildhagen, Andreas U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Application Number:
  US11/475,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20070299704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 995 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-103
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques

Abstract

Systems and techniques for extending data flows are thus described. In one aspect, an article includes one or more machine-readable media storing instructions operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations. The operations can include receiving extension information identifying an extension of a first object in a data processing system landscape, accessing data flow information to identify one or more data flows that involve the first object, and extending, on the basis of identifying the one or more data flows as involving the first object, at least some of the one or more data flows so that information in the extension is conveyed between instances of the first object and instances of a second object during data processing in the data processing system landscape. The identified data flows convey stored information from one object to another.

Claims

1. An article comprising one or more machine-readable media storing instructions, when executed by a processor, operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving extension information identifying an extension of a first object in a data processing system landscape;

accessing data flow information to identify one or more data flows that involve the first object, wherein the identified data flows convey stored information from one object to another; and

extending, on the basis of identifying the one or more data flows as involving the first object, at least some of the one or more data flows so that information in the extension is conveyed between instances of the first object and instances of a second object during data processing in the data processing system landscape.

2. The article of claim 1, wherein extending at least some of the one or more data flows comprises mapping the extension of the first object to a particular attribute in the second object.

3. The article of claim 1, further comprising conveying information from the extension of a first instance of the first object to a second instance of the second object in accordance with an extended data flow.

4. The article of claim 3, wherein conveying the information from the extension to the second instance comprises generating a message to convey information from the first instance of the first object to the second instance of the second object.

5. The article of claim 4, wherein the message is to convey the information across a boundary between logical collections of machine-readable instructions in the data processing system landscape.

6. The article of claim 1, wherein accessing data flow information comprises accessing a data flow registry that identifies a source data object and a target data object in one or more data flows.

7. The article of claim 1, wherein further comprising:

accessing the data flow information to identify one or more second objects that are involved in the one or more data flows that involve the first object; and

extending the one or more second objects based at least in part on their identification in the data flow information.

8. The article of claim 1, wherein accessing the data flow information comprises accessing an extension set that associates

a collection of object identifiers, the object identifiers identifying objects in a data processing system landscape, and

a collection of data flow identifiers, the data flow identifiers identifying data flows in the data processing system landscape that involve the objects identified by the object identifiers.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein extending at least some of the one or more data flows comprises:

extending the objects identified in the collection of object identifiers without input from a user; and

extending the data flows identified in the collection of data flow identifiers without input from a user.

10. A method comprising:

receiving attribute information describing a first additional attribute that is to be added to a first object in an installed data processing system landscape;

based at least in part on the attribute information, adding a second additional attribute to a second object in the data processing system landscape;

storing a description of a data flow between the first object and the second object, wherein the description reflects the first additional attribute and the second additional attribute; and

during subsequent operational data processing activities in the data processing system landscape, accessing the data flow description and conveying information from the first additional attribute of an instance of the first object to the second additional attribute of an instance of the second object in accordance with the data flow description.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein accessing the data flow description comprises mapping, at an attribute-level, a conveyance of information from the first additional attribute to the second additional attribute to generate attribute mapping information.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein adding the second additional attribute to the second data object comprises:

accessing a data flow registry that identifies a conveyance of information between the first object and the second object during operational data processing activities in the data processing system landscape; and

adding the second additional attribute based at least in part on the identification of the conveyance in the data flow registry.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein conveying the information from the first additional attribute of the instance of the first object to the second additional attribute of the instance of the second object comprises generating a message that includes the information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein generating the message comprises:

accessing the data flow description that reflects the addition of the first additional attribute to the first object; and

generating the message having a message structure that is mapped to reflect the addition of the first additional attribute to the first object.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein conveying the information from the first additional attribute of the instance of the first object to the second attribute of the instance of the second object comprises:

receiving a message having a message structure that is mapped to reflect the addition of the first additional attribute to the first object;

accessing the data flow description that reflects the addition of the first additional attribute to the first object; and

conveying the information from the first additional attribute of the instance of the first object to the second attribute of the instance of the second object in accordance with the data flow description.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the data flow description comprises storing a rule for conveying information from the first additional attribute of an instance of the first object to the second attribute of an instance of the second object.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the first object and the second object are not involved in a same data flow but rather the information is conveyed from the first additional attribute to the second attribute over a third object.

18. A memory for storing data for access by operations performed by a data processing system, the memory comprising:

an extension set data assembly stored in the memory, the extension set data assembly associating

a collection of object identifiers, the object identifiers identifying objects in a data processing system landscape that can be extended upon an extension to an object in the data processing system landscape to meet the requirements of a business scenario, and

a collection of data flow identifiers, the data flow identifiers identifying data flows in the data processing system landscape that involve the objects identified by the object identifiers and that can be extended to meet the requirements of the business scenario.

19. The memory of claim 18, wherein the extension set data assembly further associates an identifier of one or more originating objects in which the extension originates.

20. The memory of claim 18, wherein the extension set data assembly further associates multiple identifiers of originating objects in which the extension originates.