Items on workplaces

• US 7,761,850 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Kilian-Kehr, Roger
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAO, PHUONG THAO
• Application Number:
  US11/318,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,671 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 717/120, 717/121, 717/130, 717/104
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

This document discusses, among other things, a system and a method for using a meta-model to manage relationships between software artifacts, the method comprising determining a meta-model; identifying one or more available artifacts in one or more software applications; using the meta-model to define one or more relationships between the one or more available artifacts, wherein each relationship is a specific instance of a possible association defined in the meta-model; and providing the one or more relationships as one or more configurations to the one or more software applications.

Claims

1. A computer-assisted method for creating and maintaining relationships between software applications, the method comprising:

determining a meta-model;

choosing one or more available artifacts to expose, the artifacts being available from a plurality of software applications, the plurality of software applications including a first software application and a second software application;

modeling the one or more chosen available artifacts using the meta-model;

receiving the one or more modeled artifacts;

using the meta-model to define one or more relationships between the one or more modeled artifacts, wherein each relationship comprises a possible association defined in the meta-model, and wherein each relationship defines an aspect of a first artifact accessible via a second artifact where the first and second artifacts are selected from the one or more modeled artifacts, and wherein the first artifact is associated with the first software application and the second artifact is associated with the second software application;

providing, using one or more computers, the one or more relationships to one or more of the plurality of software applications; and

defining, during runtime of the first software application, a functional association between a software artifact of a first type corresponding to the first artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model with a software artifact of a second type corresponding to the second artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model using the possible association defined in the meta-model, wherein the software artifact of the first type is associated with the first software application and the software artifact of the second type is associated with the second software application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more relationships comprises managing one or more configuration files that define the relationships.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the configuration file uses a standardized interface language.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the standardized interface language is the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) standard.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more relationships comprises directly configuring at least one of the software applications using application-to-application communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-model is defined by a standardized modeling language.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more modeled artifacts include a calendar entry, a contact, a task item, an email message, a document, a meeting, an employee, an order, an organizational data, a material, a customer, and an asset.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more modeled artifacts are represented as one or more classes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein using the meta-model to define one or more relationships includes creating a relationship between one or more elements of the one or more classes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein using the meta-model to define one or more relationships includes defining a recursive relationship.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein using the meta-model to define one or more relationships includes defining a mode of managing a relationship in the one or more software applications.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the mode of managing a relationship includes at least one of:

providing a context-sensitive menu;

providing a drag-and-drop ability;

providing a drag-and-relate ability;

providing a menu command; and

providing a keyboard command.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the aspect of the first artifact comprises a functional aspect.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the aspect of the first artifact comprises a descriptive aspect.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more relationships includes storing a globally-accessible configuration for the plurality of software applications in a shared storage device.

7. The method of 6, wherein the standardized modeling language is the Unified Modeling Language (UML).

17. A system for managing relationships between software applications, the system comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory;

a user-interface coupled to the processor;

a gather artifacts module to run on the processor to identify one or more modeled artifacts provided by a plurality of software applications, the plurality of software applications including a first software application and a second software application, wherein the modeled artifacts include one or more artifacts that exist in the plurality of software applications and that were selectively exposed and then modeled by the plurality of software applications;

a presentation module to run on the processor to use a meta-model and the modeled artifacts in a modeling environment, wherein the modeling environment allows a user to interact and manage one or more relationships between the modeled artifacts using a definition provided by the meta-model, and wherein each relationship defines an aspect of a first artifact accessible via a second artifact where the first and second artifacts are selected from the one or more modeled artifacts, and wherein the first artifact is associated with the first software application and the second artifact is associated with the second software application; and

a configuration output module to run on the processor to provide the one or more relationships as one or more configurations to the first software application, wherein the first software application, defines, during runtime of the first software application, a functional association between a software artifact of a first type corresponding to the first artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model with a software artifact of a second type corresponding to the second artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model using the definition provided by the meta-model, wherein the software artifact of the first type is associated with the first software application and the software artifact of the second type is associated with the second software application.

18. The system of claim 17, comprising a meta-model reader module to run on the processor to read the meta-model.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more configurations are stored as one or more files on one or more computers.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more configurations are stored in a database.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of software applications use the one or more relationships in the one or more configurations to provide a user-interface to a user, wherein the user-interface allows the user to manage specific instances of the relationships in the software applications.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more software applications use application-to-application communication to provide access to one or more of the modeled artifacts.

23. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

determine a meta-model;

choose one or more available artifacts to expose, the artifacts being available from a plurality of software applications, the plurality of software applications including a first software application and a second software application;

model the one or more chosen available artifacts using the meta-model;

receive the one or more modeled artifacts;

use the meta-model to define one or more relationships between the one or more modeled artifacts, wherein each relationship comprises a possible association defined in the meta-model, and wherein each relationship defines an aspect of a first artifact accessible via a second artifact of the one or more modeled artifacts, and wherein the first artifact is associated with the first software application and the second artifact is associated with the second software application; and

provide the one or more relationships to one or more of the plurality of software applications; and

define, during runtime of the first software application, a functional association between a software artifact of a first type corresponding to the first artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model with a software artifact of a second type corresponding to the second artifact of the modeled artifacts in the meta-model using the possible association defined in the meta-model, wherein the software artifact of the first type is associated with the first software application and the software artifact of the second type is associated with the second software application.