Reusable component in a collaboration workspace

• US 7,814,426 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mueller, Stefan, Margewitsch, Erwin, Huesken, Jens, Schwarz, Marcus R., Unnewehr, Johannes
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): WONG, WILLIAM
• Application Number:
  US10/882,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20060005163A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,295 Days
• Field of Search: 715751-759, 715762-763, 715741-747, 715/760, 715/765, 715/826, 717100-103, 709204-205
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

Described herein are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, that implement a collaboration workspace for reusable components. One method includes receiving a specification of a workspace component, where the workspace component is capable of being used with different collaboration workspaces; providing the specification of the workspace component to a collaboration workspace with a set of parameters related to the workspace component; and presenting the workspace component as part of the collaboration workspace. The workspace component may be added to a collaboration workspace that has been formed. The set of parameters may include a first set of access restrictions associated with the collaboration workspace, a second set of access restrictions associated with the workspace component, and access restriction mappings. In that case, the method includes associating the first set with the second set of access restrictions based on the access restriction mappings.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising instructions tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the instructions causing a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving first data characterizing a selection of a template, the template being one of a plurality of templates and the template defining a collaboration workspace, the collaboration workspace comprising a collaboration application tool, a resource, and parameters of the template to map to additional reusable workspace components, the parameters of the template being properties of the collaboration workspace;

in response to the selection of the template, providing a first interface by generating a first instance of the collaboration workspace as defined by the selected template, the first interface comprising an area from which to select at least one of a plurality of reusable workspace components to add to the first instance of the collaboration workspace, the plurality of reusable workspace components configured to modify the collaboration workspace and provide content for the collaboration workspace;

receiving second data characterizing a selection of the at least one reusable workspace components, the selected at least one reusable workspace components being an application tool to enable provision of a service from a backend system, over a network, to the collaboration workspace defined by the template, the selected at least one reusable workspace components being encapsulated in a module separate from the template, the selected at least one reusable workspace components having parameters representing properties of the selected at least one reusable workspace components including extensions defining behaviors performed in conjunction with the backend system upon occurrence of a lifecycle event, the selected at least one reusable workspace components including one or more reusable workspace components having corresponding parameters not matching the parameters of the template;

in response to the selection of the at least one reusable workspace components, providing a second interface comprising another area from which to select parameters of the first instance of the collaboration workspace defined by the selected template to map to the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components;

receiving from the second interface third data characterizing a selection of parameter mappings from the parameters of the first instance of the collaboration workspace to the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components, the parameter mappings including associating the parameters of the template with the corresponding non-matching parameters of the one or more reusable workspace components, the parameter mappings comprising a selection of a first property of the first instance of the collaboration workspace and a first property of the selected at least one reusable workspace components;

receiving fourth data characterizing a selection of mapping of first access restrictions of the selected at least one reusable workspace components to second access restrictions of the collaboration workspace to enable the selected at least one reusable workspace components to access the backend system based on the access restriction defined for the collaboration workspace, the first access restrictions differing from the second access restrictions;

enforcing the mapping of the first access restrictions to the second access restrictions for access to the service of the backend system; and

in response to selection of the parameter mappings, causing to be displayed a second instance of the collaboration workspace integrated with the selected at least one reusable workspace components, the integration based on the parameter mappings and causing to be displayed the selected at least one reusable workspace components to provide over the network the service of the backend system in the second instance of the collaboration workspace, the second instance of the collaboration workspace using a first mapping to cause values of the first property of the selected at least one reusable workspace components to be used as values of a first property of the second instance of the collaboration workspace.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a delivery of the selected at least one reusable workspace components from a third-party vendor, the delivery of the selected at least one reusable workspace components being separate from a delivery of the template.

3. The product of claim 1, wherein the selected at least one reusable workspace components is an application tool having distinct functionality from other of the at least one reusable workspace components and the application tool does not function as program data of the selected at least one reusable workspace components.

4. The product of claim 1, wherein the collaboration application tool is a self-contained productivity application that does not interact with other application tools in a context of the collaboration workspace, and the area of the second interface comprises:

user interface elements for presenting a list of the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components, and

user interface elements from which to select one or more of the parameters of the template to map to one of the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components in the list.

5. The product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing a third interface comprising a third area from which to select extensions to map to extension points;

receiving from the third interface fourth data characterizing a selection of a mapping of one of the extensions to an event of one of the extension points; and

causing the one of the extensions to be executed in response to the event of the one of the extension points being triggered, the event being a life cycle event of the selected at least one reusable workspace components.

6. A computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing instructions to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving first data characterizing a selection of a template, the template being one of a plurality of templates and the template defining a collaboration workspace, the collaboration workspace comprising a collaboration application tool, a resource, and parameters of the template to map to additional reusable workspace components, the parameters of the template being properties of the collaboration workspace;

in response to the selection of the template, providing a first interface by generating a first instance of the collaboration workspace as defined by the selected template, the first interface comprising an area from which to select at least one of a plurality of reusable workspace components to add to the first instance of the collaboration workspace, the plurality of reusable workspace components configured to modify the collaboration workspace and provide content for the collaboration workspace;

receiving second data characterizing a selection of the at least one reusable workspace components, the selected at least one reusable workspace components being an application tool to enable provision of a service from a backend system, over a network, to the collaboration workspace defined by the template, the selected at least one reusable workspace components being encapsulated in a module separate from the template, the selected at least one reusable workspace components having parameters representing properties of the selected at least one reusable workspace components including extensions defining behaviors that should be performed in conjunction with the backend system upon occurrence of a lifecycle event, the extensions being triggered upon the occurrence of the lifecycle events, and access controls defining access to contents of the collaboration workspace, the selected at least one reusable workspace components including one or more reusable workspace components having corresponding parameters not matching the parameters of the template;

in response to the selection of the at least one reusable workspace components, providing a second interface comprising another area from which to select the parameters of the first instance of the collaboration workspace defined by the selected template to map to the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components;

modifying the collaboration workspace based on a specification of the selected at least one reusable workspace components including adding a first content to the collaboration workspace, removing a second content from the collaboration workspace and removing an affinity between the specification of the selected at least one reusable workspace components and the collaboration workspace based on the extensions;

receiving from the second interface third data characterizing a selection of parameter mappings, from the parameters of the first instance of the collaboration workspace, the parameters of the selected at least one reusable workspace components, the parameter mappings including associating the parameters of the template with the corresponding non-matching parameters of the one or more reusable workspace components, the parameter mappings comprising a selection of a first property of the first instance of the collaboration workspace and a first property of the selected at least one reusable workspace components;

receiving fourth data characterizing a selection of mapping of first access restrictions of the selected at least one reusable workspace components to second access restrictions of the collaboration workspace to enable the selected at least one reusable workspace components to access the backend system based on the access restriction defined for the collaboration workspace, the first access restrictions differing from the second access restrictions;

enforcing the mapping of the first access restrictions to the second access restrictions for access to the service of the backend system; and

in response to selection of the parameter mappings, causing to be displayed a second instance of the collaboration workspace integrated with the selected at least one reusable workspace components, the integration based on the parameter mappings and causing to be displayed the selected at least one reusable workspace components to provide over the network the service of the backend system in the second instance of the collaboration workspace, the second instance of the collaboration workspace using a first mapping to cause values of the first property of the selected at least one reusable workspace components to be used as values of a first property of the second instance of the collaboration workspace.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein modifying the collaboration workspace includes adding the selected at least one reusable workspace components to the collaboration workspace, moving the selected at least one reusable workspace components between a plurality of collaboration workspaces, removing the selected at least one reusable workspace components from one collaboration workspace to another, sharing the selected at least one reusable workspace components across the plurality of collaboration workspaces, copying the selected at least one reusable workspace components, and deleting the selected at least one reusable workspace components.

8. The computer-readable storage medium claim 6, wherein the lifecycle events include creating, modifying, and deleting of the selected at least one reusable workspace components, adding new members to the collaboration workspace, providing access rights, and modifying the access rights for members.

9. The computer-readable storage medium claim 6, wherein the access controls restrict an ability of a user to access tools and/or resources.