Method for tracking transport requests and computer system with trackable transport requests

• US 7,853,651 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Demuth, Michael, Stegmuller, Herbert, Schulz, Volker
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaroenchonwanit; Bunjob
• Application Number:
  US11/262,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20060112189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,874 Days
• Field of Search: 709202-227, 725/32, 705/1, 370/412, 340/870.02
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

A method for tracking transport requests in a system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of logical systems interconnected by logical transport paths, a transport request defining a software service for a system in the landscape, is described. The method includes feeding a transport request into a logical system of the plurality of logical systems; providing a data supplier in the logical system for supplying, to the central system, data supplier information containing information about the transport request; providing a data collector in the central system for obtaining the data supplier information and accordingly updating status data; and providing a tracking service in the central system, the tracking service allowing to analyze the status data.

Claims

1. A method for retrieving a status of a logical system in a system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of the logical systems interconnected by logical paths, the method including:

receiving, via a transport request into an import buffer of the logical system, a software service to add to or modify existing functionality of the logical system, the transport request including a software service identifier, information descriptive of a type of the software service, and program code of the software service;

effecting the program code of the software service within the logical system;

in a data supplier of the logical system;

detecting the received transport request,

accessing data of the transport request including at least the software service identifier and the information descriptive of the type of the software service effected within the logical system,

collecting, into a predefined format, the accessed data and further information including information about the status of the effected program code of the software service within the logical system, and

supplying the collected data in the predefined format to a data collector of the central control system;

receiving, by the data collector of the-central control system, the collected data in the predefined format;

updating data maintained by the data collector based on the collected data received in the predefined format, the updating including execution of a tracking service in the central control system for tracking the transport request and analyzing the information about the status of the logical system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking service provides at least one of group consisting of a request analysis, a status analysis, a sequence analysis, a project analysis, and report generation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport request is fed into an input buffer of the logical system and imported from the input buffer into the logical system upon approval.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the central control system approves import of the transport request into the logical system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport request is imported into the logical system and fed into another logical system connected to the logical system via a logical path of the logical paths.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data collector maintains an up-to-date record of state information of the plurality of the logical systems.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data collector periodically accesses the data supplier for updated information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data supplier contacts the data collector upon a change to the information about the status.

9. A computer system comprising:

a central control system;

a plurality of logical systems;

logical transport paths that interconnect the logical systems to form a software system landscape, the logical transport paths allowing a transport request to be fed into and program code of a software service included in the transport request effected within a first system of the plurality of logical systems, the transport request defining a software service for the first system, data of the transport request including a software service identifier, information descriptive of a type of the software service, and the program code of the software service;

a data supplier in the first system to;

detect the transport request,

access data of the transport request including at least the software service identifier and the information descriptive of the type of the software service effected within the first system,

collect, into a predefined format, the accessed data and further information including information about a status of the effected program code of the software service within the logical system, and

supply, to the central control system, the collected data in the predefined format;

a data collector in the central control system to obtain the collected data from the data supplier in the predefined format and accordingly update status data maintained by the data collector in a data file used for service tracking; and

a tracking service in the central control system, the tracking service to analyze the status data.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the tracking service comprises a provider to provide at least one of a group consisting of a request analysis, a status analysis, a sequence analysis, a project analysis, and report generation.

11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the first system comprises an input buffer to receive the transport request and a receiver to receive an approval to import the transport request from the input buffer into the first system.

12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the central control system comprises an approver to provide an approval to import the transport request into the first system.

13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the data collector comprises an up-to-date record of state information of the plurality of the logical systems.

14. The computer system of-claim 9, wherein the data collector is designed to periodically access the data supplier for updated information.

15. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the data supplier is designed to contact the data collector upon change of the information.

16. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions embedded thereon, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform a method for retrieving a status of a logical system in a system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of the logical systems interconnected by logical paths, the method comprising:

receiving, via a transport request into an import buffer of the logical system, a software service to add to or modify existing functionality of the logical system, the transport request including a software service identifier, information descriptive of a type of the software service, and program code of the software service;

effecting the program code of the software service within the logical system;

in a data supplier of the logical system;

detecting the received transport request,

accessing data of the transport request including at least the software service identifier and the information descriptive of the type of the software service effected within the logical system,

collecting, into a predefined format, the accessed data and further information including information about the status of the effected program code of the software service within the logical system, and

supplying the collected data in the predefined format to a data collector of the central control system;

receiving, by the data collector of the central control system, the collected data in the predefined format; and

updating data maintained by the data collector based on the collected data received in the predefined format, the updating including execution of a tracking service in the central control system for tracking the transport request and analyzing the information about the status of the logical system.