Method and system for converting user interface source code of a legacy application to web pages

• US 7,904,803 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2001
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Reinhardt, Edmund Horst, Hockings, Michael A., Coulthard, Philip S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stork; Kyle R
• Application Number:
  US09/879,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20020178290A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,557 Days
• Field of Search: 715/517, 715/513, 715/501.1, 715/500.1, 715/514, 715/523, 715/530, 715/234, 715/243, 715/254, 707/2
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and apparatus that has the ability to convert display pages of interactive legacy applications for use on a network, such as the Internet. The display source code of the legacy application is first parsed into a network-based language, such as XML, preserving the structure and hierarchy of the display source to create a plurality of network user interface pages. The network user interface pages are then converted to a dynamic platform-independent language in which the static portion of the display page is converted to a web page, such as a JavaServer Page, and the dynamic portion of the display page for input/output/feedback is converted to data objects, such as JavaBeans. The intermediate network user interface pages may be stored on the server with the legacy application. The conversion program to convert the intermediate network user interface pages may be stored on a computer program product, a client connected to the server with the legacy application, or the server itself. The method of this invention provides an environment such that when an application is invoked from a client, the runtime data manager may use either the traditional display source code or the generated intermediate network user interface pages as its user interfaces. Thus, the legacy application'"'"'s data stream need not be redirected but is already in the format accessible to the network server across the network to the network user agent as network pages, such as JavaServer Pages with the dynamic input/output/feedback data as JavaBeans.

Claims

1. A method for converting display source code of a legacy application having mixed business and presentation logic on a server to a network interactive web-browser page, the method comprising:

resolving the display source code of the legacy application into a plurality of record formats, each record format corresponding to source code associated with an input/output screen of the legacy application;

parsing each record format into a corresponding intermediate file that is renderable by a web browser, each intermediate file including static content and dynamic content, the static content corresponding to an unchanging portion of a given input/output screen of the legacy application, the dynamic content corresponding to a dynamic portion of the given input/output screen that is filled in at runtime by the legacy application; and

converting the static content of each intermediate file to a corresponding web page for display on the web browser including creating dynamic components for populating the web page based on the dynamic content of the intermediate file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each web page is displayed on the Internet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each web page is stored on the server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each web page is displayed on a network selected from the group consisting of:

an internal network, an Intranet, a LAN, a WAN, an internal bus, a wireless network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each intermediate file is an XML language file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the XML language file is an HTML file.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the XML language file is a WML file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each web page comprises a JavaServer Page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamic components further comprise JavaBeans.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each step of the method occurs at development time during which a user is preparing a new user interface for the legacy application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein converting the static content of each intermediate file is performed offline without any remote connection to the server upon which the legacy application resides.

12. A computer readable medium containing program instructions tangibly stored thereon for creating web interfaces of a legacy application having mixed business and presentation logic stored on a computer, the program instructions for:

parsing display file data description source of the legacy application to render the display file data description source into a plurality of intermediate files that are each renderable by a web browser of a client, each intermediate file corresponding to a record format representing source code associated with an input/output screen of the legacy application;

converting each intermediate file to a corresponding web page, wherein at least one data object maintains input data, output data, and feedback data of the legacy application on the client, and at least one web page maintains static content of a given input/output screen of the legacy application;

dynamically updating the at least one web page with the input data, output data, and feedback data of the legacy application via a servlet instance; and

displaying the dynamically updated web page through the web browser on a the client via a network.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein:

the program instructions for parsing the display file data description source and converting each intermediate file are each executed during development time of the web-browser page; and

the program instructions for dynamically updating the at least one web page and displaying the dynamically updated web page are each executed during runtime.

14. A computer readable medium containing program instructions tangibly stored thereon for use in a computer network, the computer readable medium containing program instructions for:

providing a plurality of intermediate files that are renderable by a web browser, each intermediate file corresponding to record format representing source code associated with an input/output screen of a legacy application, the legacy application having mixed business and presentation logic; and

converting each intermediate file to a corresponding web page, a static portion of a given web page corresponding to a static portion of the corresponding record format and a dynamic portion of the given web page interacting with display input data, output data, and feedback data required by and from the legacy application.

15. A computer system for executing an application, comprising:

a central processing unit;

a main memory connected to the central processing unit with a communication bus;

a data storage unit connected to a data storage interface which is connected to the communication bus;

at least one input/output device connected to the communication bus and connected to a network interface to an external computer network,

a legacy application having mixed business and presentation logic stored in the main memory and capable of executing on the central processing unit; and

a plurality of intermediate files that are renderable by a web browser, each intermediate file corresponding to a record format representing source code associated with an input/output screen of the legacy application;

wherein as the legacy application executes, application logic uses either a legacy application display of associated with a given record format or the plurality of intermediate files for communication of the legacy application to a user over the external computer network.

16. A computer server for converting the display source of a legacy application having mixed business and presentation logic stored and executing on a computer, comprising:

a central processing unit;

a parser to parse the display source of the legacy application into a plurality of record formats, each of the record formats being unique to each input/output screen definition of the legacy application;

a generator of intermediate files having nested tags of each of the record formats, each intermediate file being renderable by a web browser,; and

a converter operable to convert the intermediate files to one or more web pages, the converter further comprising;

an object creator to create dynamic components for dynamic portions of the record formats, the dynamic components for populating the one or more web pages; and

a static component for display of unchanging aspects of the record formats, the static component representing the one or more web pages.