Service structured application development architecture

• US 8,099,716 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2005
• Issued: 01/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubiquity Software Corp. Ltd. (Avaya Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ubiquity Software Corp. Ltd. (Avaya Incorporated)
• Inventors: Tucker, Douglas, Steadman, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Ziaul A
• Application Number:
  US11/288,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,241 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/103, 707/103.R, 707/200, 704/E15.047, 709/216, 717/100, 717/104, 717/106, 717/113, 717/108, 717/120
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0058 using service-independent building blocks (SIBBs) or "primitives"

Abstract

Systems and methods defining a service oriented object framework for use in providing an open application environment facilitating application function integration are shown. Embodiments provide object life management, platform resources management, and event management capabilities. A multi-layer architecture, defining object layers within an application container, may be used. A primary layer of such an architecture may comprise infrastructure objects providing foundational element blocks embodying protocol specific functions of the services that are to be built on top of a development container. An intermediate layer of such an architecture may comprise service objects providing service level functions. An upper layer of such an architecture may comprise business objects providing application orchestration element blocks defining the logical application created by combining the foregoing objects. Embodiments implement a framework that provides utilities that enable the object hierarchy to interact and function on top of a corresponding development container platform.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

defining a multiple object hierarchy for providing an open application environment;

providing, in said open application environment, a first plurality of program objects associated with a first object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

providing, in said open application environment, a second plurality of program objects associated with a second object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

associating selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects to form an application program, wherein the application program provides a first telephony service, wherein said second plurality of program objects comprise infrastructure objects providing foundational element blocks embodying protocol specific functions of services provided by said application program;

wherein said associated selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects comprises;

providing an application framework having a plurality of utilities facilitating interaction between said selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and said selected ones of said second plurality of program objects; and

passing object function information with respect to at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects to an object life management utility of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said multiple object hierarchy comprises a business object level, a service object level, and an infrastructure object level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprise business objects, said business objects providing application orchestration to define said application program created by combining objects of said second plurality of program objects.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprises business objects, said business objects providing bridging of services into a web services application infrastructure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprise service objects, said service objects providing service level functions utilizing one or more objects of said second plurality of program objects to fulfill its function.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said service objects are exported directly to a web services infrastructure for orchestration into logical applications formed at a web services infrastructure layer of a service provider application infrastructure.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, in said open application environment, a third plurality of program objects associated with a third object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said associated selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects comprises:

associating selected ones of said first plurality of program objects, selected ones of said second plurality of program objects, and selected ones of said third plurality of programs objects to form an application program.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information regarding functions performed by objects of at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects in a registry of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information regarding external events objects of at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects are to receive notification of in a registry of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

11. The computer implemented method as in claim 1, wherein

associating at least one of the selected ones of said first plurality of program objects to form a second application program, the second application program providing a second telephony service, the first telephony service different than the second telephony service.

12. The computer implemented method as in claim 11, wherein associating at least one of the selected ones of said first plurality of program objects to form the second application program includes:

sharing a respective single instance of a selected program object, of said first plurality of program objects, between the first telephony service and the second telephony service.

13. The computer implemented method as in claim 12, wherein sharing the respective single instance of the selected program object includes:

receiving at least one update of the respective single instance of the selected program object, the at least one update comprising a bug fix; and

implementing the at least one update in the first telephony service and the second telephony via the particular single instance of selected program object.

14. The computer implemented method as in claim 13, wherein receiving the at least one update includes:

receiving a fix to an instance of an audio mix operation shared between an implementation of the first telephony service and an implementation of the second telephony service.

15. The computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein the first telephony service comprises an audio conferencing application and the second telephony service comprises a call recording application.

16. A system comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

a communications interface;

an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;

defining a multiple object hierarchy for providing an open application environment;

providing, in said open application environment, a first plurality of program objects associated with a first object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

providing, in said open application environment, a second plurality of program objects associated with a second object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

associating selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects to form an application program, wherein the application program provides a first telephony service, wherein said second plurality of program objects comprise infrastructure objects providing foundational element blocks embodying protocol specific functions of services provided by said application program;

wherein said associated selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects comprises;

providing an application framework having a plurality of utilities facilitating interaction between said selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and said selected ones of said second plurality of program objects; and

passing object function information with respect to at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects to an object life management utility of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said multiple object hierarchy comprises:

a business object level;

a service object level; and

an infrastructure object level, wherein the multiple object hierarchy is defined with respect to a session initiation protocol (SIP) container, wherein the application framework is operable with respect to said SIP container and comprises a plurality of utilities facilitating interaction between objects of said object hierarchy.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said application framework comprises at least one of:

an object registry, an object life management utility, an external event routing utility, a session coordination utility, a resource marshalling utility and a security utility.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein a business object of said business object level defines an application program operable in said SIP container by combining a plurality of service objects of said service object level.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein said service objects are exported directly to a web services infrastructure for orchestration into logical applications formed at a web services infrastructure layer of a service provider application infrastructure.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions encoded thereon operable on a computerized device to perform processing comprising at least one instruction for:

defining a multiple object hierarchy for providing an open application environment;

providing, in said open application environment, a first plurality of program objects associated with a first object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

providing, in said open application environment, a second plurality of program objects associated with a second object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy;

associating selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects to form an application program, wherein the application program provides a first telephony service, wherein said second plurality of program objects comprise infrastructure objects providing foundational element blocks embodying protocol specific functions of services provided by said application program;

wherein said associated selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects comprises;

providing an application framework having a plurality of utilities facilitating interaction between said selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and said selected ones of said second plurality of program objects; and

passing object function information with respect to at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects to an object life management utility of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein said multiple object hierarchy comprises a business object level, a service object level, and an infrastructure object level.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprise business objects, said business objects providing application orchestration to define said application program created by combining objects of said second plurality of program objects.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprises business objects, said business objects providing bridging of services into a web services application infrastructure.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein said first plurality of program objects comprise service objects, said service objects providing service level functions utilizing one or more objects of said second plurality of program objects to fulfill its function.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising at least one instruction for:

providing, in said open application environment, a third plurality of program objects associated with a third object hierarchy level of said multiple object hierarchy.

27. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein said associated selected ones of said first plurality of program objects and selected ones of said second plurality of program objects comprises at least one instruction for:

associating selected ones of said first plurality of program objects, selected ones of said second plurality of program objects, and selected ones of said third plurality of programs objects to form an application program.

28. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising at least one instruction for:

storing information regarding functions performed by objects of at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects in a registry of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.

29. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising at least one instruction for:

storing information regarding external events objects of at least one of said first and second plurality of program objects are to receive notification of in a registry of said application framework upon a corresponding one of said program object being loaded into said open application environment.