Active business client

• US 8,127,237 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2008
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Beringer, Joerg
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHANTANA ANGKOOL, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US12/033,361
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• Field of Search: 715/762, 719/328, 717/100
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses enable generation of and consumption of business context data. A server generates business context data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario. The business context data is not specific to any particular UI capability of the client device, and may include little or no UI information. The server transmits the business context data to a client device that has an active client. The active client identifies one or more UI capabilities of the client device and generates a UI component based on the business scenario and the UI capabilities. The UI component enables functionality in the client device related to execution of the actionable context data. In one embodiment, the active client enables predictive deployment of services on the client device based on an understanding of the business scenario.

Claims

1. A method in a client device comprising:

receiving, at a client device from a server, business context data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario, the business context data including an instance of at least one data object, the instance generated from a model of the data object and enriched with metadata identifying the business scenario, the business scenario providing an end business purpose for a work action, the business context data not specific to a particular user interface (UI) type, without model or pattern information in the business context data,

wherein the resource includes a functional resource used to perform the work action,

wherein the view includes a metadata definition of a generic presentation form to be processed to render the business context data in a UI,

wherein the actionable context data includes interactive content to perform the work action and cause an action at the server, and

wherein the UI type includes interface hardware and associated drivers;

identifying user interface capabilities of the client device, including determining a UI component to generate to represent a portion of the business context data, the UI component having graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the business context data; and

generating the UI component based on the business scenario and based on the identified UI capabilities available on the client device and a data processing control layer at the client device, the component being specific to the UI type available on the client device, the UI component enabling functionality related to the actionable context data on the client device in a format supported by the UI type available on the client device, where an operation on the instance of the business context data is to cause the operation to be applied to the data at the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the business context data that describes the resource comprises:

receiving business context data that describes one or more of a business object, a document, a form, a report, or an identified individual.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the business context data that describes the view comprises:

receiving business context data that describes one or more of a data layout, an association of a graphic with a function, or a text field to display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the business context data that describes the actionable context data comprises:

receiving business context data that describes an activity of a workflow.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the business context data related to the business scenario comprises:

receiving a description of the business scenario as metadata associated with the data describing the resource, the view, and the actionable context data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the business context data comprises:

receiving data of a model layer of a model-view-controller (MVC) architecture; and

wherein identifying the user interface capabilities of the client device and generating the UI component comprise;

implementing the controller and view layers of the MAX architecture.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a request for a contextual action based on a context of the business context data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

predictively deploying a service based on detecting a disconnect condition.

9. An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable storage medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions, which when executed cause a machine to perform operations including:

receiving, at a client device from a server, business conext data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario, the business context data including an instance of at least one data object, the instance generated from a model of the data object and enriched with metadata identifying the business scenario, the business scenario providing an end business purpose for a work action, the business context data not specific to a particular user interface (UI) type, without model or pattern information in the business context data,

wherein the resource includes a functional resource used to perform the work action,

wherein the view includes a metadata definition of a generic presentation form to be processed to render the business context data in a UI,

wherein the actionable context data includes interactive content to perform the work action and cause an action at the server, and

wherein the UI type includes interface hardware and associated drivers;

identifying user interface capabilities of the client device, including determining a UI component to generate to represent a portion of the business context data, the UI component having graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the business context data; and

generating the UI component based on the business scenario and based on the identified UI capabilities available on the client device and a data processing control layer at the client device, the component being specific to the UI type available on the client device, the UI component enabling functionality related to the actionable context data on the client device in a format supported by the UI type available on the client device, where an operation on the instance of the business context data is to cause the operation to be applied to the data at the server.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the content to provide instructions for receiving the business context data that describes the resource comprises content to provide instructions for

receiving business context data that describes one or more of a business object, a document, a form, a report, or an identified individual.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the content to provide instructions for receiving the business context data that describes the actionable context data comprises content to provide instructions for

receiving business context data that describes an activity of a workflow.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the content to provide instructions for receiving the business context data comprises content to provide instructions for

receiving a meta object having an aggregation of data elements from multiple backend systems.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the content to provide instructions for receiving the meta object having the aggregation of data elements from multiple backend systems further comprises content to provide instructions for receiving the meta object having a bound data component, where the binding links the data component to one of the multiple backend systems.

14. A client device comprising:

network interface hardware to connect to a server that provides a business context data stream; and

an active business client to receive from the server over the network interface hardware a data stream having business context data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario, the business context data including an instance of at least one data object, the instance generated from a model of the data object and enriched with metadata identifying the business scenario, the business scenario providing an end business purpose for a work action, the business context data not specific to a particular user interface (UI) type, without UI model or UI pattern information in the business context data,

wherein the resource includes a functional resource used to perform the work action,

wherein the view includes a metadata definition of a generic presentation form to be processed to render the business context data in a UI,

wherein the actionable context data includes interactive content to perform the work action and cause an action at the server, and

wherein the UI type includes interface hardware and associated drivers; and

the active business client having

a controller layer at the mobile client device to process the business context data, including to identify user interface capabilities of the client device, including determine a UI component to generate to represent a portion of the business context data, the UI component having graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the business context data; and

a view layer to generate the UI component based on the business scenario and based on the identified UI capabilities available on the client device and a data processing control layer at the client device, the component being specific to the UI type available on the client device, and to render the UI component in a UI to enable functionality related to the actionable context data on the client device in a format supported by the UI type available on the client device, where an operation on the instance of the business context data is to cause the operation to be applied to the data at the server.

15. The client device of claim 14, the active business client to further determine whether to make a task of the actionable context data available on the client device.

16. The client device of claim 15, the active business client to selectively access one or more services based on whether the task is made available on the client device.

17. A method in a server, comprising:

generating business context data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario, the business context data including an instance of at least one data object, the instance generated from a model of the data object and enriched with metadata identifying the business scenario, the business scenario providing an end business purpose for a work action, the business context data not specific to any particular user interface (UI) capability or UI type of a client device, without UI model or UI pattern information in the business context data,

wherein the resource includes a functional resource used to perform the work action,

wherein the view includes a metadata definition of a generic presentation form to be processed to render the business context data in a UI,

wherein the actionable context data includes interactive content to perform the work action and cause an action at the server, and

wherein the UI type includes interface hardware and associated drivers; and

transmitting to the client device the business context data, the client device having a business client that identifies UI capabilities of the client device and generates UI component based on the business scenario and the UI capabilities, including generating a graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the meta object for the a specific UI type for the computing device, to render the view on the business context data from the generic presentation form to a format supported by the UI type, where an operation on the instance of the business context data is to cause the operation to be applied to the data at the server.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the business context data comprises:

generating data of a model layer of a model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, wherein the view and controller layers are implemented by the client device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the business context data further comprises:

annotating an action associated with the actionable context data to indicate what resources and capabilities are necessary to execute the action.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the business context data further comprises:

accessing data components from multiple backend systems.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein generating the business context data further comprises:

accessing a meta object model that includes mapping rules to determine how to generate an instance of a composite meta object from components accessed from the multiple backend systems.

22. An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable storage medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions, which when executed cause a machine to perform operations including:

generating business context data that describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data related to a business scenario, the business context data including an instance of at least one data object, the instance generated from a model of the data object and enriched with metadata identifying the business scenario, the business scenario providing an end business purpose for a work action, the business context data not specific to any particular user interface (UI) capability or UI type of a client device, without UI model or UI pattern information in the business context data,

wherein the resource includes a functional resource used to perform the work action,

wherein the view includes a metadata definition of a generic presentation form to be processed to render the business context data in a

wherein the actionable context data includes interactive content to perform the work action and cause an action at the server, and

wherein the type includes interface hardware and associated drivers; and

transmitting to the client device the business context data, the client device having a business client that identifies UI capabilities of the client device and generates UI component based on the business scenario and the capabilities, including generating a graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the meta object for the a specific UI type for the computing device, to render the view on the business context data from the generic presentation form to a format supported by the UI type, where an operation on the instance of the business context data is to cause the operation to be applied to the data at the server.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22, wherein the content to provide instructions for generating the business context data further comprises content to provide instructions for

generating a metadata description of the business scenario;

and

including the metadata description in the business context data.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 22, wherein the content to provide instructions for generating the business context data comprises content to provide instructions for

generating a mashup composite data object having data components from multiple backend systems.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 24, wherein the content to provide instructions for transmitting the business context data comprises:

sending an updated data component to replace one of the data components to reflect a change of the data component in its respective backend system.