Business context data companion tool

• US 8,250,169 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Beringer, Joerg, Tarlin, Eliot
• Primary Examiner(s): Nooristany, Sulaiman
• Application Number:
  US11/956,086
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,713 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses enable rendering business context data in a desktop widget. The business context data describes a resource, a view, and actionable context data that relate to a business scenario. The business context data is processed to determine a UI component to generate to represent the business context data. The component is then generated and rendered in a desktop widget to provide access to the actionable context data on a client device via the desktop widget. An active business client receives and processes the business context data. The active business client can operate as a widget engine for the business context data to enable the rendering of the business context data on the client device.

Claims

1. A method in a client device comprising:

accessing, at the client device, business context data received from a server, the business context data describing 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 type includes interface hardware and associated drivers;

processing the business context data to 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;

generating the UI component based on the business scenario and based on a UI type 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, to render the view on the business context data from the generic presentation form to a format supported by the UI type available on the client device; and

rendering the UI component in a desktop widget to provide access to the actionable context data 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 comprises:

receiving a meta object that includes business objects from multiple different backend systems.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the meta object that includes business objects from multiple different backend systems comprises:

receiving a business object that is bound to its respective backend system.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein rendering the UI component in the desktop widget comprises:

rendering multiple business Objects in the desktop widget to provide access to data and functionality of the multiple business objects.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the UI specific component comprises:

generating one or more of a data layout, a graphic associated with a function, or a text.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the UI specific component and rendering the UI component in the desktop widget further comprise:

generating and rendering a task detail toolbar customized to display details related to a task accessible via the desktop widget.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein generating and rendering the task detail toolbar further comprises:

generating and rendering a transient auxiliary pane to enable the task detail toolbar, the transient auxiliary pane including zero or more activities related to the actionable context data.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein generating and rendering the task detail toolbar further comprises:

generating and rendering a transient auxiliary pane to enable the task Mail toolbar, the transient auxiliary pane including zero or more related persons, including zero or more contacts for specific individuals.

7. The method of claim wherein generating and rendering the task detail toolbar further comprises:

generating and rendering a transient auxiliary pane to enable the task detail toolbar, the transient auxiliary pane including zero or more resources, including zero or more business objects, documents, forms, or reports.

10. An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable storage medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions to cause a machine to perform operations including:

accessing, at a client device, business context data received from a server, the business context data describing 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 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 type includes interface hardware and associated drivers;

processing the business context data to 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;

generating the UI component based on the business scenario and based on a UI type 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, to render the view on the business context data from the generic presentation form to a format supported by the UI type available on the client device; and

rendering the UI component in a desktop widget to provide access to the actionable context data 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.

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

receiving a meta object that includes business objects from multiple different backend systems;

and

wherein the content to provide instructions for rendering the UI component in the desktop widget comprises content to provide instructions for

rendering multiple business objects in the desktop widget to provide access to data and functionality of the multiple business objects.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the content to provide instructions for generating the UI specific component and rendering the UI component in the desktop widget further comprises content to provide instructions for

generating and rendering a task detail toolbar customized to provide access to details of the actionable context data in the desktop widget.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the content to provide instructions for generating and rendering the task detail toolbar further comprises content to provide instructions for

generating and rendering a transient auxiliary pane to enable the task detail toolbar, the transient auxiliary pane switchable between displaying items related to the actionable context data, including resources, activities, or related persons.

14. A mobile client device comprising:

display hardware that supports an interactive graphical user interface (GUI); and

an active business client coupled to the display hardware, to provide a desktop widget operating platform on which to execute a desktop widget, the active business client to access business context data received from a server, the business context data describing 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,

the active business client having

a controller layer at the mobile client device to process the business context data to determine a GUI component to generate to represent the business context data, the GUI component having GUI elements with interfaces to render the view on the business context data; and

a view layer to generate the GUI component based on the business scenario, the GUI component being formatted to the specific GUI for the display hardware and based on a UI type available on the mobile client device and the controller layer, to render the view on the business context data from the generic presentation form to a format supported by the UI type available on the mobile client device, and render the GUI component in a desktop widget, provided on the display to provide access to the actionable context data 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 receive a meta object that includes business objects front multiple different backend systems;

and

the view layer to render multiple business objects in the desktop widget to provide access to data and functionality of the multiple business objects.

16. The client device of claim 14, the view layer to generate and render a task detail toolbar customized to provide access to details of the actionable context data in the desktop widget.

17. The client device of claim 16, the view layer to further generate and render a transient auxiliary pane to enable the task detail toolbar, the transient auxiliary pane switchable between displaying items related to the actionable context data, including resources, activities, or related persons.

18. A method comprising:

providing an active business client to operate as an operating platform for desktop widgets on a computing device, the active business client to access a meta object having data object components from multiple backend enterprise systems, the meta object being business context data received from a server, the business context data describing 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;

receiving a command to initialize a desktop widget on the active business client operating platform;

launching the desktop widget in response to the command; and

rendering the data object components in the desktop widget to provide access to the business context data from the desktop widget based on a UI type available on the computing device and a data processing control layer at the computing device, and provide functionality the desktop widget to enable execution of the actionable context data, including generating a graphical user interface (GUI) elements with interfaces to render the view on the meta object for the 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 specific UI type of the computing 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.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein providing the active business client to receive the meta object that describes the actionable context data comprises:

providing the active business client to receive the meta object describing multiple actionable context data components.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein rendering the data object components in the desktop widget comprises:

rendering a task detail toolbar customized to display details of actionable context data related to the business scenario in the widget.