Model-based integration of business logic implemented in enterprise javabeans into a UI framework

• US 8,281,283 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2007
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Speth, Florian, Bender, Lothar, Loos, Christian, Joshi, Dhawal, Rajshree, Nidhi, Mitrov, Vesselin, Gerginov, Georgi, Ivanova, Aleksandrina
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEN, XI DONALD
• Application Number:
  US11/855,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,846 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for integrating business logic implemented in Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) into a user interface framework are disclosed. A design-time environment includes an analyzer that analyzes selected EJBs and generates a model representation of the selected EJBs, and further includes a metadata provider to provide additional metadata to the model representation. A runtime environment has a generic model component to access the selected EJBs based on their model representation, and executes the selected EJBs in the user interface framework.

Claims

1. A method executed by one or more processors, the method comprising:

calling, during runtime by a model-oriented application at an application server, a first Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) that was imported into the model-oriented application at design time, the first EJB having a model representation that was created and persisted, along with additional metadata of the modeled EJB, at design time, the model representation of the EJB having been declaratively bound to a user interface of the application, and typed classes having been generated at design time to provide access to the modeled EJB from application code;

accessing, during runtime by the model-oriented application at an application server, a second EJB, the second EJB having been deployed but not imported into the model-oriented application during design time, the second EJB having been at least one of modified and extended relative to an originally imported EJB, a generic model component providing dynamic access to the second EJB during runtime;

detecting, by the generic model component at runtime, at least one new field of the second EJB, the at least one new field being added as part of the modification or extension to the second EJB;

adding, by the generic model component at runtime, the at least one new field to a table of metadata provided by a metadata provider, the metadata provider providing adaptability, field labels, and field lengths for types used by the second EJB; and

consuming, by the model-oriented application at runtime, the second EJB without re- importing or re-compiling the second EJB.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the model representation of the first EJB is generated in a design-time environment for the application.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the additional metadata includes a maximum field length, label texts, and information about cardinality on associations to enable validation checks.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising providing the first EJB for being browsed by a developer.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising generating typed model class files based on generic model components for the first EJB.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the typed model class files use the generic model component to access the first EJB.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying computer program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

calling, during runtime by a model-oriented application at an application server, a first Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) that was imported into the model-oriented application at design time, the first EJB having a model representation that was created and persisted, along with additional metadata of the modeled EJB, at design time, the model representation of the EJB having been declaratively bound to a user interface of the application, and typed classes having been generated at design time to provide access to the modeled EJB from application code;

accessing, during runtime by the model-oriented application at an application server, a second EJB, the second EJB having been deployed but not imported into the model-oriented application during design time, the second EJB having been at least one of modified and extended relative to an originally imported EJB, a generic model component providing dynamic access to the second EJB during runtime;

detecting, by the generic model component at runtime, at least one new field of the second EJB, the at least one new field being added as part of the modification or extension to the second EJB;

adding, by the generic model component at runtime, the at least one new field to a table of metadata provided by a metadata provider, the metadata provider providing adaptability, field labels, and field lengths for types used by the second EJB; and

consuming, by the model-oriented application at runtime, the second EJB without re-importing or re-compiling the second EJB.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium in accordance with claim 7, wherein the additional metadata includes a maximum field length, label texts, and information about cardinality on associations to enable validation checks.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium in accordance with claim 8, further comprising generating typed model class files based on the model representation of the first EJB.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium in accordance with claim 7, wherein the typed classes use the generic model component to access the first EJB.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium in accordance with claim 7, wherein the additional metadata refers to metadata other than EJB metadata, the additional metadata comprising type constraints including maximum field length, label texts that are displayed in an online form or table view, and information about cardinality on associations to enable validation checks.

12. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

calling, during runtime by a model-oriented application at an application server, a first Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) that was imported into the model-oriented application at design time, the first EJB having a model representation that was created and persisted, along with additional metadata of the modeled EJB, at design time, the model representation of the EJB having been declaratively bound to a user interface of the application, and typed classes having been generated at design time to provide access to the modeled EJB from application code;

accessing, during runtime by the model-oriented application at an application server, a second EJB, the second EJB having been deployed but not imported into the model-oriented application during design time, the second EJB having been at least one of modified and extended relative to an originally imported EJB, a generic model component providing dynamic access to the second EJB during runtime;

detecting, by the generic model component at runtime, at least one new field of the second EJB, the at least one new field being added as part of the modification or extension to the second EJB;

adding, by the generic model component at runtime, the at least one new field to a table of metadata provided by a metadata provider, the metadata provider providing adaptability, field labels, and field lengths for types used by the second EJB; and

consuming, by the model-oriented application at runtime, the second EJB without re- importing or re-compiling the second EJB.

13. A system in accordance with claim 12, wherein a design-time environment includes a code generator that generates typed model class files on top of the generic model components of the runtime environment.