Automatically generating rest clients from rest resources

• US 8,375,358 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2008
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Baldwin, Jennifer E., El-Haddad, Elijah, Galeteanu, Mihnea, Xu, Han, Ball, Jonathan D. E., Baptiste, Giselle Jean, Giffen, Randolph P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Paulino, Lenin
• Application Number:
  US12/022,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,840 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for creating REST clients using existing REST export information. The invention can provide a wizard able to dynamically generate REST client code. The REST client code can include source code, such as HTML and JAVA SCRIPT starting points that can be further configured by the REST client code recipient. In one embodiment, the automatically created REST client can be a GUI client able to be rendered within a browser. The REST client can include one or more sections, each associated with a particular REST resource. Each resource specific section can include fields for specifying values of each resource parameter. Suitable GUI controls can be associated with each of the fields such as using a checkbox for a Boolean field and a drop down list for an enumerated field.

Claims

1. A computer program product for interacting with a Representational State Transfer (REST) resource comprising a non-transitory machine readable media:

having embodied therewith a set of programmatic instructions executable by at least one computing device, wherein said set of programmatic instructions are configured to dynamically generate a graphical REST client given a REST resource, wherein said REST client comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service with which the REST client interacts, said output section including an extension point that is able to be associated with a defined type of data and a handler for that type of data, said handler determining a manner in which the results are to be displayed, wherein an HTML portion of the REST client defines graphical elements for accepting user input, which is able to be submitted to a REST service associated with the REST client, and wherein scripting language source code defines code for presenting output resulting from the REST service.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said set of programmatic instructions are part of a server-side program.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said REST client comprises a field and an input element for each parameter of the REST resource and comprises an interface submission control, wherein a selection of the interface submission control causes user provided values entered into the input elements to be submitted to a remotely located REST resource.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein at least one input element of the REST client includes a user selectable list of enumerated elements defined within the REST resource.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said REST client comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service with which the REST client interacts, wherein said output section comprises a graphical tree structure for presenting XML formatted results.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said graphical REST client comprise the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and the scripting language source code, which is object-based, client side code.

7. A method for generating software that interacts with a Representational State Transfer (REST) based resource comprising:

a REST resource that exposes functionality of a Web service;

receiving a request for an interface to remotely interact with the REST resource;

responsive to the received request, detecting at least one input parameter for the REST resource;

dynamically building source code for a user interface for remotely interacting with the REST resource, said source code defining at least one input element and comprises an interface submission control, wherein a selection of the interface submission control causes user provided values entered into the input element to be submitted to the REST resource; and

conveying the built source code to a remotely located computing device from which the request originated, wherein the built source code is for a REST client, wherein said REST client comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service with which the REST client interacts, said output section including an extension point that is able to be associated with a defined type of data and a handler for that type of data, said handler determining a manner in which the results are to be displayed, wherein an HTML portion of the REST client defines graphical elements for accepting user input, which is able to be submitted to a REST service associated with the REST client, and wherein scripting language source code defines, code for presenting output resulting from the REST service.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said identifying, receiving, detecting, building, and conveying steps are performed by a server-side computing device in accordance with executed programmatic instructions that are digitally encoded in a storage medium readable by the server-side computing device, and wherein the request is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request conveyed to the server-side computing device from a remotely located device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user interface is a graphical interface renderable within a Web browser.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

storing the built source code in a digitally encoded form of a computer readable medium accessible by a Web server;

associating a URL with the built source code; and

permitting access to the built source code from a client side Web browser through the URL and the Web server.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

after the conveying step, modifying the built source code; and

uploading the modified source code to the computer readable medium during the storing step.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the user interface is an interface of a Rich Internet Application (RIA).

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the built source code comprises HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and object-based, client side scripting language source code.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said HTML portion of the REST client defines graphical elements for accepting user input, which is able to be submitted to a Web service associated with the REST resource, and wherein said scripting language source code defines code for presenting output resulting from the Web service.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein said user interface comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service, wherein said output section comprises a graphical tree structure for presenting XML formatted results.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein said steps of claim 7 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

17. A method of obtaining a dynamically generated Representational State Transfer (REST) client comprising:

submitting a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to a server, a said submitted request specifying a Web service exposed through a REST resource, wherein said server is configured to dynamically generate a REST client for interacting with the Web service upon receiving the request; and

responsive to the submitted request, receiving source code for the REST client from the server, wherein said REST client comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service with which the REST client interacts, said output section including an extension point that is able to be associated with a defined type of data and a handler for that type of data, said handler determining a manner in which the results are to be displayed, wherein an HTML portion of the REST client defines graphical elements for accepting user input, which is able to be submitted to a REST service associated with the REST client, and wherein scripting language source code defines code for presenting output resulting from the REST service.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said source code is renderable within a Web browser as a HTML form configured to interact with the Web service.

19. A system for interacting with a Representational State Transfer (REST) resource comprising:

a bus;

a memory connected to the bus, wherein the memory contains a set of instructions; and

a processor connected to the bus, wherein the processor is operable to execute the instructions to dynamically generate a graphical REST client given a REST resource, wherein said REST client comprises an output section configured to graphically present results from a REST service with which the REST client interacts, said output section including an extension point that is able to be associated with a defined type of data and a handler for that type of data, said handler determining a manner in which the results are to be displayed, wherein an HTML portion of the REST client defines graphical elements for accepting user input, which is able to be submitted to a REST service associated with the REST client, and wherein scripting language source code defines code for presenting output resulting from the REST service.