Interactive container of development components and solutions

• US 8,423,954 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Ronen, Benzi, Avitzur, Aharon, Fisch, Gilat, Zur, Yariv, Naveh, Barak, Ben-Zvi, Elisha
• Primary Examiner(s): Kendall, Chuck O
• Application Number:
  US11/395,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20070234290A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,573 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

Methods, systems, and software for providing or utilizing a software solutions bag of development components and enterprise knowledge—whether developed internally or by third parties—are described herein. One method for managing reusable development components comprises providing a catalog of a plurality of development components to a user. The cataloged development components may include or reference at least a first development component of a first type and a second development component of a second type. A software solutions bag is then generated based on a user selection of at least one of the cataloged development components.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing reusable development components, the method steps performed by at least one processor and comprising:

presenting a listing of a subset of a plurality of development components to a user in response to a request, each development component in the plurality of development components comprising an application- and platform-independent package of reusable granular software for use in a software application process;

receiving, from the user, a selection of at least one of the subset of development components for inclusion in a software solutions bag associated with the user, the solutions bag being one of a plurality of solutions bags, each solutions bag associated with at least one user and comprising a container data object bundling a plurality of user-selected development components from the plurality of development components, the solutions bag interfaced into a third-party application, allowing access, through the third-party application, to development components bundled in the solutions bag; and

adding the at least one selected development components to the software solutions bag.

2. The method of claim 1, at least one of the plurality of development components associated with an enterprise software environment comprising a plurality of composite business applications, at least one of the composite business applications including an object access layer operable to exchange data with base systems of the enterprise software environment and provide a uniform interface for the business application.

6. The method of claim 1, the software solutions bag associated with a project team of the user and the method further comprising presenting the software solutions bag to a second user upon authentication of membership in the project team.

7. The method of claim 1, the user comprising a remote user and the method further comprising receiving the selection from the user via a third party application.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising transmitting the software solutions bag to a second third party application.

9. The method of claim 8, the software solutions bag logically linked with the first third party application via a first channel and logically linked with a second third party application via a second channel.

10. The method of claim 9, the first channel comprising an application programming interface and the second channel comprising a web service.

11. The method of claim 1, the software solutions bag logically storing the selected components and metadata associated with each component.

16. The method of claim 1, the request received through the third-party application.

17. The method of claim 1, the request comprising an indication of a particular solution, the listing of the subset of development components generated to include development components previously identified as relevant to contributing to the particular solution.

18. The method of claim 1, the steps further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a request to simulate operation of a particular development component of the subset of development components; and

simulating operation of the particular development component prior to adding the development component to the solutions bag.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the operation of the particular development component is simulated using reusable sample data.

20. The method of claim 18, the steps further comprising:

receiving a request to customize the particular development component, the request including result data generated by the simulation of the operation of the particular development component;

providing a customized version of the particular development component in response to the request to customize, the customized version including modifications to the particular development component based on the received result data; and

adding the customized version of the particular development component to the software solutions bag.

21. The method of claim 1, the steps further comprising:

receiving, from a user associated with the solutions bag, feedback data pertaining to the at least one development component added to the solutions bag;

restricting access to the feedback data to users associated with the solutions bag.

3. A computer program product comprising instructions encoded on a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, and operable, when executed on a processor, to perform operations comprising:

presenting a listing of a subset of a plurality of development components to a user, in response to a request, each development component in the plurality of development components comprising an application- and platform-independent package of reusable granular software for use in a software application process;

receiving, from the user, a selection of at least one of the subset of development components for inclusion in a software solutions bag associated with the user, the solutions bag being one of a plurality of solutions bags, each solutions bag associated with at least one user and comprising a container data object bundling a plurality of user-selected development components from the plurality of development components, the solutions bag interfaced into a third-party application, allowing access, through the third-party application, to development components bundled in the solutions bag; and

adding the at least one selected development components to the software solutions bag.

4. The product of claim 3, the software solutions object associated with a project team of the user and the software further operable to present parameters of the software solutions object to a second user upon authentication of membership in the project team.

5. The product of claim 3, the user comprising a remote user and the software further operable to receive the selection from the user via a third party application.

12. The product of claim 5 further operable to transmit the software solutions object to a second third party application.

13. The product of claim 12, the software solutions object logically linked with the first third party application via a first channel and logically linked with the second third party application via a second channel.

14. The product of claim 13, the first channel comprising an application programming interface and the second channel comprising a web service.

15. The product of claim 3, the software solutions object logically storing the selected components and metadata associated with each component.