Configuring integration capabilities for system integration

• US 8,739,124 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2012
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Ritter, Daniel, Holzleitner, Manuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivera, Anibal
• Application Number:
  US13/534,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20140007051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

Configuring integration capabilities includes: receiving a configuration stencil that is a configuration artifact of a message flow, the configuration stencil comprising at least one configuration point, the configuration point currently having no assigned value, and at least one constraint for the configuration point, the constraint being a rule or type for a value to be assigned to the configuration point; receiving, using one or more processors, input comprising at least one configuration point value for the configuration point, the configuration point value having been selected based on first and second systems to be integrated using the message flow; determining whether the received configuration point value violates the constraint and if so requesting another configuration point value from the input; and generating a configuration stencil instance based on the configuration stencil and the input, the configuration stencil instance representing the message flow in an integration of the first and second systems.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for configuring integration capabilities for system integration, the method comprising:

receiving, using one or more processors, a configuration stencil that is a configuration artifact of a message flow, the configuration stencil comprising at least one configuration point, the configuration point currently having no assigned value, and at least one constraint for the configuration point, the constraint being a rule or type for a value to be assigned to the configuration point;

receiving, using one or more processors, input comprising at least one configuration point value for the configuration point, the configuration point value having been selected based on first and second systems to be integrated using the message flow;

determining whether the received configuration point value violates the constraint and if so requesting another configuration point value from the input; and

generating a configuration stencil instance based on the configuration stencil and the input, the configuration stencil instance representing the message flow in an integration of the first and second systems.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating the configuration stencil from one or more existing routes.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein generating the configuration stencil comprises

pre-processing the one or more existing routes;

identifying integration artifacts and content;

deriving the at least one constraint from the identified content;

identify and parse the at least one configuration point;

performing analysis and apply the at least one constraint; and

replacing one or more concrete values with the at least one configuration point and deploy the configuration stencil.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising performing lifecycle management of the configuration stencil including versioning.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,

wherein the configuration stencil provides for monitoring of the message flow;

wherein the configuration stencil corresponds to a design-time model in which one configuration stencil node defines one or more configuration point nodes, the design-time model providing for the configuration point node to be connected to a configuration constraint node;

wherein a monitoring point node is connected to the configuration stencil node in the design-time model, the monitoring point node having a monitoring point specification;

wherein the configuration stencil instance corresponds to a runtime model in which a stencil instance node is an instance of the configuration stencil node, a configuration point value node is a value for the configuration point node, the runtime model providing for the configuration point value node to be connected to a configuration point type value node; and

wherein a monitoring point value node is a value for the monitoring point node, and a monitoring point query node is a value for the monitoring point specification.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first system is a sales system and the second system is a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and wherein the configuration stencil instance configures the message flow for a business partner object in the CRM system and another configuration stencil instance generated from the configuration stencil configures a business partner relationship object in the CRM system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical user interface that identifies the configuration stencil, provides a first input control for generating one or more new configuration stencil instances, and provides at least a second input control for managing a lifecycle of the generated new configuration stencil instance.

8. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method comprising:

receiving, using one or more processors, a configuration stencil that is a configuration artifact of a message flow, the configuration stencil comprising at least one configuration point, the configuration point currently having no assigned value, and at least one constraint for the configuration point, the constraint being a rule or type for a value to be assigned to the configuration point;

receiving, using one or more processors, input comprising at least one configuration point value for the configuration point, the configuration point value having been selected based on first and second systems to be integrated using the message flow;

determining whether the received configuration point value violates the constraint and if so requesting another configuration point value from the input; and

generating a configuration stencil instance based on the configuration stencil and the input, the configuration stencil instance representing the message flow in an integration of the first and second systems.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising generating the configuration stencil from one or more existing routes.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein generating the configuration stencil comprises

pre-processing the one or more existing routes;

identifying integration artifacts and content;

deriving the at least one constraint from the identified content;

identify and parse the at least one configuration point;

performing analysis and apply the at least one constraint; and

replacing one or more concrete values with the at least one configuration point and deploy the configuration stencil.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising performing lifecycle management of the configuration stencil including versioning.

12. The computer program product of claim 8,

wherein the configuration stencil provides for monitoring of the message flow;

wherein the configuration stencil corresponds to a design-time model in which one configuration stencil node defines one or more configuration point nodes, the design-time model providing for the configuration point node to be connected to a configuration constraint node;

wherein a monitoring point node is connected to the configuration stencil node in the design-time model, the monitoring point node having a monitoring point specification;

wherein the configuration stencil instance corresponds to a runtime model in which a stencil instance node is an instance of the configuration stencil node, a configuration point value node is a value for the configuration point node, the runtime model providing for the configuration point value node to be connected to a configuration point type value node; and

wherein a monitoring point value node is a value for the monitoring point node, and a monitoring point query node is a value for the monitoring point specification.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first system is a sales system and the second system is a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and wherein the configuration stencil instance configures the message flow for a business partner object in the CRM system and another configuration stencil instance generated from the configuration stencil configures a business partner relationship object in the CRM system.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising providing a graphical user interface that identifies the configuration stencil, provides a first input control for generating one or more new configuration stencil instances, and provides at least a second input control for managing a lifecycle of the generated new configuration stencil instance.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method comprising;

receiving, using one or more processors, a configuration stencil that is a configuration artifact of a message flow, the configuration stencil comprising at least one configuration point, the configuration point currently having no assigned value, and at least one constraint for the configuration point, the constraint being a rule or type for a value to be assigned to the configuration point;

receiving, using one or more processors, input comprising at least one configuration point value for the configuration point, the configuration point value having been selected based on first and second systems to be integrated using the message flow;

determining whether the received configuration point value violates the constraint and if so requesting another configuration point value from the input; and

generating a configuration stencil instance based on the configuration stencil and the input, the configuration stencil instance representing the message flow in an integration of the first and second systems.

16. The system of claim 15, the method further comprising generating the configuration stencil from one or more existing routes.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein generating the configuration stencil comprises

pre-processing the one or more existing routes;

identifying integration artifacts and content;

deriving the at least one constraint from the identified content;

identify and parse the at least one configuration point;

performing analysis and apply the at least one constraint; and

replacing one or more concrete values with the at least one configuration point and deploy the configuration stencil.

18. The system of claim 15,

wherein the configuration stencil provides for monitoring of the message flow;

wherein the configuration stencil corresponds to a design-time model in which one configuration stencil node defines one or more configuration point nodes, the design-time model providing for the configuration point node to be connected to a configuration constraint node;

wherein a monitoring point node is connected to the configuration stencil node in the design-time model, the monitoring point node having a monitoring point specification;

wherein the configuration stencil instance corresponds to a runtime model in which a stencil instance node is an instance of the configuration stencil node, a configuration point value node is a value for the configuration point node, the runtime model providing for the configuration point value node to be connected to a configuration point type value node; and

wherein a monitoring point value node is a value for the monitoring point node, and a monitoring point query node is a value for the monitoring point specification.

19. The system of claim 15, the method wherein the first system is a sales system and the second system is a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and wherein the configuration stencil instance configures the message flow for a business partner object in the CRM system and another configuration stencil instance generated from the configuration stencil configures a business partner relationship object in the CRM system.

20. The system of claim 15, the method further comprising providing a graphical user interface that identifies the configuration stencil, provides a first input control for generating one or more new configuration stencil instances, and provides at least a second input control for managing a lifecycle of the generated new configuration stencil instance.