Method of extensible business object modeling and generation of system artifacts from the models

• US 8,762,934 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2010
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Serghei Sarafudinov
• Original Assignee: Serghei Sarafudinov
• Inventors: Sarafudinov, Serghei
• Primary Examiner(s): COYER, RYAN D
• Application Number:
  US12/906,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20120096426A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,348 Days
• Field of Search: 717/104
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven

Abstract

A method for defining XML-based models of logical type hierarchies, business objects and sub-objects, business object operations, enumerations and reusable structures and field-sets. The method defines an optimal, yet extensible, structure of the object models to simplify the modeling process by capturing the most essential elements of the model and inferring any additional information, such as relationship between objects, during the process of generating code, database scripts or other system artifacts from the model. Methods of generating a relational model and a presentation data model from such a business object model.

Claims

1. A method of defining a business object model comprising:

defining a plurality of named logical types, field-sets, business objects and sub-objects, structures and enumerations that are referenced in the model by their names, wherein defining the business objects further comprises listing the plurality of their fields, each field having a type attribute referencing a logical type defined in the model, and field-sets, each field-set referencing a corresponding field-set defined in the model and the plurality of business object operations and sub-objects;

wherein defining business objects and sub-objects further comprises marking a single field or a field-set with a key attribute, which indicates that the key is serial (for fields only), or is user-supplied, or is a reference to another object'"'"'s key attribute; and

wherein no two objects can both have their key fields marked as serial or marked as user-supplied with the same logical types, and wherein no two objects can both have their key field-sets marked as user-supplied and as referencing the same field-set defined in the business object model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining each logical type further comprises specifying extensible mappings to a plurality of other platform-specific types or entities associated with the logical type including, but not limited to, database column types, programming language types, user interface control types and logical types for other kinds of models.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining logical types further comprises specifying a base type referencing another logical type defined in the model where applicable, wherein any configurations or mappings that are not specified in the current logical type, are considered as inherited from its base type or any of the base types thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining logical types further comprises specifying a reference to an existing enumeration defined in the model, where applicable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining field-sets further comprises listing the plurality of their fields, each field having a type attribute referencing a logical type defined in the model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein defining structures further comprises listing the plurality of:

parameters, each parameter having a type attribute referencing a logical type defined in the model, and a flag specifying if it is a scalar value or a list values;

contained structures, wherein each contained structure either references a corresponding structure defined in the model or is defined in-line; and

any additional extensible configuration including, but not limited to, references to presentation objects that this structure is a part of.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein defining each field of a business object or a field-set further comprises specifying additional extensible configuration for the field including, but not limited to, a mapping to a corresponding database column and a foreign key behavior where applicable.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein defining enumerations further comprises

defining additional properties that each enumeration item may have;

listing the enumeration items; and

specifying the property values for the items, each property being one of the properties defined for the current enumeration.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein defining operations for business objects and sub-objects further comprises defining their input and output structures where applicable, which comprises listing the plurality of:

parameters, each parameter having a type attribute referencing a logical type defined in the model, and a flag specifying if it is a scalar value or a list values;

contained structures, wherein each contained structure either references a corresponding structure defined in the model or is defined in-line; and

any additional extensible configuration including, but not limited to, references to presentation objects that this structure is a part of.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein defining business objects and sub-objects further comprises specifying additional extensible configuration for the objects including, but not limited to, mappings to corresponding database tables and custom service attributes where applicable.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a relational model from the business object model by generating a plurality of table definitions and foreign key constraints between the said tables.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the plurality of table definitions further comprises generating the primary keys for said tables, wherein the primary keys are based on the corresponding object fields or field-sets that are marked with a key attribute and also include the primary key of the parent object if the table is based on a sub-object that has a non-serial key.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the plurality of foreign key constraints further comprises using a field type to find an object with a key field of the same type or any of base types thereof, that object providing the referenced table definition for the foreign key constraint.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the plurality of foreign key constraints further comprises using objects'"'"' contained field-sets to find an object with a key field-set referencing the same field-set defined in the business object model, that object providing the referenced table definition for the foreign key constraint.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein generated table names are based on additional configuration for the corresponding object or on the object fully qualified name if no such configuration is provided and generated column names are based on additional configuration for the corresponding object field or on the field name if no such configuration is provided.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a presentation data model from business object model by generating a plurality of presentation objects based on a plurality of structures defined in the business object model.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating the plurality of presentation objects further comprises building a plurality of properties for each presentation object, the plurality of properties based on parameters of the plurality of business object model structures that are either part of input/output structures of business object operations or part of standalone structures defined in the business object model, wherein each of the plurality of structures is configured to be a part of the current presentation object.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein parameters that have the same name result in a generation of a single presentation object property as long as their types are the same;

otherwise an error is reported.