Software model skinning

• US 8,930,890 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2006
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Petersen, Peter H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam, Tuan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zheng
• Application Number:
  US11/634,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20080134137A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,954 Days
• US Class Current: 717/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

An apparatus, network and methods for skinning normalized meta-model compliant software models are provided. In one embodiment a set of terminology is derived from a software application. A normalized meta-model compliant software model is derived from the application. A “skin” is derived that uses the terminology of the software application. The skin is then applied to the model. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a general purpose computer comprising:

deriving, with the general purpose computer including a processor, a software model from a software application, the software model conforming to a meta-model and using a first set of terminology for interacting with the software model, the software model capturing a schema of a repository associated with the software application and modeling data bindings to reference the captured schema, and wherein the software application is an enterprise resource planning application;

obtaining a second set of terminology specific to the software application;

deriving a skin for the software model using the second set of terminology specific to the software application by mapping the first set of terminology to the second set of terminology;

applying the skin to the software model;

receiving user specific terminology for interacting with the software model;

modifying the second set of terminology of the skin using the user specific terminology, wherein a user interacts with the software model using the modified second set of terminology specific to the software application; and

deriving a customer specific software application from the software application and the skinned software model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the second set of terminology specific to the software application further comprises executing at least one query on the repository associated with the software application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the repository is selected from a group consisting of a database, a spreadsheet, and a data store.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface configured to allow a user to provide the user specific terminology to interact with the software model.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user specific terminology replaces the second set of terminology of the skin.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application comprises a module selected from a group consisting of:

a manufacturing module, a supply chain management module, a financial module, a projects module, a human resources module, a customer relationship management module, and a data warehouse module.

7. A computer software product comprising machine executable instructions stored in a non-transitory storage medium, wherein the machine executable instructions, when executed by a processor of a computer, perform:

deriving a software model from a software application, the software model conforming to a meta-model and using a first set of terminology for interacting with the software model, the software model capturing a schema of a repository associated with the software application and modeling data bindings to reference the captured schema, and wherein the software application is an enterprise resource planning application;

obtaining a second set of terminology specific to the software application;

deriving a skin for the software model using the second set of terminology specific to the software application by mapping the first set of terminology to the second set of terminology;

applying the skin to the software model;

receiving user specific terminology for interacting with the software model;

modifying the second set of terminology of the skin using the user specific terminology, wherein a user interacts with the software model using the modified second set of terminology specific to the software application; and

deriving a customer specific software application from the software application and the skinned software model.

8. The computer software product of claim 7, wherein the second set of terminology specific to the software application is extracted from the software application by executing at least one query on the repository associated with the software application.

9. The computer software product of claim 8, wherein the repository is selected from a group consisting of a database, a spreadsheet, and a data store.

10. The computer software product of claim 7, further comprising a user interface configured to allow a user to provide the user specific terminology to interact with the software model.

11. The computer software product of claim 10, wherein the user specific terminology replaces the second set of terminology of the skin.

12. The computer software product of claim 7, wherein the software application comprises a module selected from a group consisting of:

a manufacturing module, a supply chain management module, a financial module, a projects module, a human resources module, a customer relationship management module, and a data warehouse module.

13. A computing apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a storage media, the storage media containing processor executable software, wherein the processor executable software when executed by the processor performs;

deriving, with the general purpose computer including a processor, a software model from a software application, the software model conforming to a meta-model and using a first set of terminology for interacting with the software model, the software model capturing a schema of a repository associated with the software application and modeling data bindings to reference the captured schema, and wherein the software application is an enterprise resource planning application;

obtaining a second set of terminology specific to the software application;

deriving a skin for the software model using the second set of terminology specific to the software application by mapping the first set of terminology to the second set of terminology;

applying the skin to the software model;

receiving user specific terminology for interacting with the software model;

modifying the second set of terminology of the skin using the user specific terminology, wherein a user interacts with the software model using the modified second set of terminology specific to the software application; and

deriving a customer specific software application from the software application and the skinned software model.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second set of terminology is extracted from the software application by executing at least one query on the repository of the software application.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 14, wherein the repository is selected from a group consisting of a database, a spreadsheet, and a data store.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a user interface configured to allow a user to provide the user specific terminology to interact with the software model.

17. The computing apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user specific terminology replaces the second set of terminology of the skin.

18. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the software application comprises a module selected from a group consisting of:

a manufacturing module, a supply chain management module, a financial module, a projects module, a human resources module, a customer relationship management module, and a data warehouse module.

19. A communication network comprising:

a server connected to a communication medium; and

a client device connected to the communication medium;

the client device configured to execute a customer specific software application,

the customer specific software application derived from a software application and a software model,

the software model conforming to a meta-model, being derived from the software application, and using a first set of terminology for interacting with the software model, the software model capturing a schema of a repository associated with the software application and modeling data bindings to reference the captured schema, and wherein the software application is an enterprise resource planning application, and

the software model further comprising a skin, and wherein the skin is derived by;

obtaining a second set of terminology specific to the software application to allow interacting with the software model using the second set of terminology specific to the software application;

deriving the skin for the software model using the second set of terminology specific to the software application by mapping the first set of terminology to the second set of terminology;

applying the skin to the software model;

receiving user specific terminology for interacting with the software model; and

modifying the second set of terminology of the skin using the user specific terminology, wherein a user interacts with the software model using the modified second set of terminology specific to the software application.

20. The communication network of claim 19, wherein the second set of terminology is extracted from the software application by executing at least one query on the repository associated with the software application.

21. The communication network of claim 20, wherein the repository is selected from a group consisting of a database, a spreadsheet, and a data store.

22. The communication network of claim 20, wherein the repository resides on the server.

23. The communication network of claim 19, wherein the client is further configured to provide a user interface that is configured to allow a user to provide the user specific terminology to interact with the software model.

24. The communication network of claim 23, wherein the user specific terminology replaces the second set of terminology of the skin.

25. The communication network of claim 19, wherein the software application comprises a module selected from a group consisting of:

a manufacturing module, a supply chain management module, a financial module, a projects module, a human resources module, a customer relationship management module, and a data warehouse module.