Natural language access to application programming interfaces

• US 9,015,730 B1
• Filed: 12/17/2013
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Corville O., Woods, Eric, Rodriquez, Adrian X., Salmon, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): DORAIS, CRAIG C
• Application Number:
  US14/109,527
• Time in Patent Office: 490 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

Users of online services may avoid having to gain knowledge of the intricacies of specific Application Programming Interface (API) syntaxes and elements by using natural language requests which are processed to extract components of the request. The components are then used to find one or more matches of known APIs, and then at least one structured API call is constructed by mapping the request'"'"'s components to the structured API call'"'"'s elements. The system can then invoke the online service on behalf of the client, and return the results to the client, or it can return the constructed structured API call to the client. The known API details can be initialized and updated by ingesting the description documents for the structured APIs, and then using natural language processing to extract components from the descriptions, which can then be utilized in the matching process to further enhance the results of the tool.

Claims

1. A method for handling a user request for invoking a computer service through an Application Programming Interface, comprising:

receiving by a computer an unstructured request from a client to use or invoke a computer service, wherein the unstructured request comprises natural language (NL) containing one or more NL components;

performing by a computer natural language analysis on the unstructured request to extract one or more of the NL components;

matching by a computer the one or more NL components to one or more elements of at least one Hyper Text Transfer Protocol signature-based structured Application Programming Interface (API), wherein each structured API corresponds to the corresponding computer service, and wherein each API element corresponds to a parameter or argument to invoke the corresponding service;

constructing by a computer a structured API call by mapping the one or more extracted NL components to one or more of the API elements; and

performing by a computer one or more operations selected from the group consisting of submitting the constructed structured API call to a corresponding computer service on behalf of the client, returning the constructed structured API call to the client, and returning a result from an invoked corresponding computer service to the requesting client.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

ingesting one or more API documents describing in natural language one or more structured Application Programming Interfaces and one or more API elements; and

performing natural language analysis on the API documents to extract one or more API elements from the API documents;

wherein the mapping comprises mapping according to the API documents.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein the constructing of a structured Application Programming Interface call further comprises mapping components extracted from the request to API elements according to the elements extracted from the documents.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising, responsive to detecting by a computer that a plurality of APIs match the NL components of the NL request, providing by a computer an interrogatory with the requesting client to obtain further information regarding the unstructured request, and repeating the steps of performing natural language analysis on the unstructured request, extracting NL components, mapping NL components to API elements, constructing a structured API call, and performing one or more operations.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising, responsive to detecting by a computer that a plurality of APIs match the NL components of the NL request, brokering for a structured API by a computer by eliminating one or more matching structured APIs to disqualify one or more APIs according to one or more additional criteria selected from the group consisting of a user profile, a user history of operations, and a context associated with the unstructured request.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the requesting client comprises a user interface to a user of a client device.

7. A computer program product for handling a user request for invoking a computer service comprising:

a computer-readable, memory storage device; and

one or more computer program instructions embodied by the computer-readable, memory storage device, for causing a processor upon execution to perform operations comprising;

receiving by a computer an unstructured request from a client to use or invoke a computer service, wherein the unstructured request comprises natural language (NL) containing one or more NL components;

performing by a computer natural language analysis on the unstructured request to extract one or more of the NL components;

matching by a computer the one or more NL components to one or more elements of at least one Hyper Text Transfer Protocol signature-based structured Application Programming Interface (API), wherein each structured API corresponds to the corresponding computer service, and wherein each API element corresponds to a parameter or argument to invoke the corresponding service;

constructing by a computer a structured API call by mapping the one or more extracted NL components to one or more of the API elements; and

performing by a computer one or more operations selected from the group consisting of submitting the constructed structured API call to a corresponding computer service on behalf of the client, returning the constructed structured API call to the client, and returning a result from an invoked corresponding computer service to the requesting client.

8. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for causing a processor to perform operations including:

ingesting one or more Application Programming Interface documents describing one or more structured Application Programming Interfaces in natural language; and

performing natural language analysis on the documents to extract one or more elements from the Application Programming Interface descriptions;

wherein the matching further comprises matching components of the request to elements of Application Programming Interface descriptions.

9. The computer program product as set forth in claim 8 wherein the constructing of a structured Application Programming Interface call further comprises mapping components extracted from the request to API elements according to the elements extracted from the documents.

10. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for, responsive to the matching being inconclusive or ambiguous, providing an interrogatory with the client to obtain further information regarding the unstructured request, and repeating the steps of performing natural language analysis on the unstructured request, matching components to API elements, constructing a structured Application Programming Interface call by mapping, and performing one or more operations.

11. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for, responsive to the matching being inconclusive or ambiguous, brokering for a structured API by eliminating one or more potential structured API matches using natural language processing to disqualify according to one or more additional criteria selected from the group consisting of a user profile, a user history of operations, and a context associated with the unstructured request.

12. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7 wherein the client comprises a user interface to a user of a client device.

13. A system for handling a user request for invoking a computer service comprising:

a computer processor;

a computer-readable, memory storage device; and

one or more computer program instructions embodied by the computer-readable, memory storage device, for causing the computer processor upon execution to perform operations comprising;

receiving by a computer an unstructured request from a client to use or invoke a computer service, wherein the unstructured request comprises natural language (NL) containing one or more NL components;

performing by a computer natural language analysis on the unstructured request to extract one or more of the NL components;

matching by a computer the one or more NL components to one or more elements of at least one Hyper Text Transfer Protocol signature-based structured Application Programming Interface (API), wherein each structured API corresponds to the corresponding computer service, and wherein each API element corresponds to a parameter or argument to invoke the corresponding service;

constructing by a computer a structured API call by mapping the one or more extracted NL components to one or more of the API elements; and

performing by a computer one or more operations selected from the group consisting of submitting the constructed structured API call to a corresponding computer service on behalf of the client, returning the constructed structured API call to the client, and returning a result from an invoked corresponding computer service to the requesting client.

14. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for causing a processor to perform operations including:

ingesting one or more Application Programming Interface documents describing one or more structured Application Programming Interfaces in natural language; and

performing natural language analysis on the documents to extract one or more elements of the Application Programming Interface descriptions;

wherein the matching further comprises matching components of the request to elements of Application Programming Interface descriptions.

15. The system as set forth in claim 14 wherein the constructing of a structured Application Programming Interface call further comprises mapping components extracted from the request to API elements according to the components extracted from the documents.

16. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for, responsive to the matching being inconclusive or ambiguous, providing an interrogatory with the client to obtain further information regarding the unstructured request, and repeating the steps of performing natural language analysis on the unstructured request, matching components to API elements, constructing a structured Application Programming Interface call by mapping, and performing one or more operations.

17. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the computer program instructions further comprise instructions for, responsive to the matching being inconclusive or ambiguous, brokering for a structured API by eliminating one or more potential structured API matches using natural language processing to disqualify according to one or more additional criteria selected from the group consisting of a user profile, a user history of operations, and a context associated with the unstructured request.

18. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the client comprises a user interface to a user of a client device.