Flat schema integrated document oriented templates

• US 9,122,669 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Demant, Hilmar, Schertel, Frank, Bechtold, Johannes, Meincke, Olaf, Eberlein, Peter, Tung, Thierry, Farrenkopf, Eckhard, Wang, Cheng, Sattler, Juergen, B. G., Ramesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZUBERI, MOHAMMED H
• Application Number:
  US12/202,039
• Publication Number:
  US 20100058169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,559 Days
• Field of Search: 715/212, 715/221, 715/229, 715/234, 715/235, 715/243, 715/255, 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

A method and system includes a server that provides a business management service to multiple independent customers. A template repository provides predefined templates, and a configuration storage stores customer changes to the predefined templates that represent customized templates. A user interface facilitates selection of customized templates as a function of scope of work for fine tuning.

Claims

1. A system providing business management functions for multiple independent entities, the system comprising:

a hardware processor;

a template repository coupled to the hardware processor that relates business management applications to customizable templates for each independent entity and stores the customizable templates, wherein the customizable templates are business objects having data defining content and placeholder variables for creating customized templates using the customizable templates, wherein a placeholder variable of the placeholder variables corresponds to a portion of a customizable template of the customizable templates that is configurable by altering a value of the placeholder variable, and wherein the customizable templates and customized templates are organized in the template repository as a deep schema that includes nodes organized in accordance with a node schema that includes a customizable template as a node of the node schema and the variants of the customizable template as sub-nodes of the node, a customized template as another sub-node of the node schema and the variants of the customized template as further sub-nodes of the another sub-node; and

a user interface module executable by the hardware processor that provides for selection of a customizable template from the customizable templates for a business management application of the business management applications, wherein the multiple customizable templates are provided as a function of a scope of work being done in the business management application, and wherein the customizable templates include variants corresponding to different placeholder variables, variant content, and schemas, wherein the schemas identify binding information in the database that relate a variant of the variants and corresponding variant content of the variant to a placeholder holder variable of the placeholder variables in the customizable template to create the customized templates, wherein the variants include a language variant bound with variant content that defines a language specific version of the customizable template such that the variant content of the variants is consistent with a language specified by the language variant, and wherein the customizable templates, variants of the customizable templates, customized templates, and variants of the customized templates are presented as a customized flat schema that includes nodes and sub-nodes of the deep schema selected using the user interface module, the flat schema created in response to receiving a read request from the user interface module, the flat schema created using an extensible stylesheet language transformation (XSLT) module, wherein the flat schema only includes one level of nodes, wherein the selected nodes and sub-nodes are nodes on the one level of nodes.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface module facilitates editing of the customizable templates in a business configuration design time environment for each independent entity, and wherein edited templates are associated with a business task such that when run, a schema of the schemas associated with content of the edited templates is used to populate the placeholder variables with the variant content bound to the placeholder variable.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein customizable templates include text based templates, image based templates and spreadsheet based templates.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the customizable templates are edited in XML format.

5. The system of claim 1 and further comprising a customizable template resolution module that selects a customizable template of the customizable templates and wherein the user interface provides a list of predefined customizable templates as a function of an entity profile that specifies business objects of an entity that are available to that entity profile.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the customizable template resolution module selects a customizable template as a function of user provided information.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the user provided information does not directly identify a customizable template.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the variants comprise industry variants and a time dependency attribute specifying a valid period of time for a template.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the variants comprise versions, and wherein different versions of customizable templates are persisted separately for use when performing business management functions.

10. A system comprising:

a hardware server providing a business management service to multiple independent customers, wherein the hardware server comprises;

a template repository having predefined templates that are business objects having data defining content and placeholder variables for creating customized documents, the template repository relates business management applications to the customized documents for each independent entity, wherein the predefined templates are business objects having data defining content and placeholder variables for creating the customized documents using the predefined templates, wherein a placeholder variable of the placeholder variables corresponds to a portion of a predefined template of the predefined templates that is configurable by altering a value of the placeholder variable, wherein the template repository includes configuration storage that stores customer changes to the predefined templates that represent the customized documents, and wherein the customizable templates and customized templates are organized in the template repository as a deep schema that includes nodes organized in accordance with a deep schema that includes a customizable template as a node of the deep schema and the variants of the customizable template as sub-nodes of the node, a customized template as another sub-node of the node schema and the variants of the customized template as further sub-nodes of the another sub-node; and

a user interface facilitating selection of a predefined template as a function of scope of work and for fine tuning corresponding to the scope of work, wherein the predefined templates include variants corresponding to different placeholder variables, variant content, and schemas, wherein the schemas identify binding information in the database that relate a variant of the variants and corresponding variant content of the variant to a placeholder holder variable of the placeholder variables in the predefined template to create the customized documents, and

wherein the variants include a language variant bound with variant content that defines a language specific version of the predefined template such that the variant content of the variants is consistent with a language specified by the language variant, and wherein the customizable templates, variants of the customizable templates, customized templates, and variants of the customized templates are presented as a customized flat schema that includes nodes and sub-nodes of the deep schema selected using the user interface, the flat schema created in response to receiving a read request from the user interface, the flat schema created using an extensible stylesheet language transformation (XSLT) module, wherein the flat schema only includes one level of nodes, wherein the selected nodes and sub-nodes are nodes on the one level of nodes.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the user interface module facilitates editing of the predefined templates in a business configuration design time environment for each independent entity.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the predefined templates include text based templates, image based templates and spreadsheet based templates.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the predefined templates are edited in XML format.

14. The system of claim 10 and further comprising a template resolution module that selects a predefined template.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the predefined template selected by the template resolution module is selected as a function of user provided information.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the user provided information does not directly identify a predefined template.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the variants comprise industry variants.

18. A computer implemented method, the method comprising:

providing a business management service to multiple independent customers via a server having a template repository having predefined templates and a configuration storage that stores customer changes to the predefined templates that represent customized templates, wherein the predefined templates are business objects having data defining content and placeholder variables for creating the customized documents using the predefined templates, wherein a placeholder variable of the placeholder variables corresponds to a portion of a predefined template of the predefined templates that is configurable by altering a value of the placeholder variable, wherein the template repository includes that stores customer changes to the predefined templates that represent the customized documents, and wherein the customizable templates and customized templates are organized in the template repository as a deep schema that includes nodes organized in accordance with a deep schema that includes a customizable template as a node of the deep schema and the variants of the customizable template as sub-nodes of the node, a customized template as another sub-node of the node schema and the variants of the customized template as further sub-nodes of the another sub-node; and

facilitating selection of a predefined template of the predefined templates via a user interface as a function of scope of work and for fine tuning corresponding to the scope of work, wherein the predefined templates include variants, variant content, and schemas identifying information in the database corresponding to placeholder variables in the variant content to create customized documents, wherein the variants include a language variant bound with variant content that defines a language specific version of the customizable template such that the variant content of the variants is consistent with a language specified by the language variant; and

receiving a read request and in response to receiving the read request, using an extensible stylesheet language transformation (XSLT) module to transform the deep schema to a flat schema, wherein the flat schema only includes one level of nodes, wherein the selected customizable templates, variants of the customizable templates, customized templates, and variants of the customized templates are nodes on the one level of nodes.