Systems and methods for extracting application relevant data from messages

• US 9,946,584 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaehler, Adrian, Hsu, Shi-Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): Reyes, Mariela
• Assistant Examiner(s): MINCEY, JERMAINE A
• Application Number:
  US12/241,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,486 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/542 Intercept
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for extracting application relevant data from messages. In one embodiment, a system can comprise a message parser that parses messages and builds a message tree having one or more objects, one or more data type templates that define a given data type based on one or more data elements and a comparison engine that matches data elements in the one or more objects with data elements in the one or more data type templates. The comparison engine groups data elements in the one or more objects that matches data elements in the one or more data templates as a specific data type corresponding to the associated data type template that is matched.

Claims

1. A system for extracting application relevant data from messages, the system comprising:

a memory for storing computer executable instructions; and

a processor for accessing the memory and executing the computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising;

a first application relevant data extractor associated with a first software application;

a second application relevant data extractor associated with a second software application, each of the first and second application relevant extractors comprising;

a message parser that parses messages and builds a message tree having one or more objects;

one or more data type templates that define a given data type based on one or more data elements; and

a comparison engine that matches data elements in the one or more objects with data elements in the one or more data type templates, groups data elements in the one or more objects that matches data elements in the one or more data templates as a specific data type corresponding to the associated data type template that is matched, wherein the one or more data elements matched in a given data type template of the one or more data type templates comprises a proper subset of data elements in a given object of the one or more objects and the one or more data elements matched in the given data type template of the one or more data type templates comprises a proper subset of the one or more data elements in the given data type template; and

a message backplane that routes a given set of messages with data elements matched in the one or more objects with data elements stored in the one or more data type templates that are transmitted and received between a back end and a front end of the first software application to the second application relevant data extractor in response to determining that the given set of messages contain data employable by the second software application to derive data not included in the given set of messages, routes messages that are transmitted and received between a front end and a back end of the second software application to the first application relevant data extractor;

wherein the front end of the first software application and the front end of the second software application each includes a graphical user interface for receiving user input and providing user output, and the back end of the first software application and the back end of the second software application each includes an execution engine for processing data and providing responses for events occurring at a corresponding front end.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the comparison engine further maps the specific data type that is matched to the associated data type template to an object in a software application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the grouped data elements comprise the data element identifiers and associated attributes and/or values.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first application relevant data extractor extracts application relevant data that is mapped to the first software application from messages generated from the second software application and the second application relevant data extractor extracts application relevant data that is mapped to the second software application from messages generated from the first software application.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first application relevant data extractor maps application relevant data to the back end of the first application to cause the back end of the first application to generate instructions to the front end of the first software application to cause events to occur in the front end of the first software application based on the received application relevant data and the second application relevant data extractor maps application relevant data to the back end of the second application to cause the back end of the second application to generate instructions to the front end of the second software application to cause events to occur in the front end of the second software application based on the received application relevant data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first application relevant data extractor is associated with a first message adapter configured to convert commercial off the shelf (COTS) application messages from a first COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and a message backplane message format to the first COTS application message format and the second application relevant data extractor is associated with a second message adapter configured to convert COTS application messages from a second COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and a message backplane message format to the second COTS application message format.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise a message backplane transformer configured to link data types of a first data type understandable by the first software application to data types of a second data type understandable by the second software application wherein the transformer comprises a third application relevant data extractor configured to extract and map data elements of the first data type to the transformer and further comprising a fourth application relevant data extractor configured to extract and map data elements of the second data type to the transformer.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a database accessible by the transformer that contains a third data type that links data of the first data type to data of the second data type.

9. The system of claim 4, further comprising a standard data type template stored in the memory that is employed by the first and second application relevant data extractors to provide the first and second software applications with common definitions between data types.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the given object in the one or more objects comprises a person object, wherein the one or more data elements of the person object comprises:

a name of a person; and

a phone number associated with the person; and

wherein the data elements of the given data type template of the one or more data type templates comprises a phone number template comprising a data element for the phone number associated with the person.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the person object excludes an address associated with the person and the phone number template excludes the name of the person, wherein the relevant data extractor of the second application is configured to:

receive the phone number template populated with the phone number of the person; and

route the phone number template to the back end of the second software application; and

wherein the back end of the second software application is configured to;

determine an address associated with the phone number for the person based on the phone number template; and

transmit the determined address associated with the phone number to a front end of the second application.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable components for linking software applications and extracting application relevant data from messages between software applications, the computer readable medium comprising:

a first application relevant data extractor associated with a first software application, the first application relevant data extractor comprising;

a first plurality of data type templates that each define a given data type based on one or more data elements relevant to the first software application; and

a first comparison engine that matches data elements in messages provided to the first software application with data elements in one or more of the first plurality of data type templates, groups data elements from the messages that matches data elements in the one or more of the first plurality of data templates as specific data types corresponding to the associated data type templates that are matched and maps the specific data types that are matched to the associated data type template to objects in the first software application, wherein the one or more data elements matched in a given data type template of the first plurality of data type templates comprises a proper subset of data elements in a given object of the objects in the first software application and the one or more data elements matched in the given data type template of the first plurality of data type templates comprises a proper subset of the one or more data elements in the given data type template of the first plurality of data type templates; and

a second application relevant data extractor associated with a second software application, the second application relevant data extractor comprising;

a second plurality of data type templates that each define a given data type based on one or more data elements relevant to the second software application;

a second comparison engine that matches data elements in messages provided to the second software application with data elements in one or more of the second plurality of data type templates, groups data elements from the messages that matches data elements in the one or more of the second plurality of data templates as specific data types corresponding to the associated data type templates that are matched and maps the specific data types that are matched to the associated data type template to objects in the second software application; and

a message backplane that routes a given set of messages with data elements matched in the one or more objects with data elements stored in the one or more data type templates that are transmitted and received between a front end and a back end of the first software application to the second application relevant data extractor in response to determining that the given set of messages contain data employable by the second software application to derive data not included in the given set of messages, and routes messages that are transmitted and received between a front end and a back end of the second software application to the first application relevant data extractors;

wherein the front end of the first software application and the front end of the second software application each includes a graphical user interface for receiving user input and providing user output, and the back end of the first software application and the back end of the second software application each includes an execution engine for processing data and providing responses for events occurring at a corresponding front end.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first application relevant data extractor maps application relevant data to the back end of the first application to cause the back end of the first application to generate instructions to the front end of the first software application to cause events to occur in the front end of the first software application based on the received application relevant data and the second application relevant data extractor maps application relevant data to the back end of the second application to cause the back end of the second application to generate instructions to the front end of the second software application to cause events to occur in the front end of the second software application based on the received application relevant data.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first application relevant data extractor is associated with a first message adapter configured to convert commercial off the shelf (COTS) application messages from a first COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and a message backplane message format to the first COTS application message format and the second application relevant data extractor is associated with a second message adapter configured to convert COTS application messages from a second COTS application message format to a message backplane message format and a message backplane message format to the second COTS application message format.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising a message backplane transformer configured to link data types of a first data type understandable by the first software application to data types of a second data type understandable by the second software application wherein the transformer comprises a third application relevant data extractor configured to extract and map data elements of the first data type to the transformer and further comprising a fourth application relevant data extractor configured to extract and map data elements of the second data type to the transformer.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising a database accessible by the transformer that contains a third data type that links data of the first data type to data of the second data type.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising a standard data type template that is employed by the first and second application relevant data extractors to provide the first and second software applications with common definitions between data types.

16. A method for extracting application relevant data from messages, the method comprising:

routing a message that-is transmitted and received between a front end and a back end of a first software application to a data extractor associated with a second software application in response to determining that the message contains data employable by the second software application to derive data not included in the message;

parsing the message received from the first software application and building a message tree of the parsed message having one or more objects;

comparing data elements in the one or more objects with data elements in one or more data type templates, the data type templates defining a given data type based on one or more data elements, to determine matches between data elements in the one or more objects to data elements in the one or more data templates, wherein the one or more data elements matched in a given data type template of the one or more data type templates comprises a proper subset of data elements in a given object of the one or more objects and the one or more data elements matched in the given data type template of the one or more data type templates comprises a proper subset of the one or more data elements in the given data type template; and

mapping the data elements in the one or more objects that match data elements in the one or more data templates into the second software application;

wherein the front end of the first software application includes a graphical user interface for receiving user input and providing user output, and the back end of the first software application includes an execution engine for processing data and providing response for events occurring at a corresponding front end.

17. The method of claim 16, further comparing data elements in the one or more objects with data elements in a standard data type template file that provides a plurality of applications with common definitions between data types.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

routing a second message that has been transmitted between a front end and a back end of the second software application to a data extractor associated with the first software application;

parsing the second message received from the second software application and building a message tree of the parsed second message having one or more objects;

comparing data elements in the one or more objects of the second message with data elements in one or more second data type templates, the second data type templates defining a given data type based on one or more data elements, to determine matches between data elements in the one or more objects of the second object to data elements in the one or more second data templates; and

mapping the data elements in the one or more objects of the second message that match data elements in the one or more second data templates into the first software application.