Service delivery management for brokered service delivery

• US 10,560,541 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Barros, Alistair P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Padot, Timothy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garcia-Guerra, Darlene
• Application Number:
  US12/788,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,548 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711, 705 712, 705 726, 709227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

A broker consumer gateway may interface with a service consumer of a computing device consuming at least one service of at least one service provider, including receiving requests for forms, providing the forms, and receiving submitted forms. A service delivery manager may deliver the at least one service. The service delivery manager may include a consumer session manager that creates at least one consumer session to execute at least a portion of the at least one service, a consumer instance manager that creates at least one instance of the at least one service, and a service coordinator configured to coordinate the delivery of the at least one service, based on a coordination model characterizing the at least one service in which the forms are associated with service states of the at least one service and in which transitions between the service states are executed based on the submitted forms.

Claims

1. A computer system including instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer system comprising:

a service regulator configured to cause at least one processor to transform a service interface of at least one service of at least one service provider into service states and transitions between the service states to create a coordination model, the service states corresponding to distinct forms to be exchange with a user as part of an execution of the at least one service, the transitions representing action requests and responses on the at least one service;

a broker consumer gateway configured to cause the at least one processor to interface with a service consumer of a computing device consuming the at least one service of the at least one service provider based on the coordination model, each of the service states represented as at least one distinct form that is requested, filled-in, and submitted in association with the user via the service consumer of the computing device; and

a service delivery manager configured to cause the at least one processor to mediate delivery of each of the service states modeled with the coordination model of the at least one service to the service consumer of the computing device via the broker consumer gateway including invoking the at least one distinct form for each of the service states during execution of the at least one service, the service delivery manager including;

a consumer session manager configured to cause the at least one processor to create at least one consumer session in association with the user during which to execute at least a portion of the at least one service, including transitioning through one or more of the service states of the at least one service according to the coordination model,

a consumer instance manager configured to cause the at least one processor to create at least one instance of the at least one service within the at least one consumer session, the at least one instance being associated with the at least one service including representing each of the service states with the at least one distinct form that is requested, filled-in, and submitted in association with the user via the service consumer of the computing device, and

a service coordinator configured to cause the at least one processor to coordinate and track each of the service states during delivery of the at least one service from the at least one service provider within the at least one consumer session and the at least one instance of the at least one service, the service coordinator configured to cause the at least one processor to track and advance a current state of each executing service to a next service state using the coordination model characterizing the at least one service in which each of the distinct forms are associated with corresponding ones of the service states of the at least one service and in which the transitions between each of the service states are executed based on the at least one distinct form exchanged with the service consumer during each service state.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service delivery manager is configured to cause the at least one processor to persist a current state of the coordination model within the at least one instance and the at least one consumer session, in response to a termination of the at least one consumer session by the user.

3. The system of claim 1, comprising a forms mediator configured to cause the at least one processor to format the forms based on a delivery channel associated with the service consumer, during the delivery.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service includes a first service and a second service within a service group, the first service and the second service being asynchronously executing services in which the first service and the second service operate independently from each other but for the coordination provided by the coordination model, the system comprising a service group manager configured to cause the at least one processor to identify synchronization states within the coordination model, the synchronization states being points within the coordination model at which it is allowable for the service delivery manager to alter a group level attribute of the service group during the delivery.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the group level attribute includes an authentication level associated with the service group and the user.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the system includes a payment manager configured to execute payment collection for at least a portion of the delivery, and wherein the group level attribute includes the payment executed in association with a synchronization state of the synchronization states.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the service group manager is configured to cause the at least one processor to define a synchronization point within the coordination model at which it is permissible to add or remove services from the service group.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the transitions between the service states include discrete points during service execution where one or more interactions on the forms can proceed.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the service regulator is configured to cause the at least one processor to associate the service states with corresponding form templates for instantiation thereof into the forms, the form templates being defined independent of specific user interface (UI) technologies.

10. A computer-implemented method including executing instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

transforming a service interface of at least one service of at least one service provider into a generic description of service states and transitions between the service states to create a coordination model, the service states corresponding to distinct forms to be exchange with a user as part of an execution of the at least one service, the transitions representing action requests and responses on the at least one service;

interfacing with a service consumer of a computing device consuming the at least one service of the at least one service provider to thereby execute a delivery of the at least one service to the service consumer, the at least one service including the service states and the transitions modeled with the coordination model, each of the service states represented as at least one distinct form that is requested, filled-in, and submitted in association with the user via the service consumer of the computing device;

creating at least one consumer session in association with the user during which to execute at least a portion of the at least one service, including transitioning through one or more of the service states of the at least one service according to the coordination model;

creating at least one consumer session in association with the user during which to execute at least a portion of the at least one service, including transitioning through one or more of the service states of the at least one service according to the coordination model; and

coordinating and tracking each of the service states during delivery of the at least one service from the at least one service provider within the at least one consumer session and the at least one instance of the at least one service including tracking and advancing a current state of each executing service to a next service state using the coordination model characterizing the at least one service in which each of the distinct forms are associated with corresponding ones of the service states of the at least one service and in which the transitions between each of the service states are executed based on the at least one distinct form exchanged with the service consumer during each service state,

wherein the coordinating includes creating a form corresponding to a current state of the coordination model based on a generic template form in conjunction with each advancing service state of the coordination model.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the coordinating comprises:

detecting a termination of the at least one consumer session; and

persisting a current state of the coordination model within the at least one instance and the at least one consumer session, in response to the termination.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the coordinating comprises:

receiving a form request for the form associated with the current state of the coordination model;

obtaining the form template for the requested form; and

formatting the requested form based on a delivery channel associated with the service consumer, during the delivery.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the coordination model is expressed in an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file or a Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one service comprises a first service and a second service within a service group, the first service permitting anonymous interactions, the second service requiring password authentication, and wherein the coordinating the delivery includes identifying synchronization states within the coordination model, the synchronization states being points within the coordination model at which it is allowable to alter a group level attribute of the service group during the delivery.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the group level attribute includes an authentication level associated with the service group and the user.

16. A computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and including executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause at least one processor of a data processing apparatus to:

execute, by a service broker, brokered service delivery of at least one service of a service provider that provides the at least one service to a consumer computing device via the service broker, the service broker being an intermediary that provides a central point of access to the at least one service hosted by the service provider, including;

register the at least one service within a service registry such that delivery and execution of the at least one service are provided through the service broker;

transform a service interface of the at least one service into a generic description of service states and transitions between the service states to create a coordination model, the service states corresponding to distinct forms to be exchange with a user as part of an execution of the at least one service, the transitions representing action requests and responses on the at least one service;

interface with a service consumer of the computing device consuming the at least one service of the at least one service provider to thereby execute the delivery of the at least one service to the service consumer, the at least one service including the service states and the transitions modeled with the coordination model, each of the service states represented as at least one distinct form that is requested, filled-in, and submitted in association with the user via the service consumer of the computing device;

create at least one consumer session in association with the user during which to execute at least a portion of the at least one service, including transitioning through one or more of the service states of the at least one service according to the coordination model;

create at least one instance of the at least one service within the at least one consumer session, the at least one instance being associated with the at least one service including representing each of the service states with the at least one distinct form that is requested, filled-in, and submitted in association with the user via the service consumer of the computing device; and

coordinate and track each of the service states during delivery of the at least one service from the at least one service provider within the at least one consumer session and the at least one instance of the at least one service including track and advance a current state of each executing service to a next service state using the coordination model characterizing the at least one service in which each of the distinct forms are associated with corresponding ones of the service states of the at least one service and in which the transitions between each of the service states are executed based on the at least one distinct form exchanged with the service consumer during each service state, wherein the executable code to coordinate includes executable code to invoke a form corresponding to a current state of the coordination model based on a generic template form in conjunction with each advancing service state of the coordination model.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the executable code causes the at least one data processing apparatus to coordinate the delivery including:

detecting a termination of the at least one consumer session; and

persisting a current state of the coordination model within the at least one instance and the at least one consumer session, in response to the termination.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the executable code causes the at least one data processing apparatus to coordinate the delivery including:

receiving a form request for the form associated with the current state of the coordination model;

obtaining the form template for the requested form; and

formatting the requested form based on a delivery channel associated with the service consumer, during the delivery.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the executable code includes executable code to:

translate messages received from the service consumer for communication with specific services running on a remote backend system of the service provider that are not included as part of the brokered service delivery provided by the service broker.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the at least one service comprises a first service and a second service within a service group, the first and second services being asynchronously executing services in which the first service and the second service operate independently from each other but for the coordination provided by the coordination model, wherein the coordination model includes synchronization states at which it is allowable to alter a group level attribute of the service group during the delivery.