Web service control for use in a graphical programming environment
First Claim
1. A web service program object for use with a graphical programming environment, the web service program object comprising:
- a graphical icon representing the web service program object for display in a diagramming window of the graphical programming environment, the graphical icon having one or more terminals for visually linking the web service graphical icon with one or more other icons, each corresponding to a program object, to visually represent an application program in two-dimensions;
a first property that is settable by a program developer to define a network address of a given web service having a description that identifies one or more methods available from the given web service;
web service access logic configured to access and retrieve the description of the given web service; and
description parsing logic configured to extract the one or more methods identified in the retrieved description of the given web service, wherein the one or more extracted methods are presented to a program developer for selection.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A web service program object is provided for use in developing application programs through a graphical program-development environment. The web service program object has a corresponding icon that can be placed within a graphical program representation and visually coupled to other program objects to define the logical operation of a desired application program. The web service program object has a plurality of publicly declared properties that may be set by the program developer to specify the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a selected web service and a given method of the selected web service. At run-time, the web service program object causes a proxy class to be created for accessing the web service. The web service program object in cooperation with the proxy class receives one or more input parameter values from the program user, provides those values to the selected web service and receives responding information from the web service. Depending on the manner in which the application program was created, the responding information from the web service can be handled in any number of ways, such as being displayed to the program user or stored for later processing.
95 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A web service program object for use with a graphical programming environment, the web service program object comprising:
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a graphical icon representing the web service program object for display in a diagramming window of the graphical programming environment, the graphical icon having one or more terminals for visually linking the web service graphical icon with one or more other icons, each corresponding to a program object, to visually represent an application program in two-dimensions;
a first property that is settable by a program developer to define a network address of a given web service having a description that identifies one or more methods available from the given web service;
web service access logic configured to access and retrieve the description of the given web service; and
description parsing logic configured to extract the one or more methods identified in the retrieved description of the given web service, wherein the one or more extracted methods are presented to a program developer for selection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for creating an application that consumes a web service disposed at a network address, the web service having a method and configured to generate an output, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a diagrammer window for receiving a plurality of graphical icons, each graphical icon corresponding to a program object that executes a function;
providing a graphical web service icon for receipt on the diagrammer window, the web service graphical icon corresponding to a web service program object whose function is to consume the web service;
configuring the web service program object with the network address and the method of the web service; and
visually associating the graphical web service icon with a second graphical icon whose function receives the output of the web service, wherein at application run-time, the web service program object accesses the web service, receives the output and causes the output to be provided to the program object corresponding to the second graphical icon. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification