Metadata driven customization of a software-implemented business process

• US 20050160060A1
• Filed: 01/16/2004
• Published: 07/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Swartz, Tanya L., Pillai, Jayadev, El Husseini, Ahmad Mahdi, Zhiyanov, Dmitry V., Premchandran, Girish, St. Lorant, Misha H., Kureshy, Arif, Chopra, Gagan
• Granted Patent: US 7,890,544 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/912 Applications of a database

Abstract

In a method of customizing a software-implemented business process on a mobile computing device, customized metadata defining customizations of the business process are provided. Next, the metadata is deployed to the mobile computing device and stored in a data store of the mobile computing device. The customizations defined by the metadata are then applied to the software-implemented business process.

Claims

1. The method of customizing a software-implemented business process comprising:

a) providing customized metadata defining entities;

b) storing the customized metadata and data corresponding to the entities in a first data store;

c) providing a subscription list of the entities, the subscription list being defined by subscription metadata stored in a subscription data store of a mobile computing device;

d) sending the customized metadata corresponding to the entities identified in the subscription list to the mobile computing device; and

e) storing the sent customized metadata in a second data store of the mobile computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 including:

sending the data corresponding to the entities identified in the subscription list to the mobile computing device; and

storing the sent data in the second data store.

3. The method of claim 2 including populating an entity defined by the sent customized metadata with the corresponding sent data.

4. The method of claim 3 including displaying the populated entity on the mobile computing device in accordance with a form defined by the sent customized metadata for the populated entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is selected from a group consisting of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the customized metadata define data fields of the entities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the customized metadata define presentation forms for the entities.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step e) includes replacing old customized metadata stored in the second data store with at least some of the sent customized metadata.

9. A method of customizing a software implemented business process comprising:

a) providing customized metadata defining entities;

b) storing the customized metadata and data corresponding to the entities in a first data store;

c) providing a subscription list of the entities, the subscription list being defined by subscription metadata stored in a subscription data store of a mobile computing device;

d) populating the entities identified by the subscription list with the corresponding data in accordance with the customized metadata;

e) sending the populated entities to the mobile computing device; and

f) storing the populated entities in an object data store of the mobile computing device.

10. The method of claim 9 including displaying one of the populated entities in accordance with a form defined by the sent customized metadata.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the mobile computing device is selected from a group consisting of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the customized metadata define data fields of the entities.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the customized metadata define presentation forms for the entities.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the storing step f) includes replacing old populated entities with at least some of the sent populated entities.

15. A system configured to customize a computer-implemented business process comprising:

a user interface configured to generate customized metadata defining entities in response to user input;

a first data store containing the customized metadata and data corresponding to the data entities;

a first data accessing system configured to access the customized metadata and the data contained in the first data store;

a mobile computing device including;

a subscription metadata store containing subscription metadata defining a subscription list of the entities;

a second data store; and

a second data access system configured to access the subscription metadata and the second data store; and

a synchronizer configured to send the customized metadata corresponding to the entities identified in the subscription list to the mobile computing device for storage in the second data store.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the mobile computing device is selected from a group consisting of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the customized metadata define data fields of the entities.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the customized metadata define forms for the entities.

19. A method of customizing a software-implemented business process on a mobile computing device comprising:

a) providing customized metadata defining customizations of the software-implemented business process;

b) deploying the metadata to the mobile computing device;

c) storing the metadata in a data store of the mobile computing device; and

d) applying the customizations defined by the metadata to the software-implemented business process.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the customized metadata define entities of the software-implemented business process.

21. The method of claim 20 including:

providing a subscription list of the entities;

wherein the deploying step b) includes sending the customized metadata corresponding to the entities identified in the subscription list to the mobile computing device in the deploying step b); and

wherein the storing step c) includes storing the sent customized metadata in the data store of the mobile computing device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the subscription list is defined by subscription metadata stored in the data store of the mobile computing device.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the customized metadata define data content of the entities.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the customized metadata define a user interface content of the entities.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the business process is a customer relationship management application and the entities correspond to accounts of the customer relationship management application.