Application template creation and management

• US 20070150852A1
• Filed: 12/27/2005
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Russo, Hanna, Wesley, Ajamu, Karra, Eleni-Georgia, Balderas, Manual, O'Connell, Margaret
• Granted Patent: US 9,575,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to templated application deployment and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for the uniform specification of the creation and management of an application template. In one embodiment, a method for creating and managing application templates utilizing assets can be provided. The method can include grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile, building a manifest for the grouped assets, and packaging the grouped assets and the manifest in an archive. In this regard, grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile, can include grouping templated application components as Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) assets described by an RAS profile;

Claims

1. A method for creating and managing application templates utilizing assets, the method comprising:

grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile;

building a manifest for the grouped assets; and

,

packaging the grouped assets and the manifest in an archive.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile, comprises grouping templated application components as Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) assets described by an RAS profile;

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting the grouped assets and the manifest from the archive; and

,

creating an instance of a templated application based upon the grouped assets extracted from the archive.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein creating an instance of a templated application based upon the grouped assets extracted from the archive, comprises:

cycling through the grouped assets creating instantiable components for each of the grouped assets; and

,

for each dependency identified for an asset among the grouped assets, creating an instantiable component for the dependency.

5. A templated application deployment data processing system comprising:

an application container configured to host a plurality of application component instances specified by an application template and defining a templated application;

application deployment logic comprising program code enabled to create the application component instances in the application container; and

,

asset based template processing logic coupled to the application deployment logic, the asset based template processing logic comprising program code enabled to cycle through grouped assets for an application template profile to create an instantiable component for each of the grouped assets, and for each dependency identified for an asset among the grouped assets, to create an instantiable component for the dependency.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the program code for the asset based template processing logic program is enabled to cycle through grouped Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) assets for an RAS application template profile to create an instantiable component for each of the grouped RAS assets, and for each dependency identified for an RAS asset among the grouped RAS assets, to create an instantiable component for the dependency.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising a development environment.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the development environment comprises program code enabled to group application components specified by the application template as assets described by a profile, to build a manifest for the grouped assets, and to package the grouped assets and the manifest in an archive.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the grouped assets are Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) assets described by an RAS profile.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for creating and managing application templates utilizing assets, said computer program product including:

computer usable program code for grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile;

computer usable program code for building a manifest for the grouped assets; and

,

computer usable program code for packaging the grouped assets and the manifest in an archive.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for grouping templated application components as assets described by a profile, comprises computer usable program code for grouping templated application components as Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) assets described by an RAS profile;

12. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer usable program code for extracting the grouped assets and the manifest from the archive; and

,

computer usable program code for creating an instance of a templated application based upon the grouped assets extracted from the archive.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer usable program code for creating an instance of a templated application based upon the grouped assets extracted from the archive, comprises:

computer usable program code for cycling through the grouped assets creating instantiable components for each of the grouped assets; and

,

computer usable program code for, for each dependency identified for an asset among the grouped assets, creating an instantiable component for the dependency.