Process for data driven application integration for B2B

• US 6,816,865 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2001
• Issued: 11/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stevens, Richard Joseph, Rapp, William Craig, OʼBrien, Terrence Ross
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAMILTON, MONPLAISIR G
• Application Number:
  US09/837,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20030023604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/10, 707/101, 707/104.1, 705/26, 705/40, 705/27, 705/1, 709/227, 719/313, 719/328
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Aspects of the present embodiments provide an eCommerce environment adapted to accept and process various message types (e.g. cXML and mXML). In general, requests are provided from a requesting entity to an application hosting entity. Data from incoming requests are mapped to a format understandable to an appropriate application(s). Responses from the application(s) are then mapped into a response format acceptable by the requesting entity.

To this end, embodiments disclosed herein provide processes for the development and execution of a data driven process for mapping multiple request/response message pairs to a single application interface or set of application interfaces. In one embodiment, these processes are driven by development time and run time documents that describe a development time view of the message pairs and the application Interfaces as well as runtime instructions for providing the mappings, respectively.

Claims

1. An eCommerce system for processing requests, comprising:

an application comprising an interface defining request and response format requirements and an invocation method for invoking the application;

an abstract interface corresponding to the interface of the application and defining an abstraction of the request and response format requirements and the invocation method; and

at least one message format data structure defining an interface definition of a message format of a particular eCommerce request that is incompatible with the request and response format requirements of the application, the message format data structure comprising;

protocol information identifying a protocol of the particular eCommerce request;

request type information identifying a type of request of the particular eCommerce request;

request data format information identifying a request schema describing a request format of request data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the request schema comprises a plurality of input fields;

an input field definition mapping to selected input fields of the plurality of input fields;

response data format information identifying a response schema describing a response format of response data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the response schema comprises a plurality of output fields; and

an output field definition mapping to selected output fields of the plurality of output fields; and

wherein the input field definition and the output field definition are mapped to the abstract interface;

whereby the particular eCommerce request can be serviced by the application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the input field definition identifies a physical location, in the particular eCommerce request, of each of the selected fields of the plurality of input fields.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the output field definition identifies a physical location, in the particular eCommerce request, of each of the selected fields of the plurality of output fields.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the protocol is selected from the group comprising cXML and mXML.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the type of request is a purchase order.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the type of request is selected from a group comprising of a purchase order, a change purchase order, a remote catalog shopping request, an invoice request and a shopping basket content request.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the message format data structure further comprises sub-transaction type information identifying a sub-transaction type.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein selected fields of the input field definition are less than all of the plurality of input fields.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of input fields includes input fields for at least two different request types and wherein the selected input fields of the input field definition represent only a given one of the at least two request types.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the input field definition comprises a corresponding input field corresponding to each of the selected fields of the plurality of input fields.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a name of at least one field of the selected fields is different than a name of the corresponding input field corresponding to the at least one field.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a total number of fields of the selected output fields is less than all of the plurality of output fields.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of output fields includes output fields for at least two different request types and wherein the selected output fields represent only a given one of the at least two request types, which request type is the same as represented by the selected input fields.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the application access method is selected from a program call access method, a java access method and a queue application access method.

15. An eCommerce system for processing requests, comprising:

an application comprising an interface defining request and response format requirements and an invocation method for invoking the application;

an abstract interface corresponding to the interface of the application and defining an abstraction of the request and response format requirements and the invocation method; and

at least one message format data structure defining an interface definition of a message format of a particular eCommerce request that is incompatible with the request and response format requirements of the application, the message format data structure comprising;

protocol information identifying a protocol of the particular eCommerce request;

request type information identifying a type of request of the particular eCommerce request;

request data format information identifying a request schema describing a request format of request data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the request schema comprises a plurality of input fields for at least two different request types including the type of request of the particular eCommerce request;

input field information identifying at least a portion of the plurality of input fields and identifying a physical location, in a request message, of each input field of at least the portion of the plurality of input fields-wherein the input field information represents only a given one of the at least two request types;

an input field definition mapping only to selected input fields of the plurality of input fields representing the identified type of request of the particular eCommerce request;

response data format information identifying a response schema describing a response format of response data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the response schema comprises a plurality of output fields for the at least two different request types; and

an output field definition mapping only to selected output fields of the plurality of output fields representing the identified type of request of the particular eCommerce request; and

wherein the input field definition and the output field definition are mapped to the abstract interface;

whereby the particular eCommerce request can be serviced by the application.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the type of request is a purchase order.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the input field definition comprises a corresponding input field corresponding to each of the selected input fields of the plurality of input fields, and wherein the output field definition comprises a corresponding output field corresponding to each of the selected output fields of the plurality of output fields.

18. An eCommerce system for processing requests, comprising:

an application comprising an interface defining request and response format requirements and an invocation method for invoking the application;

an abstract interface corresponding to the interface of the application and defining an abstraction of the request and response format requirements and the invocation method; and

a plurality of message format data structures each defining an interface definition of a message format of a eCommerce request that is incompatible with the request and response format requirements of the application, wherein each message format data structure corresponds to a different eCommerce request and each message format data structure comprises;

protocol information identifying a protocol of a particular ecommerce request comprising input fields and output fields;

request type information identifying a type of request of the particular eCommerce request;

an input field definition mapping to the input fields of the particular eCommerce request; and

an output field definition mapping to the output fields of the particular eCommerce request; and

wherein the input field definition and the output field definition are mapped to the abstract interface, whereby the eCommerce requests can be serviced by the application.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each message format data structure further comprises:

request data format information identifying a request schema describing a request format of request data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the request schema comprises a plurality of input fields including the input fields of the particular eCommerce request; and

response data format information identifying a response schema describing a response format of response data for the particular eCommerce request, wherein the response schema comprises a plurality of output fields including the output fields of the particular eCommerce request.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the input field definition comprises a corresponding input field for each of the input fields of the particular eCommerce request, and wherein the output field definition comprises a corresponding output field for each of the output fields of the particular eCommerce request.