System and method of integrating software components

• US 6,973,655 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2001
• Issued: 12/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Gastaldo, Michel, Jacquin, Thierry
• Primary Examiner(s): LAO, SUE X
• Application Number:
  US10/017,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20030115370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 719/328, 719/331, 719/332, 719/320, 719/310, 717/113, 717/109, 717/105, 717/100, 345/762, 345/760, 709/219, 709/223, 715/513
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A system for integrating services in a system includes a plurality of services, wherein each service includes a software component associated with the system and provides at least one functionality. A user interface, such as a web browser, displays the plurality of services, wherein each service has a link associated with it for accessing the service directly. A scripting shell, responsive to selection of a first service and a second service from the plurality of services, pipes the first and second services together to form a scenario such that output from the first service is provided as input to the second service. A link may be associated with scenario for accessing the scenario directly.

Claims

1. A computer implemented interactive method of integrating and customizing document-based services in a knowledge management system, comprising:

providing a plurality of document-based services, wherein each document-based service comprises a software component associated with the system and provides at least one functionality for processing at least a portion of a document;

wherein each software component includes a control panel for defining and inputting commands, input parameters and output parameters associated with the software component;

wherein input parameters comprise a document-based string parameter;

displaying the plurality of document-based services in a user interface, wherein each document-based service has a link associated with it for accessing the document-based service directly;

responsive to user selection of a first document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, displaying the first document-based service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface;

responsive to user input of at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the first document-based service, caching any results objects for further usage within a session memory, displaying any output generated by the document-based first service in the user interface, and providing handles to specify paths to the results objects within the session memory;

responsive to user selection of a second document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, displaying the second document-based service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface; and

responsive to user selection of at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service, at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the second document-based service, piping the at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service to the selected input parameter of the second document-based service and displaying any output generated by the second document-based service in the user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to user selection of a third document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, displaying the third service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface; and

responsive to user selection of at least a portion of the output generated by the second document-based service, at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the third document-based service, piping the at least a portion of the output generated by the second document-based service to the selected input parameter of the third document-based service and displaying any output generated by the third document-based service in the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to user selection of a fourth document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, displaying the fourth service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface; and

responsive to user selection of at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service, at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the fourth document-based service, piping the at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service to the selected input parameter of the fourth document-based service and displaying any output generated by the fourth document-based service in the user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a browser and wherein each link comprises an http path from the browser to its corresponding service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a filter control comprising a plurality of selectable criteria, wherein the criteria refer to conditions defined for each of the document-based services;

responsive to user selection of at least one criteria in the filter control;

executing the filter control and displaying any results, wherein the results comprise a subset of the plurality of document-based services.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of services comprise a hyperbolic tree view builder, a mail sender, a PDF converter, a search engine, a document summarizer, a database, a term extractor, a terms extractor, a translator, an image extractor and a dictionary.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each document-based service includes a filter control for selecting criteria pertaining to the document-based service.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the output parameters comprise at least one of a string, a document URL and a document pointer.

9. the method of claim 1, wherein the control panel defines the document-based service'"'"'s functionality and service properties.

10. A computer implemented interactive system for integrating and customizing document-based services in a knowledge management system, comprising:

a plurality of document-based services, wherein each document-based service comprises a software component associated with the system and provides at least one functionality for processing at least a portion of a document;

wherein each software component includes a control panel for defining and inputting commands, input parameters and output parameters associated with the software component;

wherein input parameters comprise at least one of a string, a document URL and a document pointer;

a user interface for displaying the plurality of document-based services, wherein each document-based service has a link associated with it for accessing the document-based service directly;

responsive to user selection of a first document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, displaying the first document-based service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface;

a first framework, responsive to user input of at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the first document-based service, for displaying any output generated by the first document-based service in the user interface;

a second framework, responsive to user selection of a second document-based service from the plurality of document-based services, for displaying the second document-based service'"'"'s control panel in the user interface; and

a scripting shell, responsive to user selection of at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service, at least one command and at least one input parameter in the control panel of the second document-based service, for piping the at least a portion of the output generated by the first document-based service to the selected input parameter of the second document-based service and displaying any output generated by the second document-based service.