System and method for building component applications using metadata defined mapping between message and data domains

• US 7,698,383 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2004
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Vitanov, Kamen B., Shenfield, Michael, Goring, Bryan R., Bibr, Viera
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia; Rupal D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack; Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US10/787,929
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,237 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/219, 709/221, 709/226, 709/236, 719/315, 719/316, 719/332, 717174-178, 707/6, 707/10, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

It is desirable to drive down the complexity involved in developing the wireless application by reducing the need to do any explicit coding, as well as reducing device resources utilized by the application when provisioned. Having an intelligent wireless device runtime environment (Device Runtime) that provides a set of basic services to manage the wireless application as a series if application components, and their interactions, can simplify the development effort and reduce resource allocation. The wireless application is described as a set of components. The data domain for this category of applications is defined using atomic data components. The communication between the device and a server is defined using atomic message components. Both message and data components are described in metadata using a structured definition language such as XML. The relationships between the message and data components are embedded in the XML definitions in the form of message/data mappings. Typically, outgoing messages are derived from some underlying data component and incoming messages affect the current state (or data representation) of the application. It is therefore apparent that the metadata defined mapping relationship is preferable between the expression of data and message components.

Claims

1. A method for populating a communication message instance in accordance with a component application executing on a device, the component application including at least one data component having at least one data field definition and at least one message component having at least one message field definition, the component definitions expressed in a structured definition language, the method comprising the steps of:

determining that a message instance is to be generated and identifying a corresponding message component by a runtime environment, said corresponding message component comprising a mapping to a particular one or more of the at least one data field definitions, said mapping linking the definition of a particular message instance to the definition of a particular one or more data field instances in accordance with a mapping resolution contract resolved at runtime by the runtime environment operating on the message and data component definitions;

identifying at least one unique mapping in the corresponding message component, each unique mapping identifying a particular data component as defined by a unique identifier representing the mapping in accordance with the mapping resolution contract;

obtaining at least one data instance field value corresponding to the at least one data field of the mapped particular data component; and

populating the at least one message field of the message instance with the at least one data instance field value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the data field definitions of the data component is shared between the at least one message component and the at least one data component as represented by the mapping.

3. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of linking the plurality of data field definitions to corresponding ones of the message fields as represented by the unique identifier.

4. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of identifying additional processing code coupled to the at least one message component for assisting in processing of the message instance.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the processing code specifies an address of a provisioning unit for handling the processing code.

6. The method according to claim 3 further comprising the step of identifying additional ones of the message field definitions in relation to the unique identifier.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein the mapping is a field level mapping linking a first one of the message field definitions to a first one of the data field definitions and a second one of the message field definitions to a second one of the data field definitions.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the number of message field definitions of the message component is less that the number of data field definitions of the mapped data component.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first message field definition is mapped by a first one of the unique identifiers to a first one of the data components and the second message field definition is mapped by a second one of the unique identifiers to a second one of the data components different from the first data component.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first message field definition and the second message field definition are mapped to the same data component using the unique identifier.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein the structured definition language is XML based.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the application is a wireless application and the device is a wireless device.

13. The method according to claim 2, wherein the unique identifier is a simple primary key.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein the unique identifier is a composite key.

15. The method according to claim 2, wherein the message component defines a parent one of the message components coupled to a dependent one of the message components.

16. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of overriding one of the mappings of the parent message component by respective one of the mappings of the dependent message component.

29. The method according to claim 16, wherein the unique identifier is a simple primary key.

17. A method for populating a data instance for a component application executing on a device based on a received message, the component application comprising at least one data component having at least one data field definition and at least one message component having at least one message field definition, the component definitions expressed in a structured definition language, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a message instance and identifying a corresponding message component by a runtime environment, said corresponding message component comprising a mapping to a particular one or more of the at least one data field definitions, said mapping linking the definition of the message instance to the definition of a particular one or more data field instances in accordance with a mapping resolution contract resolved at runtime by the runtime environment operating on the message and data component definitions;

identifying at least one unique mapping in the corresponding message component, each unique mapping identifying a particular data component as defined by a unique identifier representing the mapping in accordance with the mapping a resolution contract;

obtaining at least one message instance field value from the message instance corresponding to the at least one data field of the mapped data component; and

populating the at least one data field of the data instance with the at least one message instance field value.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein a plurality of the data field definitions of the data component is shared between the at least one message component and the at least one data component as represented by the mapping.

19. The method according to claim 18 further comprising the step of linking the plurality of data field definitions to corresponding ones of the message fields as represented by the unique identifier.

20. The method according to claim 18 further comprising the step of identifying additional processing code coupled to the at least one message component for assisting in processing of the message instance.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the processing code specifies an address of a provisioning unit for handling the processing code.

22. The method according to claim 19 further comprising the step of identifying additional ones of the message field definitions in relation to the unique identifier.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein the mapping is a field level mapping linking a first one of the message field definitions to a first one of the data field definitions and a second one of the message field definitions to a second one of the data field definitions.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the number of message field definitions of the message component is less that the number of data field definitions of the mapped data component.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the first message field definition is mapped by a first one of the unique identifiers to a first one of the data components and the second message field definition is mapped by a second one of the unique identifiers to a second one of the data components different from the first data component.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the first message field definition and the second message field definition are mapped to the same data component using the unique identifier.

27. The method according to claim 18, wherein the structured definition language is XML based.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the application is a wireless application and the device is a wireless device.

30. The method according to claim 18, wherein the unique identifier is a composite key.

31. The method according to claim 18, wherein the message component defines a parent one of the message components coupled to a dependent one of the message components.

32. The method according to claim 31 further comprising the step of overriding one of the mappings of the parent message component by respective one of the mappings of the dependent message component.

33. A method for populating a communication message instance in accordance with a component application executing on a device, the component application comprising at least one data component and at least one message component having at least one message field definition and at least one data field definition, the component definitions expressed in a structured definition language, the method comprising the steps of:

determining that a message instance is to be generated and identifying a corresponding data component by a runtime environment, said corresponding data component comprising a mapping to a particular one or more of the at least one data field definitions, said mapping linking the definition of a particular data instance to the definition of a particular one or more data field instances of said at least one message component in accordance with a mapping resolution contract resolved at runtime by a runtime environment operating on the data and message component definitions;

identifying at least one unique mapping in the corresponding data component, each unique mapping identifying a particular message component as defined by a unique identifier representing the mapping in accordance with the mapping resolution contract;

obtaining at least one data instance field value corresponding to the at least one data field definition of the mapped message component;

populating the at least one message field of the message instance with the at least one data instance field value.

34. A method for populating a data instance for a component application executing on a device based on a received message, the component application comprising at least one data component having at least one data field definition and at least one message component having at least one message field definition, the component definitions expressed in a structured definition language, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a message and identifying a corresponding message component by a runtime environment;

identifying a corresponding data component providing a definition for the data instance to be populated by the runtime environment, said corresponding data component comprising a mapping to a particular one or more of the at least one message field definitions, said mapping linking the definition of a particular data instance to the definition of a particular one or more message field instances of said at least one message component in accordance with a mapping resolution contract resolved at runtime by a runtime environment operating on the data and message component definitions;

identifying at least one unique mapping present in the corresponding data component, the mapping identifying the at least one message field in the corresponding message component as defined by a unique identifier representing the mapping in accordance with the mapping resolution contract;

obtaining at least one message instance field value corresponding to the at least one message field of the mapped message component;

populating the at least one data field of the data instance with the at least one message instance field value.

35. A device for populating communication message in accordance with a component application executing on the device, the component application comprising at least one data component having at least one data field definition and at least one message component having at least one message field definition, the component definitions expressed in a structured definition language, the device comprising:

means for determining that a message instance is to be generated and identifying a corresponding message component, said corresponding message component comprising a mapping to a particular one or more of the at least one data field definitions, said mapping linking the definition of a particular message instance to the definition of a particular one or more data field instances in accordance with a mapping resolution contract resolved at runtime by means operating on the message and data component definitions;

means for identifying at least one unique mapping in the corresponding message component, each unique mapping identifying a particular data component as defined by a unique identifier representing the mapping in accordance with the mapping resolution contract;

means for obtaining at least one data instance field value corresponding to the at least one data field of the mapped particular data component; and

means for populating the at least one message field of the message instance with the at least one data instance field value.