Business process management for a message-based exchange infrastructure

• US 7,788,319 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2004
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Baeuerle, Stefan, Burgmeier, Hermann, Schmidt, Patrick, Naundorf, Stephan, Liebig, Christoph
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwa; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Musa; Abdelnabi O
• Application Number:
  US10/846,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20040254945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,300 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/547 Messaging middleware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing integration of a heterogeneous application landscape are disclosed. The landscape is defined by one or more business process. A business process management system includes an integration server connected between two or more applications in the landscape. The integration server includes a business process engine configured to execute one or more business processes that define message-based interactions between the two or more applications. The business process management system further includes a runtime engine, under direction of the business process engine, for executing one or more messaging services on the message-based interactions between the two or more applications.

Claims

1. A computer system for managing collaborative processing between software components in an exchange infrastructure of an enterprise system, the computer system comprising:

a runtime engine implemented on one or more processors, the runtime engine comprising a business process engine being configured for runtime execution of business process management, the one or more processors executing instructions stored non-transitorily in a computer readable storage medium to cause the runtime engine to perform functions comprising;

receiving a message from a first application in the exchange infrastructure;

accessing a configuration-specific collaboration description of a system landscape of the exchange infrastructure from an integration directory, the integration directory including one or more context objects that provide access-related information, the configuration-specific collaboration description having been captured at run time by retrieving a model of a business process from an integration repository, accessing a list of currently installed software components in the exchange infrastructure from a system landscape directory, retrieving the connectivity descriptions for each a plurality of currently installed software components from an integration repository, and creating a configuration-specific description of the one or more context objects that use message content to determine a message recipient according to the model of the business process, the integration repository storing, at design time, the model of the business process that associates a first application and a second application of the exchange infrastructure according to requirements of the business process and that links a first interface description of the first application and a second interface description of the second application, the integration repository comprising connectivity descriptions of the first application and the second application and all other software components available to be installed in the exchange infrastructure, design-time interface descriptions of the first application and the second application, message context descriptions of messages to be exchanged between the first application and the second application, and interface mapping descriptions associating pairs of the design-time interface descriptions, wherein the design-time interface descriptions, the message context descriptions, and the interface mapping descriptions are linked to at least one design-time business process;

determining, using the business process engine to execute the model of the business process, a required interface for delivering the message, the determining comprising identifying the second application as a receiver of the message based on the configuration-specific description of the one or more context objects, reading a routing rule corresponding to the second application from the configuration-specific collaboration description captured to the integration directory from the integration repository, evaluating the routing rule, applying a mapping that is specified by the routing rule and that defines a required transformation between the first interface and the second interface, and generating a semantic link for the message to associate the message with the business process;

transforming the message into a format expected by the second application according to the required transformation; and

executing a messaging service between the first and the second application, the messaging service being defined by the model of the business process and correlating the message based on the semantic link.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising the integration repository.

3. A system in accordance with claim 2, further comprising the integration directory.

4. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the messaging service comprises logical routing of the message, mapping of the message from the first application to the second application, and resolving physical addresses of the first application and the second application, in accordance with the business process executed by the business process engine.

5. A system for managing collaborative processing between software components in an exchange infrastructure of an enterprise system, the system comprising:

an integration repository that stores, at design time, a model of a business process that associates a first application and a second application of the exchange infrastructure according to requirements of the business process and that links a first interface description of the first application and a second interface description of the second application, the integration repository comprising connectivity descriptions of the first application and the second application and all other software components available to be installed in the exchange infrastructure, design-time interface descriptions of the first application and the second application, message context descriptions of messages to be exchanged between the first application and the second application, and interface mapping descriptions associating pairs of the design-time interface descriptions, wherein the design-time interface descriptions, the message context descriptions, and the interface mapping descriptions are linked to at least one design-time business process; and

an integration directory that captures, at run time, a configuration-specific collaboration description of a system landscape of the exchange infrastructure to, the capturing comprising retrieving the model of the business process from the integration repository, accessing a list of currently installed software components in the exchange infrastructure from a system landscape directory, retrieving the connectivity descriptions for each of the currently installed software components from the integration repository, and creating a configuration-specific description of one or more context objects that use message content to determine a message recipient according to the model of the business process, wherein the context objects provide access-related information;

the integration repository and the integration directory are accessible by a runtime engine that comprises a business process engine, that receives a message from the first application, that determines a required interface for delivering the message, generates a semantic link for the message to associate the message with the business process, transforms the message into a format expected by the second application according to the required transformation;

executes a messaging service between the first and the second application, the messaging service being defined by the model of the business process and correlating the message based on the semantic link.

6. A system in accordance with claim 5, wherein the integration repository further includes design-time business scenario descriptions that represent an abstraction of the design-time business processes.

7. A system in accordance with claim 5, wherein each design-time interface description includes a link to at least one interface type object and/or at least one message type object.

8. A system in accordance with claim 5, wherein the integration directory further includes a configuration-specific business scenario description, which comprise the configuration-specific business process.

9. A system in accordance with claim 8, wherein each configuration specific business process includes a link to at least one routing relation object and/or at least one mapping relation object.

10. A method for managing collaborative processing between software components in an exchange infrastructure of an enterprise system, the method comprising:

storing, in an integration repository at design time, a model of a business process that associates a first application and a second application of the exchange infrastructure according to requirements of the business process and that links a first interface description of the first application and a second interface description of the second application, the integration repository comprising connectivity descriptions of the first application and the second application and all other software components available to be installed in the exchange infrastructure, design-time interface descriptions of the first application and the second application, message context descriptions of messages to be exchanged between the first application and the second application, and interface mapping descriptions associating pairs of the design-time interface descriptions, wherein the design-time interface descriptions, the message context descriptions, and the interface mapping descriptions are linked to at least one design-time business process;

capturing a configuration-specific collaboration description of a system landscape of the exchange infrastructure to an integration directory at run time, the capturing comprising retrieving the model of the business process from the integration repository, accessing a list of currently installed software components in the exchange infrastructure from a system landscape directory, retrieving the connectivity descriptions for each of the currently installed software components from the integration repository, and creating a configuration-specific description of one or more context objects that provide access-related information and that use message content to determine a message recipient according to the model of the business process;

receiving a message from the first application at a runtime engine implemented on one or more processors, the runtime engine comprising a business process engine;

determining, using the business process engine to execute the model of the business process, a required interface for delivering the message, the determining comprising identifying the second application as a receiver of the message based on the configuration-specific description of the one or more context objects, reading a routing rule corresponding to the second application from the configuration-specific collaboration description captured to the integration directory from the integration repository, evaluating the routing rule, applying a mapping that is specified by the routing rule and that defines a required transformation between the first interface and the second interface, and generating a semantic link for the message to associate the message with the business process;

transforming the message into a format expected by the second application according to the required transformation; and

executing, by the runtime engine, a messaging service between the first and the second application, the messaging service being defined by the model of the business process and correlating the message based on the semantic link.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10 further, comprising linking the business process model to at least one context object that describes the routing of the message between the first application and the second application based on message content.

12. A method in accordance with claim 10, further comprising linking the business process model to at least one interface mapping description that describes the mapping between the first interface and the second interface.

13. A method in accordance with claim 10, further -comprising defining the configuration-specific business process associated with the runtime configuration of an enterprise application landscape of the enterprise system and based on the business process model.

14. A method in accordance with claim 13 further comprising:

generating an instance of at least one configuration-specific business process in the runtime engine; and

executing the instance to communicate the message according to the at least one configuration-specific business process.

15. A method in accordance with claim 14, further comprising communicating the message between the first application and the second application according to the configuration-specific business process.