System and method for incorporating web services in a web site

• US 7,788,681 B1
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Vignette Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: O'Connell, Conleth S. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H
• Application Number:
  US10/915,858
• Time in Patent Office: 2,211 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/328, 719/330, 707/101.4, 709/223, 709/219, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating access to web services, wherein function calls are packaged with information and/or code that facilitates use of the function calls. One embodiment comprises a system that includes a server, where the server is configured to provide a web service accessible through a function call. The server is configured to bundle the function call for the web service with information for facilitating execution of the function call and to distribute the resulting function call package. The information for facilitating the function call may include parameters for the call or software code that can be configured to format user input for use as parameters of the function call, to prompt the user for parameters, to control the display of the web services received in response to execution of the function call, or to otherwise facilitate use of the function call.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first machine hosting a server configured to provide a web service and a function call package associated with the web service, wherein the first machine is configured to communicate with a second machine hosting a web site, wherein the first machine is connected to the second machine over a network, and wherein the second machine is configured to receive a request for the web service from a user at a third machine; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium accessible by the first machine and storing the function call package,

wherein the function call package includes a function call corresponding to the web service and information corresponding to one or more input parameters, output parameters, or return values defined for the function call, and

wherein the server is operable to distribute the function call package to the second machine over the network, wherein the distributed function call package is configured to collect information from the user at the third machine visiting the web site hosted at the second machine and submit a transaction to the server on the first machine based on the collected information, and further configured to receive a response from the server and present the response to the user visiting the web site.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the function call package received at the second machine is modifiable within constraints specified in the information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to provide the web service in response to execution of the function call.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the information comprises software code for a client of the web service to customize the function call package.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the information comprises software code configured to perform processes in support of the function call.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the software code is configured to format user input to generate syntactically correct parameters for the function call.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the software code is configured to control an appearance of the web service to the user.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of a first subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user and to allow modification of a second subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of all aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.

10. A method comprising:

at a first machine, packaging a function call to a web service with information corresponding to one or more input parameters, output parameters, or return values defined for the function call in a function call package; and

distributing the function call package from the first machine over a network to a second machine hosting a web site for providing the web service hosted at the first machine through the web site hosted at the second machine, wherein the distributed function call package is configured to collect information from a user at a third machine visiting the web site hosted at the second machine and submit a transaction to the first machine based on the collected information, and further configured to receive a response from the first machine and present the response to the user visiting the web site.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing the web service through the web site in response to execution of the function call.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the information comprises software code for a client of the web service to customize the function call package.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the information comprises software code configured to perform processes in support of the function call.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the software code is configured to format user input to generate syntactically correct parameters for the function call.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the software code is configured to control an appearance of the web service to user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of a first subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user and to allow modification of a second subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of all aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium implementing a software program product containing one or more instructions configured to cause a first computer to perform:

packaging a function call to a web service with information corresponding to one or more input parameters, output parameters, or return values defined for the function call in a function call package; and

distributing the function call package from the first machine over a network to a second machine hosting a web site for providing the web service hosted at the first machine through the web site hosted at the second machine, wherein the distributed function call package is configured to collect information from a user at a third machine visiting the web site hosted at the second machine and submit a transaction to the first machine based on the collected information, and further configured to receive a response from the first machine and present the response to the user visiting the web site.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises providing the web service through the web site in response to execution of the function call.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the information comprises software code for a client of the web service to customize the function call package.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the information comprises software code configured to perform processes in support of the function call.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the software code is configured to format user input to generate syntactically correct parameters for the function call.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the software code is configured to control an appearance of the web service to the user.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of a first subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user and to allow modification of a second subset of aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the software code is configured to prevent modification of all aspects of the appearance of the web service to the user.