U.S. patent application number 13/488236 was filed with the patent office on 2012-12-13 for implementation system for business applications.
This patent application is currently assigned to PROGRESS SOFTWARE CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Eric Samson.
Application Number | 20120317591 13/488236 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36282748 |
Filed Date | 2012-12-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120317591 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Samson; Eric |
December 13, 2012 |
Implementation System for Business Applications
Abstract
A system for addressing incompatibility between services and
applications is disclosed. The system comprises an intermediation
module, a mapper module and an execution module. The intermediation
module is configured to receive a first call from an application
and retrieve from a directory a reference to a service associated
with the application. The mapper module is configured to retrieve,
from the directory, service metadata describing the service and
business metadata describing business on the application. The
mapper module generates a mapping table that maps the business
metadata to the service metadata for providing a response to the
application query. The mapper module determines if an
incompatibility exists between a business requirement associated
with the application and the service. The execution module selects
and executes an interface of the service based on the mapping of
the business metadata and the service metadata.
Inventors: |
Samson; Eric; (Paris,
FR) |
Assignee: |
PROGRESS SOFTWARE
CORPORATION
Bedford
MA
|
Family ID: |
36282748 |
Appl. No.: |
13/488236 |
Filed: |
June 4, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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11327025 |
Jan 5, 2006 |
8209710 |
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13488236 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
719/330 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/10 20130101;
G06F 9/541 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
719/330 |
International
Class: |
G06F 9/44 20060101
G06F009/44 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Sep 22, 2005 |
FR |
0509714 |
Claims
1. A system for addressing incompatibility between services and
applications, the system comprising: a non-transitory
computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code, the
computer-readable medium comprising: an intermediation module
configured to receive a first call from an application and retrieve
from a directory a reference to a service associated with the
application; a mapper module, communicatively coupled to the
intermediation module, to retrieve from the directory (1) service
metadata describing the service and (2) business metadata
describing business on the application, the mapper module
generating, based at least in part on a list of the business
metadata subject to an application query, a mapping table that maps
the business metadata to the service metadata for providing a
response to the application query, the mapper module determining if
an incompatibility exists between a business requirement associated
with the application and the service; and an execution module,
communicatively coupled to the mapper module, to select and execute
an interface of the service based on the mapping of the business
metadata and the service metadata.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the service metadata includes a
description of a structure of the service.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the service metadata includes a
method for creating a structure of the service.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the service metadata includes a
description of an entity useful for providing the service.
5. The system of claim 1 comprising: a rule engine, communicatively
coupled to the mapper module, configured to create an execution
program based on the mapping of the service metadata and the
business metadata; and wherein the execution module selects the
interface of the service based on the execution program.
6. The system of claim 5 wherein the rule engine is configured to
create the execution program based on a configuration of the
system.
7. The system of claim 5 wherein the execution program comprises
data describing an organization of a plurality of calls to the
service.
8. The system of claim 5 wherein the execution program comprises
data describing an organization of the first call to the service
and a second call to a second service.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the rule engine is configured to
create the execution program based on a hierarchical link between
the service and the second service.
10. The system of claim 5 wherein the execution module selects the
interface of the service by translating a part of the execution
program into the interface of the service.
11. The system of claim 5 wherein the execution module is
configured to select a driver for a server hosting the service and
execute the interface through the driver.
12. A method implemented by a processor for addressing
incompatibility between services and applications, the method
comprising: the processor: receiving a first call from an
application; retrieving from a directory a reference to a service
associated with the application; retrieving service metadata
describing the service; retrieving business metadata describing
business on the application; generating, based at least in part on
a list of the business metadata subject to an application query, a
mapping table that maps the business metadata to the service
metadata for providing a response to the application query;
determining if an incompatibility exists between a business
requirement associated with the application and the service; and
selecting and executing an interface of the service based on the
mapping of the business metadata and the service metadata.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the service metadata includes a
description of a structure of the service.
14. The method of claim 12 wherein the service metadata includes a
method for creating a structure of the service.
15. The method of claim 12 wherein the service metadata includes a
description of an entity useful for providing the service.
16. The method of claim 12 comprising: creating an execution
program based on the mapping of the business metadata to the
service metadata, wherein the selection of the interface of the
service based on the mapping comprises selecting the interface
based on the execution program.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein creating the execution program
is based on a configuration of a system that executes the
method.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein the execution program comprises
data describing an organization of a plurality of calls to the
service.
19. The method of claim 16 wherein the execution program comprises
data describing an organization of the first call to the service
and a second call to a second service.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein creating the execution program
comprises creating the execution program based on a hierarchical
link between the service and the second service.
21. The method of claim 16 wherein the selection of the interface
of the service comprises translating a part of the execution
program into the interface of the service.
22. The method of 16 wherein executing the interface comprises
selecting a driver for a server hosting the service and executing
the interface through the driver.
Description
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/327,025 filed Jan. 5, 2006, entitled
"Implementation System for Business Applications," the entirety of
which is hereby incorporated by reference.
[0002] This invention relates to an implementation system fir
business applications that can be used to federate the data
received from data providers into a common set and process said set
in real time.
[0003] The first developments of this variety were produced in
certain major corporations. They were used during the manufacturing
stage to computer process the IT data received from specific
businesses by automatically transferring a computer file in
so-called neutral format.
[0004] The emergence of Intranets and the Internet, and especially
the growth in the number of computerized businesses, has led to the
need for increased automatic exchanges between those
businesses.
[0005] International organizations began thinking of SOAs
(Service-Oriented Architectures), in which the business
applications are based on services instead of coded entities, for
the purpose of more effectively gearing the new information
technologies towards the company's businesses and introducing a
higher degree of flexibility into their working environment.
[0006] Services, or functional services, are actually taken to mean
functional IT modules, such as functional modules of payroll,
invoicing, production management, technical data and client
systems, or CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAM (Computer-Aided
Manufacturing) modules, and so on. The last meaning given will be
used in the remainder of this document.
[0007] Currently, an approach extending that used for neutral
formats involves developing a standard bus capable of supporting
computer exchanges between heterogeneous services or businesses.
The ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) is one example. Such a solution
works all the time that the exchange requirements are low, but
beyond that, the solution is not necessarily efficient.
[0008] Furthermore, work performed by standardization groups, such
as OMG (Object Management Group), JDO (Java Data Object), JCA (Java
Connector Architecture), JMS (Java Messaging Service), EJB
(Enterprise JavaBeans) and SOAP (Service-Oriented Architecture
Protocol), is common knowledge.
[0009] These working groups particularly rely on the capacities of
the Java languages (programming language for the Web), as well as
the WSDL (Web Service Definition Language) and OWL languages (Web
Ontology Language) for developing business applications on the Web.
Work is also focussing on languages for corporate metadata, such as
EMD (Enterprise Metadata Discovery), but it is still unfinished or
deliberately incomplete.
[0010] Obviously, the first step in all this work is to manage to
formally describe the most common services and businesses by using
data describing the services, known as metadata, but the problem is
a difficult one, due to the diversity and complexity.
[0011] The diversity is increased even more by the wide range of
systems or servers hosting them:
[0012] Transaction processing mainframe systems (CICS Custom
Information Control System--or transaction processing monitors for
mainframes), middleware, MQSeries (asynchronous message-oriented
middleware), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), DBMS (Database
Management Systems), possibly RDBMS (Relational Database Management
Systems) or OODBMS (Object-Oriented Database Management Systems),
and the use of qurey languages, such as SQL (Structured Query
Language), and object-oriented languages, such as OOQL
(Object-Oriented Query Language) Systems hosting business
applications written in Web language, such as Java, HTML (Hypertext
Markup Language) and XML (Extended Markup Language)
[0013] For example, if we consider an application used by a
consumer goods company to view its customer invoices on the Web,
this Java business application must have access to the data
relating to an invoicing service, a customer service and a product
service. This data is presumed to reside in memory blocks, but it
is not. in the current example, it can only be retrieved by
querying an RDBMS and must be translated into XML data. As most of
these operations are manual, the invoices cannot be viewed in real
time, which means that the system is impracticable.
[0014] In brief and to simplify matters, an SQL application cannot
be used to query or even call callable services over the Web, and
conversely, a Web-based Java application cannot be used to call and
query a service related to an RDBMS or a transaction processing
system, nor receive data associated with the requested service.
[0015] Consequently, even if the data describing the services or
businesses in question were available, it would be impossible to
create a consistent dataset containing federated data from the Web
and from un RDBMS or OODBMS, or in any other system above, and
especially process that set in real time.
[0016] The applicant has been present in the market for several
years via its work in the field of query software for
large-capacity databases, such as RDBMS and OODBMS, and other data
sources available on the Web, XML and binary files. As part of its
wish to extend the scope of its products to SOA service-oriented
architectures, the applicant came upon the idea for its
invention.
[0017] Therefore, the invention relates to an implementation system
for business applications based on at least one callable functional
service, comprising a man-machine interface for controlling the
application, a server running the application, a server hosting the
service and a server for automatically calling the service,
including memory resources containing the data describing the
service and business on the application, and designed to call the
service, receive the data related to the service and transform that
data so that it can be processed in the application server, all of
which under the control of the man-machine interface and the
application server.
[0018] The service-related data will preferably be transformed
automatically.
[0019] A callable service is taken to mean a service comprising an
API (Application Programming Interface).
[0020] The server for automatically calling the service acts as an
intermediary between the server running the application and the
server hosting the service.
[0021] To do so, the server for automatically calling the service
comprises an intermediation module designed to substitute for the
business application during the time required to send a
service-related data business query to the server hosting the
service and return the data to it. The business application can
therefore process the service-related data in real time.
[0022] The server for automatically calling the service preferably
comprises a mapper module featuring the memory resources containing
the data describing the service and the data describing the
business on the application for calculating the data describing the
execution of the business queries and arranging them in the memory
resources. In particular, this allows for the subsequent processing
of business requirements that are not known during development.
[0023] The intermediation module has the advantage of featuring an
execution block for substituting for the business application
during a query phase. To do so, the application query phase is
executed via a compiled query program, where said compiled program
is enhanced with call commands for the intermediation module in the
appropriate parts of the program when post-compiling on said
program.
[0024] To query the service-related data, the intermediation module
is designed to extract the data describing the execution of the
business queries from the memory resources containing them, and to
query the service-related data, the execution block features a
translation function designed to translate the queries to the
service into calls compliant with the API (Application Programming
Interface), a selection function designed to select a driver
according to the type of server hosting it and a command function
for the selected driver and for executing the translated
queries.
[0025] As the implementation system preferably contains at least
two callable services, the intermediation module features a rule
engine block designed to calculate, schedule and arrange the data
describing the organization of the calls to said services in a
program memory block. The rule engine block is designed to
calculate execution rules for the calls to the services according
to a business application query, the data describing the services
and business, and the grammar.
[0026] A noteworthy characteristic of the invention is that there
is no need to translate the data related to one of the services
into data related to one of the other services to execute the
business application. The native data for each service is used in
Web language, such as XML, which ensures that the results are as
integral and complete as possible, where this data alone is capable
of meeting the most demanding of production requirements.
[0027] The server for automatically calling the service is
preferably connected to a general-purpose computer network of the
Internet or Intranet variety to serve as a data server or benefit
from the Web services, and can be called from the server running
the application and is connected to a company's specific computer
network, such as an Ethernet type, of database management systems
hosting services.
[0028] The invention will be easier to understand when reading the
following description of the implementation system for business
applications, according to the invention and the accompanying
diagram, wherein:
[0029] FIG. 1 represents the functional block diagram of the
implementation system for business applications, according to the
invention, based on several callable services
[0030] FIG. 2 is a simplified illustration of the management of the
memories describing the services, the business and the program
memory in the simple case of an application for viewing
invoices
[0031] FIG. 3 is a chronological operating diagram of the system
according to the invention
[0032] The appendix contains a partial list of the specific grammar
for the invention's rule engine.
[0033] With reference to FIG. 1, the system (1) comprises:
[0034] 1) A server (5) featuring a man-machine interface (4),
comprising a keyboard (41) and a monitor (42), which is used to run
a functional or business application (2); in other words, whose
function enables a business to be performed--for example, a company
business as described above
[0035] 2) A set of heterogeneous computer systems (6, 16, 26, 36,
each hosting services (3,13, 23, 33). This set comprises the
above-mentioned systems--in the example in FIG. 1, a CICS
transaction processing system (6) and its transactional database
(6), a middleware or MQSeries system(26), an ERP (36), an RDBMS
(16) and the relational database (16') of the system (16)
[0036] 3) An intermediate server (7) between the server (5) and the
set of systems (6, 16,26,36) and which will be described further
on
[0037] 4) A set of computer networks (15, IS', 17, 24) linking the
servers (5, 7) and e systems (6, 16, 26, 36). This set comprises:
[0038] A computer network (17), such as an Ethernet network,
linking the transaction processing systems 6, 26) to the
intermediate server (7) and/or an external computer network (15'),
the Internet in this case, to which the server (7) is also linked
[0039] A network (24), of the Ethernet variety or other, linking
the corporate systems (16, 36) and/or the servers (5, 7).
[0040] In the example in FIG. 1, the intermediate server (7) is
linked to the application server (5) by an Intranet (15), for
example also by an Ethernet link, and to the Internet (15)--on the
one hand, to be controlled if required from a Web-based
application, and on the other, to query Web services, such as by
using a Web language (e.g. WSDL or SOAP).
[0041] Each service (3, 13, 23, 33) comprises an API (3', 13', 23',
33'), so that it can be called, programmed and executed by the
network channel to which it is connected.
[0042] The business application (2) is based on the processing of
service data, which can be retrieved by calling the services from
among 3, 13, 23 and 33. it is controlled by the interface (4).
[0043] The intermediate server (7) will now be described.
[0044] it conventionally features all the control/command methods
(not represented), such as a supervisor and real-time monitors, an
input/output module (40) and, specifically in this case, a mapper
module (10) or EDME (Entity Data Mapping Engine) and an
intermediation module (9).
[0045] The mapper module (10) is a mapping engine for the data
describing the services (3, 13, 23, 33) and the BMM (Business
Method Model) metadata on the business application (2).
[0046] There are two types of data describing the services (3, 13,
23, 33) as follows:
[0047] SEM (Service Entity Model) metadata arranged in memory block
8 of the memory resources of the mapper module (10)
[0048] Service Method Model (SMM) metadata arranged in another
memory block (8') of the memory resources
[0049] The BMM metadata is arranged in a third memory block (22) of
the mapper module.
[0050] The mapping of the data describing the services (3, 13, 23,
33) and the BMM metadata are stored as mapping tables in a fourth
memory block (22') for each application (2) query when executed in
real time by the mapper (10).
[0051] The mapping tables (22') are deduced logically.
[0052] For example, by considering the application mentioned
earlier for viewing invoices, as illustrated in FIG. 2, memory
blocks 8 and 8' are initialized with the SEM and SMM metadata of
all services of use to the business application (2), where for each
service the metadata describes the structure (120) of the service
in memory block 8 and the method (130) for creating the structure
(120) of the service in memory block 8', based on the
"bibliographical" SDM (Service Description Model) metadata
(110).
[0053] In the example in FIG. 2, an initial service (3) is a
database of the structure (120), identified as SEM 3, containing
hierarchical data or entities, where the customer reference entity
covers the account, invoice and product reference entities. The
structure (120) of the second service 15 (13), identified as SEM
13, cannot be seen and more simply contains a product reference
entity with which a product description is associated.
[0054] Based on a list (140) of BMM business data subject to an
application (2) query for the product feature description of a
product subject to a customer invoice, the mapper module (10)
deduces the mapping table (150), indicating the useful services (3,
13) and supplying the useful entities for providing the service
responses to the query and stores it in memory 22. An
incompatibility between the business requirements and the available
services may be detected at this level of processing.
[0055] Furthermore, the mapper module (10) arranges the metadata in
memory blocks 8, 8' and 22 for services 3, 13, 23 and 33 into a
directory (19), which is arranged by the references of the callable
services (3, 13,23,33) with the characteristics of the
corresponding APIs (3', 13',23',33').
[0056] The intermediation module (9) comprises an execution block
(14), a rule engine block (29) containing an engine program (M), a
memory block (29') containing the elements for the specific grammar
(or metalanguage) and a program memory block (11).
[0057] The input/output block (40) comprises a set of bidirectional
drivers (12, 18) adapted to the APIs of the different systems (6,
16, 26, 36) hosting the services (3, 13, 23, 33), a service
response processing block (20) and a transceiver block (21).
[0058] Block 21 comprises a function (31) for transforming the
service responses into data that can be read by the application (2)
and a function (32) for sending to the application (2).
[0059] The execution block (14) comprises a selection function (71)
designed to select the required driver according to the type of
server (6, 16, 26, 36) hosting the service (3, 13, 23, 33), a
translation function (72) designed to translate the queries to the
services (3, 13, 23, 33) into calls compliant with their respective
APIs (3', 13', 23', 33') and a function (73) for controlling the
selected driver and executing the translated queries.
[0060] The rule engine (29) retrieves the contents of memory blocks
22 and 8', computes a query execution program and arranges the
program in program memory block 11.
[0061] The query execution program in memory block 11 is computed
as a program in formal language, referred to here as SEL (Symbolic
Execution Language) or BPEL (Business Process Execution Language),
and which can be considered as the data describing the organization
of the calls to the services.
[0062] The SEL is the terminal language calculated from the
contents of memory blocks 22 and 8', considered as a non-terminal
language by applying the specific grammar (29').
[0063] Although the contents of memory blocks 22 and 8' change with
each query, the grammar (29' is invariable and depends only on the
configuration of the system (1). It is initially established
according to the known mathematical methods in the field of
artificial intelligence and expert systems, and is subsequently an
integral part of the system (1). Part of its listing in XSD format
(XML Scheme Definition) is given in the appendix.
[0064] To go back to the simple example of displaying customer
invoice details, the engine program (M) of the rule engine (29)
calculates the contents of program memory block 11, meaning the
execution program (160) in symbolic execution language (SEL).
[0065] To do so, the engine program (M) first analyzes the SEM
metadata (120) according to the analysis rules included in program
M and predetermined by the structure of the services concerned and
the facts. It deduces the SMM generation methods (130) according to
the effect rules included in program M and predetermined by the
results demanded from the various services, taking account of the
hierarchical dependency links, such as those identified as 121, 122
and 123 between the entities, of the SEM data structure seen
above.
[0066] Then according to the mapping (150) performed above, the SMM
3 and 13 data in 130 and the specific grammar)(29' for the rule
engine (29), it computes the execution program (160) for the calls
to services 3 and 13, which orchestrates two successive calls - one
to service 3 to find the product reference in the invoice of the
customer performing the query, and the other to service 13 to find
the features of the product above. In this case, the system (1) has
transformed two real hierarchical databases into a virtual
relational database.
[0067] The application (2) query is executed by running a service
query program, belonging to the application (2) and expressed in a
precompiled language, from the man-machine interface (4).
[0068] To ensure that the program can access the services, it is
enhanced with call commands for the intermediation module (9) at
appropriate parts of the program. Enhancement can be executed when
post-compiling the program following compilation.
[0069] As the query program is programmed in Java language, the
calls to the intermediation module (9) and the response from the
module are programmed to comply with the currently known data
access standards, such as IDO (JSR12) and SDO.
[0070] Finally, the BMM metadata for all applications (2) is
arranged in directory 19 according to the business and application
references when initially integrating the system (1).
[0071] The overall operation of the system (1) will now be
described in reference to FIG. 3.
[0072] To perform a business application (2) query, the user orders
a launch stage (200) for the application (2) via the interface (4)
keyboard (41) for the server (5).
[0073] During stage 201, the application (2) launches a Java query
program that executes a call (202) to the into intermediation
module (9) of the intermediate server 7), which is sent during
stage 203 by the network channel (15), the input/output block (40)
and the transceiver block (21). The call is referenced A, like the
application (2), and contains the Ei entity references.
[0074] During stage 204, the intermediation module (9) searches in
directory 19 for one or more service references from 3, 13, 23, 33
to be queried from the E entities subject to the query performed by
the reference A application (2). Two cases may arise as
follows:
[0075] 1) Directory 19 contains references of Sj services matching
the Ei entities, in which case module (9) launches the mapper
module (10), which during stage 205 retrieves (but it might be the
intermediation module (9), as in FIG. 1) the SEMj and SMMj metadata
of Sj in directory 19 and arranges it in memory blocks 8 and 8',
retrieves the BMM metadata of the reference A application (2) and
arranges it in memory block 22, and during stage 206 maps the
contents of memory block 22' from the contents of memory blocks 8,
8' and 22, as seen earlier. Then the intermediation module (9) runs
the execution block (14).
[0076] 2) Directory 19 cannot find a reference for the Sj service
matching the Ei entities, in which case the module (9) launches
(207) a message indicating that there is no callable service for
responding to the query. The message is sent over the network (15)
by block 21.
[0077] In stage 208, the execution module (14) retrieves the SMMj
contents and the mapping in memory blocks 8' and 22' respectively
and runs the rule engine block (29), which generates the query
execution program (BPEL) in stage 209 from the grammar (29') that
it arranges in program memory block 11.
[0078] In stage 210, the execution block (14) reads the formal BPEL
language in memory block 11, uses the selection function (72) to
select the API driver (3', 13, 23, 33') of the service (3, 3, 33)
on the server (6, 16, 26, 36) hosting the service, translates it
via its translation function (71) into queries for the selected API
and executes the API queries via its function (73) by the channel
for drivers 12 and 18 in the input/output block (40).
[0079] In stage 211, the selected service (3, 13, 23, 33) processes
the API query and in stage 212 retrieves the data from the relevant
database (6', 16') or performs the usual transactions with its data
provider, such as the Internet (15').
[0080] In stage 213, the selected service (3, 13, 23, 33) returns
the retrieved data in native format in Web language (e.g. XML),
which ensures that the results are as integral and complete as
possible, to the input/output block (40), which during stage 214
resends it to the execution block (14) to complete (by looping back
to stage 210) the execution of the BPEL program in memory block 11
or to launch stage 215 for resending via block 21 of the
input/output block (40) to the application (2) via the Intranet
(15) channel (216).
[0081] When the service data is received during stage 217, the
application (2) is rerun as if the data were present in the memory
of the server (5) hosting the application.
[0082] At the next stage (218), the application is continued.
[0083] It can be seen that the intermediate server (7) is a true
server for automatically calling the services that acts as an
intermediary between a business server comprising business
applications and complementary computerized services (3, 13, 23,
33) hosted on the heterogeneous systems of a mixed range of data
providers.
* * * * *