System, method, and computer readable medium for integrating an original application with a remote application

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/086,101, entitled SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR INTEGRATING AN ORIGINAL APPLICATION WITH A REMOTE APPLICATION, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/086,211, entitled SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR INTEGRATING APPLICATIONS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/086,120, entitled SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR INTEGRATING AN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE APPLICATION WITH A TARGET LANGUAGE APPLICATION, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/086,102, entitled SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR NORMALIZING SOURCE FILES IN MULTIPLE SOFTWARE LANGUAGES, the disclosures of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to integrating applications, and, more specifically to a system and method for integrating an original application with a remote application.

Various limitations are associated with integrating applications such as difficulty in sharing the structure of application data and application programming interfaces (classes). As such, it is cumbersome for an application written in one language or in an original application to access a functionality provided by an application written in a different language or a remote application. It is currently tedious to integrate these applications because a common structure must be defined in a third language (such as Extensible Markup Language, Common Object Request Broker Architecture Event Definition Language, etc.).

The present invention overcomes these problems and limitations by providing a system and method for integrating an original application with a remote application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises a system, method, and computer readable medium for an original application with a remote application. In one embodiment, a method for integrating an original application with a remote application comprises generating adapter classes related to the original application, generating proxy classes related to the remote application, wherein the proxy classes are adapted to communicate with the adapter classes, generating data types related to the remote application, wherein the data types related to the remote application are equivalent to data types related to the original application, and generating streamers related to the remote application, wherein the streamers related to the remote application are adapted to be utilized by the proxy classes.

In another embodiment, a method for integrating an original application with a remote application comprises generating proxy classes related to the remote application, generating data types related to the remote application, wherein the data types related to the remote application are equivalent to data types related to an original application, and generating streamers related to the remote application, wherein the streamers related to the remote application are adapted to be utilized by the proxy classes.

In a further embodiment, a computer readable medium comprises instructions for: generating at least one proxy class related to a remote application, generating at least one data type related to the remote application, and generating at least one streamer related to the remote application, wherein the data type related to the remote application is equivalent to at least one data type related to an original application, and wherein the streamer is adapted to be utilized by the proxy class.

In yet another embodiment, a computer readable medium comprises instructions for: generating at least one of: a proxy class, a data type, and a streamer, each related to a remote application, wherein the data type related to the remote application is equivalent to at least one data type related to an original application.

In yet a further embodiment, a system for integrating an original application with a remote application comprises a first module adapted to generate adapter classes related to an original application, a second module adapted to generate proxy classes related to a remote application, wherein the first module and the second module are operably coupled, the second module adapted to generate data types related to the remote application, and the second module adapted to convert data communication between the proxy classes and the adapter classes.

In yet another embodiment, a module for integrating an original application with a remote application, wherein the module is adapted to: generate adapter classes related to an original application, wherein the adapter classes are adapted to provide access to functions of the original application, provide data from the adapter classes to a remote application, and receive converted data by the adapter class from the remote application, wherein the data is converted into a neutral data format.

In yet a further embodiment, a module for integrating an original application with a remote application, wherein the module is adapted to: generate proxy classes related to a remote application, generate data types related to the remote application, and convert data communication between the proxy classes and an original application, generate streamers related to the remote application, wherein the streamers are adapted to: convert data communicated by the proxy classes to the original application and convert data communicated by the original application to the proxy classes, wherein the data is converted into a neutral data format.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a flow chart describing connecting a source language application with a target language application in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 depicts a flow diagram describing messaging between a source application and a target application in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 depicts a flow chart 10 that describes steps involved in connecting a source language application with a target language application. A software program implementing the current invention is started and at step 12, it is determined if application files are loaded. In one embodiment, it is determined if application files in an original (source) language are loaded into the program. This determination is preferably performed by software of the present invention but can be performed by a user. If the files are not loaded, the software and/or user are prompted to load the application files at step 14. In one embodiment, a prompt to load the original source files into the program is received. The software program normalizes the definitions in the original source files that are loaded. Definitions include classes, methods, structures and other software program constructs. If the files are loaded, it is determined if any classes and methods are selected at step 16. In one embodiment, the software program checks to see if the user has selected any classes and/or methods in the original source files. The selected methods and classes will be exported to target language applications.

If they are not selected, the software and/or user are prompted to select the classes, methods, and other constructs in the program at step 18. If they are selected, it is determined if mapping for all complex user defined types is provided at step 20. In one embodiment, the software program verifies the selected constructs against all target languages. The software program identifies the mapping of the constructs in the original source language to the target language. If the mapping is not provided, the software and/or user are prompted to perform the mapping for all complex user defined types used in parameters, return types, and exceptions in step 22. In one embodiment, if the construct is complex in nature and has no equivalent in a target language, the software program prompts the user to provide a mapping for the construct. If the mapping is provided, it is determined if any target languages are selected at step 24. If they are not selected, the software and/or user are prompted to select the target languages at step 26. If they are selected, software is generated to connect the source language application with the target language application(s) at step 28. The generated code consists of adapters on the source language side to export existing source language application objects. The generated code consists of proxies on the target language side to provide access to source language application objects.

In one embodiment, a method for integrating an original application with a remote application comprises generating adapter classes related to the original application, generating proxy classes related to the remote application, wherein the proxy classes are adapted to communicate with the adapter classes, generating data types related to the remote application, wherein the data types related to the remote application are equivalent to data types related to the original application, and generating streamers related to the remote application, wherein the streamers related to the remote application are adapted to be utilized by the proxy classes. The communication comprises sending input parameters, related to the original application, to the adapter classes, receiving at least one of: output parameters, return values, and exceptions, related to the original application, at the proxy classes, receiving at least one of: input parameters, related to the original application, at the adapter classes, and sending at least one of: output parameters, return values, and exceptions, related to the original application, to the proxy classes.

The method further comprises providing access to functions of the original application by the adapter classes, converting data communicated by the proxy classes to the adapter classes and by the adapter classes to the proxy classes, by the streamers related to the remote application, into a neutral data format, and receiving the data by the streamers in neutral data format and converting the data to corresponding data types.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow diagram 30 of the present invention. An input source file 32 in the original language, that includes a plurality of classes 33-36, is loaded into the software program implementing the current invention. Class 33 (or Class A) is a business class and classes 34 and 36 are data classes used by the business class. More specifically, Class A is an application class that is exported by the user. The application class consists of a method, for example, getB( ) and a member. Class B is a data class that is used as a result type by the method in the application Class A and Class C is a data class that is used as the type of a member in the application Class A. In this example, class 34 is used as a result of a method, class 36 is used as a public member, and class 33 is a class that is of interest to remote applications.

The input file 32 is imported into an application 38 (which is a software program implementing the current invention) that generates files or classes 44-48 on an original or source application side 40 and files or classes 50-58 on a remote or target application side 42. The streamer class 44 is generated for Class B which is used as the return type for the getB( ) method in Class A, while the streamer class generated for Class C is used as the type of the member in Class A. The Adapter class 48 is generated for Class A that provides target language applications to invoke the getB( ) method and access the member of original source application objects. The input file 32, the application 38, the source application side 40 and the target application side 42 may fully and/or partially reside on a client, a server, and/or a client and a server.

A proxy class 50 (related to the target language) sends a request 60 to an adapter class 48 (related to the original language), and a response 62 and an exception 64 are received by the proxy class 50. The request 60, the response 62, and the exception 64 are sent generally based on data types 52 and 54 related to the target language, streamers 56 and 58 related to the target language, and streamers 44 and 46 related to the original language. More specifically, the proxy class 50 is generated for the Class A to be used in the target language applications as a proxy for the original source application objects. The proxy class 50 contains a getB( ) method, an access for a member and a mutator for the member.

The Class B 52, is an equivalent class for Class B 34 in the original source language that forms the return type of the getB( ) method in the proxy, while the Class C 54 is an equivalent class for Class C 36 in the original source language that is used in the accessor and mutator for the member. The streamer classes 56 and 58 are streamer classes generated for the generated Class B and Class C, respectively.

The target language application 42 communicates with the source language application by invoking the getB( ) method on the proxy class. The method invocation causes the generated code to create a data packet 60 containing the intent of the target language application 42 to invoke the getB( ) method on the source language application 40 object. The packet 60 is transferred to the source language application 40. The source language application adapter 48 receives the packet 60 and invokes the method on the original source language application object. The return data of the method is returned as a response packet 62 to the target language application 42. If an exception occurs during the invocation of the method on the original source language application object, the exception data of the method is returned as a exception packet 64 to the target language application 42.

In one embodiment, a system for integrating an original application with a remote application comprises a first module adapted to generate adapter classes related to an original application, a second module adapted to generate proxy classes related to a remote application, wherein the first module and the second module are operably coupled, the second module adapted to generate data types related to the remote application, and the second module adapted to convert data communication between the proxy classes and the adapter classes, wherein the adapter classes are adapted to provide access to functions of the original application, wherein the second module is adapted to generate streamers related to the remote application, wherein the streamers related to the remote application are adapted to: convert data communicated by the proxy classes to the adapter classes, and convert data communicated by the adapter classes to the proxy classes, wherein the data is converted into a neutral data format, and wherein the streamers are adapted to receive the data in the neutral data format and convert the data to corresponding data types.

The communication comprises sending input parameters, related to the original application, to the adapter classes, receiving at least one of: output parameters, return values, and exceptions, related to the original application, at the proxy classes, receiving at least one of: input parameters, related to the original application, at the adapter classes, and sending at least one of: output parameters, return values, and exceptions, related to the original application, to the proxy classes.

Although an exemplary embodiment of the system and method of the present invention has been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the functionality performed by the input file 32, the application 38, the source application side 40 and the target application side 42, can be performed by one or more of the input file 32, the application 38, the source application side 40 and the target application side 42 in a distributed architecture and on or via any electronic device. Further, such functionality may be performed by depicted and/or un-depicted contents of the input file 32, the application 38, the source application side 40 and the target application side 42.