Exposing Process Flows and Choreography Controllers As Web Services

Abstract

The present invention relates to computer-based devices and methods supporting document exchange choreographies. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to devices and methods that facilitate evolution of systems by various combinations of choreography versioning, service versioning and document versioning. It provides for choreography management using a choreography agent and presents choreography-enabled interfaces to non choreography enabled applications. Additional aspects of the present invention include a graphical design tool and transparent aliasing of a host service as multiple context setting franchised services. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

We claim as follows: 
     
         1 . A method of versioning a service entity having one or more standard-compliant interfaces, the method including:
 maintaining service versions of the service, wherein the service versions add optional operations to a base service;   sending, to the service entity, a first message that does not depend on the service version supported by the service entity;   receiving from the service entity a response identifying the service version that it supports; and   proceeding with a message exchange with the service entity utilizing the supported service version.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first message is sent to a plurality of service entities including the service entity and the response is received from at least one service entity of the plurality of service entities. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first message is compatible with all service versions supported by the service entity. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the service includes one of a web service and a document exchange activity interface. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the service is a choreographed service. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the service versions add optional operations to a base service;   the service versions of the service are maintained in a registry that identifies the service version supported by the service entity; and   the service version supported by the service entity is determined by accessing the registry.   
     
     
         7 . A computer-assisted device, including program instructions running on a processor, carrying out the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon, the program, when executed by a processor, performing the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         9 . A mechanism for correlating messages generated by a plurality non choreography-enabled interfaces with a conversation identifier corresponding to an instance of a choreography, including:
 an internal process flow mapped to a plurality of application interfaces that generate messages lacking a choreography conversation identifier;   a specification of fields in messages generated by the application interfaces to be used to correlate the messages with a choreography instance; and   logic and resources that inspect messages received at the internal process flow from the application interfaces, apply the specification of fields, and correlate the messages with a particular conversation identifier corresponding to the choreography instance.   
     
     
         10 . A mechanism for correlating messages generated by a plurality non choreography-enabled interfaces with a conversation identifier corresponding to an instance of a choreography, including:
 a mapping between one or more choreography enabled interfaces and a plurality of application interfaces that generate messages that lack a choreography conversation identifier;   a specification of fields in messages generated by the application interfaces to be used to correlate the messages with a choreography instance; and   logic and resources that inspect messages received from the application interfaces, apply the specification of fields, correlate the messages with a particular conversation identifier corresponding to a choreography instance and present them at the choreography enabled interfaces.   
     
     
         11 . A method of composing choreographed messages including a conversation identifier from non choreographed messages lacking a conversation identifier, the choreographed messages presented at a first interface, the non choreographed messages received at a second interface from a plurality of third interfaces, the method including:
 specifying fields in messages generated by the third interfaces to be used to correlate non choreographed messages generated by the third interfaces with choreography instances;   maintaining status information for a particular choreography instance, as messages are exchanged between the second and third interfaces;   using the specification of fields and the status information to correlate a particular non choreographed message received at the second interface with a conversation identifier corresponding to the particular choreography instance; and   presenting at least part of the non choreographed message and the conversation identifier at the first interface.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further including determining at run-time:
 a version of the message choreography for the brokering agent and the requesting entity to use;   a service version in use by the brokering agent; and   document versions to be used by the brokering agent and the requesting entity in the message exchanges and translations between the document versions.   
     
     
         13 . A method of aliasing a hosted service as a plurality of franchised services, the method including:
 registering one or more franchised services as web services having distinct logical addresses;   providing a hosted web service including logic to examine messages received through the franchised services to determine the context of the messages; and   configuring the franchised services to pass messages received through to the hosted web service.