Method for using a business model user interface

[0001] This application claims benefit of priority of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/448,494, filed Feb. 21, 2003.

[0002] The field of the invention relates to user interfaces and, in particular to methods of and user interface application programming interfaces for providing extended user interface access to existing software products.

[0003] Externally accessing a database through an application developed with a proprietary software product can be a difficult, if not impossible task, especially if no facility has been provided by the developer of the proprietary software product to access the database. This is due to the fact that a user will usually have no insight into the structure of or access mechanism for the database. Therefore, if there is no readily available user interface that the user may use to access the application from a customer program or a third-party add-on program, the user must create his/her own user interface. To create his/her own interface may mean that the user has to “reverse engineer” the application as well as the database structure, file names, etc. to be able to create a program to access the application. Unfortunately, this can lead to numerous problems including crashing the application, corrupting or destroying the data in the database, and obtaining incorrect and/or useless data, to name a few. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a standardized, easy to use user interface that may be used by users of the proprietary software product and third-party developers to access the database.

[0010] Embodiments of the present invention provide improved methods and application programming interfaces (APIs) for extended user interface access to databases through applications created by proprietary software products in distributed environments. According to an embodiment, the method includes instantiating an applications object to identify all executing applications in a server-based database system, where the applications object may be an instance of an applications class conforming to a component object model standard for interfacing to a business database; and instantiating an application object dynamically from the instantiated applications object to access at least one form and at least one menu in one of the executing applications. The method may also include setting a forms property of the application object to include the at least one form of the executing application; and setting a menus property of the application object to include a menu tree of said executing application, where the menu tree may identify all of the menus in the executing application. The method may further include invoking an item event handler within the application object to catch all of the item events that are non-menu events from the executing application. The method may still further include invoking a menu event handler within the application object to catch all menu events from the executing application.

[0011] For example, customer-specific programs, that is, programs developed by customers to interface with the proprietary software, and/or an external third party program may use a standardized user interface API to access the database application that was implemented using the proprietary software product. Specifically, access to the database occurs by using the user API to connect to one or more implemented component object model (COM) objects, which permit access to the application and, ultimately, the database through the application. The connection to the COM objects enables embodiments of the present invention to also provide access to forms, controls with the forms and menus within the database. Therefore, embodiments of the present invention may provide a standard easy to implement and use user interface to access data stored in a database(s) by using an application created using a proprietary software product to manage the database.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram of a computer system incorporating a user interface application programming interface (API) that communicates with component object model (COM) objects to interface to a host business database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. COM is a standard interface for communication of objects in distributed applications. In FIG. 1, a software application 110, for example, an add-on software application, may be connected to a user interface API 120, which may be connected to a COM objects 130. COM objects 130 may be connected to a host computing system 140, for example, a database management system such as a Business One database system from SAP AG of Waldorf, Germany. Specifically, COM objects 130 may be used to access information in one or more business databases 150, 160 through active forms and menus in host computing system 140.

[0013] In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, in FIG. 1, user interface API 120 may make additional functionality available to a user of, for example, software application 110 to manipulate the data in business databases 150, 160. User interface API 120 may be implemented as a collection of COM objects including distributed COM (DCOM) objects, which may provide access to existing forms, controls within the forms and menus to access data in one or both of business databases 150, 160. Specifically, user interface API 120 may be used to integrate customer-specific programs as well as third party products into host computing system 140. For example, this integration may include the addition of buttons to a user interface of host computing system 140 to enable software application 110 to access business databases 150, 160.

[0014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of COM objects 130 that may provide an integrated user interface to a host business database according to an embodiment of the present invention. For example, in FIG. 2, COM objects 130 may include an application object 210, an applications object 220, an item_event object 230 and a menu_event object 240. Each of these objects may be used to enable communication between software application 110 and business databases 150, 160 in FIG. 1.

[0015] In FIG. 2, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, application object 210 may represent a connection to a currently working database application, for example, the application that is currently accessing one of business databases 150, 160, in FIG. 1. Returning to FIG. 2, application object 210 may be used to connect to the menus and/or forms of the currently running database application to manipulate the data therein. Applications object 220 may act as the root object to hold an identification for each of the database applications that are currently running on host computing system 140 in FIG. 1.

[0016] In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, in FIG. 2, item_event object 230 may catch all non-menu events, that is, all events that are not menu events in the running application and permit software application 110 to manipulate the data in at least one of business databases 150, 160 in FIG. 1. Similarly, returning to FIG. 2, menu_event object 240 may catch all menu events in the running application and also permit software application 110 to manipulate the data in business databases 150, 160 in FIG. 1. For example, in FIG. 2, a request 251 from software application 110 using user interface API 120 to connect to database 150 may be received by application object 210. Although the embodiment in FIG. 2 only shows application object 210 receiving request 251 directly from software application 110, in other embodiments it may also receive request 251 via applications object 220. In response to request 251 application object 210 may connect to item_event object 230 and menu_event object 240 and invoke item event and menu event handlers to deal with subsequent user inputs. Specifically, item_event object 230 may catch all of the events 252 (that is, user inputs) that are not menu events (for example, on form, form Item, etc.) made in the application by the user. In response to each item event 252, item_event object 230 may request 254 item data from database 150. Similarly, menu event object 240 may catch menu events 253 (that is, user menu selections, for example, click on a leaf menu item only) made in the application by the user. In response to each menu event 253, menu_event object 240 may request 255 menu data from database 150.

[0017] FIG. 3 is a detailed diagram of the elements of application object 210, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, in accordance with the embodiment in FIG. 3, application object 210 may include a variety of methods 310, which may include a KeyboardPress method 311, a MenuBarMessage method 313, and a MessageBox method 315. Application object 210 may also include a variety of properties 340, which may include a Forms property 341 and a Menus property 343. Lastly, application object 210 may include a variety of events 360, which may include an ItemEvent event 361 and a MenuEvent event 363. The embodiment in FIG. 3 is merely illustrative of one of the many possible embodiments of the present invention, and in no way limits the scope of the present invention to this embodiment alone.

[0018] In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a more comprehensive, but not exclusive, list of methods that may be associated with application object 210 may include those listed and described in Table 1.

[0019]

TABLE 1
Methods	Description
Activate	Activates the menu item (the same as activating it
	from the menu bar manually).
Add	Adds new objects to the collection. The new
	objects may include: variables, valid values,
	columns, conditions, datasources, forms, items,
	groupeditems and groupeditems.
KeyboardPresss	Simulates a key press event on the application.
MenuBarMessage	Sends a new active Business object.
MenuExist	Checks if a menu exists.
MessageBox	Sends a modal message box to the application and
	receives a returned button index.
Remove	Removes a menu item.
Select	Selects a new valid value from the collection.
SetGroup	Gathers items into form group (radio buttons
	& tabs only).

[0020] For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a more comprehensive, but not exclusive, list of the properties that may be associated with application object 210 may include those listed and described in Table 2.

[0021]

TABLE 2
Properties	Description
Activation Success	When Before_Action is False, gives the status on which event
	was handled by the application.
AppId	MenuEvent: Identify the application on which this event took
	place. Currently working only with one running application.
	ItemEvent: Uniquely identify the application. Is not used when
	working with only one working application.
BckRGBColor	Sets the background color for Item, Column, Column Title and
	Cell.
Before Action	Specifies whether the event sent before the application handled
	the event or before.
BeforeAction	Indicates whether the event handled is before the application
	processes the event or after.
BracketCloseNum	Number of closing brackets for the condition.
BracketOpenNum	Number of opening brackets for the condition.
Cells	Cells collection, one per matrix row.
CharVal	A long value.
Checked	CheckBox: Holds the current boolean status of the check box.
	Setting this property causes the check box to be
	checked/unchecked.
	MenuItem: Gets/Sets menu item check mark value.
.
.
.
Forms	Holds the forms alive in the application in current time. Use to
	access the Form object by its ID (Instance ID field); its Type &
	Instance Count (Form Type & Type Counter fields); and its index
	(0 based), in the forms collection.
.
.
.
Menus	Holds the menu items in a hierarchical structure, which reflect the
	application menu tree in current time. Use to access the
	MenuItem object by its ID (recursive/flat search), or index (0
	based).
.
.
.
Userproperties	Holds user defined variables.
.
.
.

[0022] For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a partial list of the events that may be associated with application object 210 may include those listed and described in Table 3.

[0023]

TABLE 3
Events	Description
ItemEvent	Catches all the events that are not menu events (on form,
	form Item, etc.) made in the application.
MenuEvent	Catches menu events (click on leaf menu item only) made
	in the application.

[0024] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a user interface API for providing extended functionality to an existing database system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, a third party application functional add-on 410 may connect to a user interface API COM objects 420, which may be connected to a standard user interface 430 for a database 440.

[0025] In FIG. 4, user interface API 420 may contain a variety of COM objects. The COM objects may be referred to as business objects and the business objects may have associated with them various methods for updating, retrieving and manipulating data in database 450. Examples of some, but not necessarily all, of the classes of business objects and a description of each object that may be included are listed and described in Table 4.

[0026]

TABLE 4
Objects	Description
Application	The application object reflects the currently
	working application. The application instance is used to
	connect to its containers (e.g., menus or forms), for event
	manipulation and for property settings.
Applications	The applications object reflects all currently running
	applications. There is only one instance of the
	applications object, which is used as root by all
	COM-clients.
Cell	Reflects a matrix cell identified by row/column.
CheckBox	Allows the user to check/uncheck a checkbox.
Column	Identifies a matrix column.
ColumnTitle	Settings for column title (background color, font etc.).
Condition	SQL condition for SELECT-query.
DataSource	Represents one data source object (e.g. table).
EditText	Holds specific properties for editing of text.
Folder	Represents the Tab-item.
Form	This object holds all data of the referenced form
	that is open for manipulation by the UI-API.
GroupedItems	Used to gather items (Radio Buttons, Tabs) into a group.
Item	The Item object is uniquely identified by its item
	number in a form and holds all data of the referenced
	item in the application, that is open for manipulation
	by the UI-API.
Items	This object holds all information of all items of
	a form (buttons, edit text items etc.); the Item object can
	be accessed by its ID (long integer) or index (short
	integer).
ItemEvent	Catches all events except menu events (on forms,
	form items) made in the application.
LinkedButton	Specific for linked item type.
Matrix	For item type it_TABLE this object holds a
	reference to the matrix object. With this object column,
	rows and properties of the matrix can be accessed.
MenuEvent	Catches all menu events made in the application.
MenuItem	This object is used to activate the specified menu
	item in the application.
OptionBtn	Used to select a radio button (cannot un-select).
Popup	Popup a combo box.
ValidValue	This object is referenced by the combo box object.
Var	Holds a user-defined variable; can be attached to the
	UserProperties-property of the Form object.

[0027] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a client computer system for implementing the user interface, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, a client computer system 500 includes a processing component 510 coupled to a display component 520, an input component 530 and a communication component 540. Processing component 510 may include a central processing unit 512, a random access memory (RAM) 514 and a mass memory system 516 coupled together via a main system bus 518. Mass memory system 518 may include an operating system, a browser program, a database data access component and an application for accessing an incompatible database. In fact, in embodiments of the present invention, the operating system may include Microsoft® Windows®98 second edition, Windows® 2000 sp1 or higher, Windows® XP® or Windows®) NT® with sp5 or higher. The browser program may, for example, include Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. The database data access component may, for example, include Microsoft® data access component v2.5 (mdac_typ.exe). The application accessing the incompatible database may include, for example, a software development kit such as, for example, SAPBobsCom.dll from SAP.

[0028] In FIG. 5, in accordance With an embodiment of the present invention, display component 520 may include, for example, a standard CRT, a liquid crystal display, a flat panel display. Input component 530 may include, for example, a keyboard, a writing tablet, and a voice-to-text subsystem. Communication component 540 may include, for example, a dial-up modem, a digital cable modem, a direct network connection, and a wireless modem.

[0029] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method for interfacing to a business database, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 6, the method may include software application 110 instantiating (610) applications object 220 and instantiating (620) application object 210 as an instance of applications object 220 conforming to the COM standard in, for example, business database 150. The method also may include software application 110 setting (630) a form property of application object 210 to the forms currently alive in the application, and setting (640) a menus property of application object 210 to reflect the current application menu tree. The method also may include software application 110 invoking (650) an item event handler within application object 210 and invoking (660) a menu event handler within application object 210.

[0030] Several embodiments of the present invention are specifically illustrated and described herein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the present invention are covered by the above teachings and come within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.