Mapping a semantic model of business collaboration to a web services meta model

A method for modeling a business collaboration, the method comprising:

• defining a plurality of transaction patterns, each transaction pattern including at least one transaction activity of a plurality of transaction activities;
• associating the plurality of transaction patterns with an interface class for web services, each instance of the interface class corresponding to one of the plurality of transaction patterns;
• associating the plurality of transaction activities with an operation class, each instance of the interface class associated with at least one instance of the operation class and each instance of the operation class corresponding to one of the plurality of transaction activities;
• defining a transaction message representing information exchanged in a business collaboration;
• and
• associating the transaction message with a message class representing at least one message type for each instance of the operation class.

A system for developing applications, the system comprising a repository including data conforming to a data model, the data model comprising:

• an interface class for web services, the interface class including at least one operation and each instance of the interface class corresponding to a business transaction pattern of a business collaboration, the business transaction pattern including at least one business transaction activity;
• an operation class representing at least one operation associated with an instance of the interface class, each instance of the operation class corresponding to a business transaction activity of the business collaboration;
• and
• a message class representing at least one message type for each instance of the operation class.

A system for developing applications, the system comprising:

• a repository storing meta data defining a data model;
• a computer for retrieving meta data from the repository and generating a message in accordance with the retrieved meta data, the message comprising:
• an instance of an interface class including at least one operation, the instance of the interface class corresponding to a business transaction pattern of a business collaboration, the business transaction pattern including at least one business transaction activity;
• an instance of an operation class representing at least one operation associated with the instance of the interface class, the instance of the operation class corresponding to a business transaction activity of the business collaboration;
• and
• an instance of a message class representing at least one message type for the instance of the operation class.