Configurable software application system
AssigneeOracle International Corporation
InventorsJoel Heinke, Christopher van Loben Sels, Charles Horne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods of generating and executing customized variants of a software application are provided. The customized variants include customization of user interfaces, data processing logic, and data models. Customization is accomplished by overlaying custom metadata on base metadata. The base metadata characterizes the software application and the custom metadata characterizes variants of the software application. The custom metadata and base metadata have an object-oriented relationship. Related variants are optionally applied as a set to assure compatibility between variants of the same software application.
Claims25
A system comprising:
- base metadata configured to characterize data processing logic within a software application;
- custom metadata configured to define a variant of the software application including custom data processing logic, the custom metadata data being configured to be overlaid on the base metadata and to inherit attributes of the base metadata;
- a context evaluator configured to overlay the custom metadata on the base metadata in response to a request to execute the software application received from an end user, responsive to an execution context;
- and
- a runtime metadata interpreter configured to generate executable instructions using the base metadata and overlaid custom metadata at runtime.
A system comprising:
- a context evaluator configured for selecting a first custom metadata from among a plurality of custom metadata responsive to an execution context of a software application, the first custom metadata configured to define a variant of the software application;
- a metadata constructor configured to overlay the selected first custom metadata on base metadata, the first custom metadata being configured to inherit attributes of the base metadata, the base metadata characterizing the software application;
- and
- a metadata validator configured to assure that the base metadata and the overlaid first custom metadata are valid according to constraint metadata.
A method comprising:
- generating custom rule metadata configured to be overlaid on base rule metadata and to characterize a variant of a software application;
- analyzing the custom rule metadata and the base rule metadata with regard to constraint metadata;
- and
- associating the custom rule metadata with one or more execution context parameters, the execution context parameters being configured for selecting the custom rule metadata from among a plurality of custom rule metadata at runtime of the software application.
A method comprising:
- receiving a request for execution of a software application from an end-user;
- receiving execution context parameters associated with the received request;
- identifying first custom metadata using the execution context parameters, the first custom metadata being configured to be overlaid on base metadata associated with the software application and being configured to define data processing logic;
- overlaying the identified first custom metadata on the base metadata;
- interpreting the overlaid first custom metadata and base metadata at runtime of the software application, to generate executable instructions;
- and
- executing the executable instructions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.