Business application address determination

An apparatus comprising:

• business logic functions configured to:
• perform logical operations on business data;
• at least one consumer communication proxy configured to:
• identify a provider application that is associated with the apparatus, from amongst a plurality of provider applications hosted on a provider machine, based at least in part upon the provider applications business application identifier (ID),
• wherein each provider application includes at least one web service and
• wherein the plurality of provider applications includes a plurality of instantiations of at least one of the web service, and
• transmit a message to one of the web services of the identified provider application.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a web service, a message, from a consumer application, that includes a business application identifier (ID) that substantially uniquely identifies the consumer application;
• determining, based upon the business application ID, a logical port address with which to communicate with at least a portion of the consumer application;
• and
• transmitting, via a communication proxy, a response message to the consumer application via the determined logical port address.

An apparatus comprising:

• business logic functions configured to:
• perform logical operations on business data;
• at least one web service configured to:
• receive a message, from a consumer application, that includes a business application identifier that substantially uniquely identifies the consumer application;
• and
• at least one communications proxy configured to:
• determine, based upon the business application ID, a logical port address with which to communicate with at least a portion of the consumer application, and
• transmit a response message to the consumer application via the determined logical port address.

A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for the determining a logical port address, said method comprising:

• identifying a provider application that is associated with a consumer application, from amongst a plurality of provider applications hosted on a provider machine, based at least in part upon the provider application's business application identifier (ID),
• wherein each provider application includes at least one web service, and
• wherein the plurality of provider applications includes a plurality of instantiations of at least one of the web service;
• and
• transmitting a message to one of the web services of the identified provider application.

A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for the determining a logical port address, said method comprising:

• receiving, by a web service, a message, from a consumer application, that includes a business application identifier that substantially uniquely identifies the consumer application;
• determining, based upon the business application ID, a logical port address with which to communicate with at least a portion of the consumer application;
• and
• transmitting, by a communications proxy, a response message to the consumer application via the determined logical port address.

A consumer application comprising:

• at least one communications proxy configured to communicate with a web service included by a provider application;
• and
• an application programmable interface (API) comprising:
• a logical port address determination procedure configured to:
• take as input a value communication representing a communications proxy and a value respecting a substantially unique identifier of a business application, and
• provide a logical port address with which the communications proxy can communicate with the business application, and
• a business application identifier determination procedure configured to:
• provide a substantially unique identifier of the consumer application.