Mechanism for automatically establishing connections between executable components of a hypertext-based application

An apparatus for establishing a connection between executable components of a software application, the software application including a set of hypertext-based pages and a plurality of executable components, wherein each of the executable components is referenced by at least one of the set of hypertext-based pages, the apparatus comprising:

• means for issuing a request from a first executable component of the plurality of executable components, the request specifying a set of criteria;
• means for identifg a second executable component of the plurality of executable components which satisfies the set of criteria;
• and
• means for providing, asynchronously with the request, information identifying the second executable component to the first executable component.

A method of automatically establishing a connection between executable components of a software application, the software application including a plurality of executable components, the method comprising the steps of:

• issuing a request from a first component of the plurality of executable components, the request specifying a set of criteria;
• identifying a subset of the plurality of executable components, the subset including more than one of the plurality of executable components satisfying the set of criteria;
• and
• providing to the first component information identifying each of the components of the subset.

An apparatus for automatically establishing a connection between executable components of a software application, the software application including a set of hypertext-based pages and a plurality of executable components, wherein each of the executable components is referenced by at least one of the set of hypertext-based pages, the apparatus comprising:

• means for issuing a request from a first executable component of the plurality of executable components, the request specifying a set of criteria;
• means for identifying a subset of the plurality of executable components, the subset including more than one of the plurality of executable components satisfying the set of criteria;
• and
• means for providing to the first executable component information identifying each of the executable components of the subset.

A method of assembling a software application, the method comprising the steps of:

• displaying a set of identifiers on a display device of a processing system, each identifier corresponding to one of a plurality of executable components of the software application;
• receiving first user input specifying at least one selection from the set of identifiers;
• receiving second user input and, in response to the second user input:
• identifying a subset of the plurality of executable components to be included in the application based on the first user input, the subset including at least one pair of executable components requiring a connection to each other for execution of the application, wherein the application includes no specification of the connection;
• and
• automatically establishing the connection.

A method of executing a software application, the method comprising the steps of:

• displaying a graphical user interface on a display device, the graphical user interface including a set of options;
• receiving first user input specifying at least one selection from the set of options;
• receiving second user input for executing the software application;
• and
• in response to the second user input:
• identifying a plurality of executable components to be included in the software application based on the first user input, wherein at least two of the plurality of executable components require a connection to each other for executing the software application;
• assembling the application by establishing any connections required by the plurality of executable components without using a specification of connections between any of the plurality of executable components;
• and
• causing the plurality of executable components to be executed.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a storage facility coupled to the processor, the storage facility having stored therein an application and an infrastructure, the application including a plurality of executable components and a set of hypermedia-based pages referencing the executable components, the plurality of executable components including a first executable component, such that when the application is executed,
• the first executable component initiates a request for a connection to at least one other of the plurality of executable components by issuing a request specifying a set of criteria for the connection,
• the infrastructure maintains registrations of the plurality of executable components,
• the infrastructure identifies at least one of the plurality of executable components which satisfies the set of criteria based on the registrations, and
• the infrastructure provides to the first executable component, asynchronously with the request, information identifying each of the executable components which satisfy the criteria.