Method and apparatus for conducting electronic commerce

An object-oriented computer program product for providing a generic interface between an electronic commerce frontend and a business management backend, comprising:

• a medium readable by a computer, the computer readable medium having:
• a framework having:
• an environment means for providing data relevant to performing business data manipulations within the framework;
• a listener object coupled to the environment means, for coupling to the frontend or the backend, for receiving an operation ID from the frontend or the backend, for accessing the environment means to determine a business object class identified by the operation ID, and for creating a business object of the identified business object class;
• at least one business framework object operatively coupled to both the listener object and the environment means for receiving business objects created by the listener object and for executing methods of each received business object;
• and
• a communications object operatively coupled to the at least one business framework object and to the environment means, for sending and receiving business objects to and from both the at least one business framework object and a remote framework.

An object-oriented computer program product for forming a business object to be used within a generic framework interface between an electronic commerce frontend and a business management backend, comprising:

• a medium readable by a computer, the computer readable medium having:
• a common business object class containing methods required by the framework within which the business object is to travel;
• at least one specific business object class containing data variables and methods specific to the operation to be performed by a business object of the specific business object class;
• a frontend adapter class containing methods for adapting to a specific frontend;
• a backend adapter class containing methods for adapting to a specific backend;
• and
• means for creating a business object derived from the common business object class, the specific business object class, the frontend adapter class and the backend adapter class.

A computer based method for creating by inheritance a generic business object to interface between an electronic commerce frontend and a business management backend, comprising:

• inheriting a common business object class containing methods required by a framework within which business objects are to travel;
• inheriting a plurality of specific business object classes, each specific business object class having data variables and methods specific to an operation to be performed by business objects of the specific business object class;
• inheriting a frontend adapter class for mapping data from the frontend or the backend to a business object;
• and
• inheriting a backend adapter class for mapping data from a business object to the frontend or the backend.

A computer based method for providing a generic interface between an electronic commerce frontend and a business management backend, comprising:

• receiving an operation ID from the frontend or the backend;
• determining a business object class identified by the operation ID;
• creating a business object of the identified business object class by:
• inheriting a common business object class containing methods required by a framework within which the created business objects is to travel;
• inheriting a specific business object class having data variables and methods specific to an operation to be performed by the created business object;
• inheriting an inbound adapter class for mapping data from the frontend or the backend to the created business object;
• and
• inheriting an outbound adapter class for mapping data from the created business object to the frontend or the backend;
• and
• transporting the created business object to a remote framework instance.