Method and apparatus for exchanging communications between heterogeneous applications

A computer-implemented method of integrating a plurality of heterogeneous applications, the method comprising the steps of:

• communicating an item from a source application to a target application in a series of phases;
• wherein said series of phases includes a source-side native phase during which a first role is executed, the first role specifying how to interact with said source application to receive the item from said source application in a first application-specific format;
• wherein said series of phases includes a common view phase, performed after said source-side native phase, during which a second role is executed, the second role specifying one or more business rules that are to be applied independent of the identities of said source application and said target application;
• and
• wherein said series of phases includes a target-side native phase, performed after said common view phase, during which a third role is executed, the third role specifying how to interact with said target application to communicate the item to said target application in a second application-specific format.

A computer-implemented method for integrating a plurality of heterogeneous applications, the method comprising:

• storing metadata in a first repository form to configure instructions for performing one or more conversion operations on a particular item being exchanged between two or more heterogeneous applications in a plurality of applications, the first repository form being structured so as to facilitate validation of the metadata prior to using the metadata to configure the instructions;
• detecting the particular item being transmitted from a first application in the plurality of applications for delivery to one or more other applications in the plurality of application;
• responsive to detecting the particular item being transmitted from a first application, converting the metadata from in the first repository form to a second repository form, the second repository form being structured so as to enable the instructions to be executable using the metadata into the second repository form;
• executing the configured instructions to perform one or more conversion operations on the particular item using the metadata in the second repository form, the one or more conversion operations converting the particular item from a format of the first application to a format of each of the one or more other applications, wherein the one or more conversion operations includes at least one intermediate conversion operation converting the particular item into a canonical format.

An integration system for enabling a plurality of heterogeneous applications to exchange communications, the system comprising:

• a first repository configured to store metadata that identifies instructions, and configurations for the instructions, for performing one or more conversion operations on items being exchanged between two or more heterogeneous applications in the plurality of heterogeneous applications, at least some of the metadata being stored in a normalized form;
• a second repository configured to store the metadata in a denormalized form;
• an engine configured to:
• detect an item transmitted from a first application in the plurality of heterogeneous applications for delivery to one or more other applications in the plurality of heterogeneous applications;
• cause the metadata in the first repository to deploy to the second repository;
• access the second repository to identify metadata specified for that item;
• and
• execute instructions configured for the item using the identified metadata in the second repository in order to perform one or more conversion operations, the one or more conversion operations converting the item from a format of the first application to a format of each of the one or more other applications.

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for integrating a plurality of heterogeneous applications, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• communicating an item from a source application to a target application in a series of phases;
• wherein said series of phases includes a source-side native phase during which a first role is executed, the first role specifying how to interact with said source application to receive the item from said source application in a first application-specific format;
• wherein said series of phases includes a common view phase, performed after said source-side native phase, during which a second role is executed, the second role specifying one or more business rules that are to be applied independent of the identities of said source application and said target application;
• and
• wherein said series of phases includes a target-side native phase, performed after said common view phase, during which a third role is executed, the third role specifying how to interact with said target application to communicate the item to said target application in a second application-specific format.