Abstract: Subscriptions to stored data for different computer systems and mobile devices are generated based on distribution criteria and application data to control what portions of particular types of data should go to a particular computer system or mobile computing device, each of which may be identified as a data site. The particular type of data may include a business object type or a publication in a publish-and-subscribe model of data replication. The distribution criteria may include an attribute of the type of data to be distributed, or may be based on a relationship of data with an employee that uses a data site or on a responsibility of an employee that uses a data site. The distribution criteria also may include a query executable against portions of the application data or other types of complex processing logic.

Abstract: System and techniques are described for retrieving information relating to a received electronic message. Upon receipt of an incoming electronic message in a computer system, meta information stored in the computer system is accessed. The meta information identifies a first pre-selected class of a plurality of classes of stored fact information. A portion of the stored fact information that is a member of the first pre-selected class is retrieved. The retrieved portion of the stored fact information is stored in an electronic file that is associated with the incoming electronic message such that a rule for processing the incoming electronic message can be applied to the retrieved portion.

Abstract: Profit optimization methods and systems for a supply chain are described. An implementation of the technique includes determining the initial cost of components required to manufacture a product, dynamically determining the cost for substitution of at least one product component, dynamically determining the location of at least one substitute component, and manufacturing the product for the lowest cost based on the results of the cost of substitution and substitute component location determinations. At least one of the cost of substitute components and the component locations may be determined at or near the time of manufacture.

Abstract: Embodiments include a system for providing a set of services that retrieve requested data and calculate a requested value. The data retrieval service may traverse a set of related data structures such as data in a document or in a database to accumulate and return requested data. The data calculation service may determine an appropriate algorithm based on the data being processed and return a value. The data calculation service may call the data retrieval service to obtain the necessary data. These services may be independent services separate from other software applications. These services provide standard data determination and calculation functions across multiple applications and are accessible in a common software layer.

Abstract: A method of entering purchase order data includes receiving first data associated with an item. The first data comprises data entered by a user using a graphical user interface associated with a computerized purchasing system for at least one of products and services. The method also includes transferring the first data to a purchase order list in response to a single user input command facilitated by the graphical user interface, and displaying the first data and second data associated with the item as a purchase order list line item in the purchase order list using the graphical user interface in response to the single user input command. The second data includes at least one of data stored in the computerized purchasing system and data generated by the computerized purchasing system based on the first data.

Abstract: A computer-based method for representing a project includes accessing a description of the project and displaying, based on the description, at least a portion of the project in a perspective representation that generally resembles a path. A computer program product includes instructions that cause a processor to convert a description of the project into display instructions for displaying at least a portion of the project in a perspective representation, displaying relative progress of the project relative to an expected progress of the project, and displaying a relative rate of progress of the project relative to an expectation of a rate of progress. The computer program product is tangibly stored on machine readable media.

Abstract: A price planning workbench includes an automated pricing engine, a manual pricing engine, and a user interface. The user interface is configured to receive price planning information from one of the automated pricing engine and the manual pricing engine to generate a price planning schedule. The automated pricing engine may comprise a slow seller engine, a promotion management engine, or some other automated engine capable of providing the price changes used to generate the price planning schedule.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for installing resources in a computer system operate to identify a need to install resources on a target device and perform an installation of the resources on the target device using installer components located remotely from the target device. The remotely located installer components control the installation of the resources.

Abstract: Techniques are provided to integrate application systems by using an isolated mapping point that is a computer system, a server, or other computing device that includes a mapping data store and performs mapping functions. An isolated mapping point receives data from the sending system, transforms the data as necessary, and sends the transformed data to the receiving system. The isolated mapping point performs the data transformation without accessing data or processes on the sending system or the receiving system. The isolated mapping point is separate (or isolated) from both the sending system and the receiving system. The isolated mapping point uses only data included in the mapping database. The isolated mapping point receives data included in the mapping database received through a well-defined interface.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for real-time and context-aware tracking of items. Tags bound to items are read and information read from the tags and location information about the tags is provided by at least two enterprises and used to maintain disposition information about the items, which is made visible to enterprises in the supply chain. The disposition information can be mapped to a world model that tracks the items and circumstances affecting the items, for example, geo-spatial events and traffic delays. Visibility of the disposition information can be controlled through authorization. Visible information can include relationships between particular items and business documents such as order and shipping documents.

Abstract: A method of modeling an enterprise includes storing core objects, where the core objects include an information object defining information used in the enterprise, a participant object defining a participant in the enterprise, an enabler object defining a tool used in the enterprise, and an activity object defining a process performed in the enterprise, and storing relationship objects that define interactions between two or more of the core objects.

Abstract: Subscriptions to stored data for different computer systems and mobile devices are generated based on distribution criteria and application data to control what portions of particular types of data should go to a particular computer system or mobile computing device, each of which may be identified as a data site. The particular type of data may include a business object type or a publication in a publish-and-subscribe model of data replication. The distribution criteria may include an attribute of the type of data to be distributed, or may be based on a relationship of data with an employee that uses a data site or on a responsibility of an employee that uses a data site. The distribution criteria also may include a query executable against portions of the application data or other types of complex processing logic.

Abstract: A method of processing a purchase order is disclosed. The method includes receiving an electronic purchase order in a current one of a plurality of order periods for a designated delivery period, accessing a budget allocation corresponding to said delivery period, and providing an acceptance or a rejection of the electronic purchase order based at least partially on a budget portion of the current order period. The budget allocation includes a budget portion corresponding to each of the plurality of order periods.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of representing the availability of resources allocated to an entity includes receiving a planned resource description describing how resources were expected to be consumed by the entity, receiving a consumed resource description describing how resources are actually being consumed by the entity, and generating a graphic representation indicating a correlation between the planned resource description and the consumed resource description.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing a data structure for analyzing user sessions. A computer-implemented method, for processing information exchanged between a client and server, includes receiving information characterizing requests and responses exchanged between a client and a server. The method includes extracting field names and field values from the information. The method includes, for each hit, creating a name-value element for each field of the display page of the hit. Each name-value element includes a field name of the corresponding field and all the field values of the field found in the request and the one or more responses of the hit. The method includes creating, for each hit, a vector of the name-value elements created for the hit. The method includes, if the requests and responses include multiple hits, specifying an order of the vectors of the respective hits to define a sequence of vectors.

Abstract: A method, and computer program product for performing the method, is provided for defining a chart that graphically represents data stored in an electronic data source. The method includes receiving a user selection of 1) a data object family contained in the electronic data source, and 2) an attribute for the selected data object family. The selected attribute has multiple possible predefined values that are to serve as category axis values in the chart. The method also includes receiving a user definition of a first data series comprising a value measure to be determined for each of the category axis values and that uses stored data associated with the data object family. The method also includes storing an electronic chart definition file containing an identification of the selected data object attribute and the defined first data series.

Abstract: A computer-readable medium containing therein instructions that, when executed, generate on a display device a graphical user interface (GUI) for creating or revising a rule that contains a condition and an action to be taken when the condition is satisfied. The GUI includes a rule-editing area along with first and second user-selectable elements. The rule-editing area is configured to accept user input to create or revise the condition of the rule upon user selection of the first element. The rule-editing area is also configured to accept user input to create or revise the action of the rule upon user selection of the second element. The GUI further includes a rule-preview area that is configured to provide a display of a user-understandable representation of both the condition and the action.

Abstract: Systems and techniques to manage tasks in a data processing environment. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes monitoring a task in a data processing environment and, using an instance of a distributed application, assessing when to initiate recovery of the monitored task based on an expected execution time derived using the task's associated class and historical execution times. In another implementation, the technique includes forecasting an execution time of a task in a data processing environment using a class of the task and historical task execution times as input into a statistical analysis tool comprising multiple interconnected processing elements and servicing the task based on the forecast execution time.

Abstract: An interface for providing monitoring information from any monitored component to a central monitoring system in which an XML document is created according to a DTD conforming to a tree-structured monitoring architecture and then is made available to the central monitoring system either by posting it as an HTTP message or filing it in a designated directory, where it can be periodically polled by the central monitoring system. An initial long-form XML document can be used to completely specify the monitoring tree for the monitored component, and then subsequent short-form XML documents can be posted with current data corresponding to the monitoring tree elements themselves. An XML processor at the central monitoring system converts the XML document contents and applies them to a standard interface which has previously been available directly to fully conforming components.

Abstract: A user feedback system for improving a performance of a software application is described. The feedback system includes a telemetry collection system and a user feedback collection system. A context aggregator collects data from both the telemetry collection system and the user feedback collection system, and constructs a data model that characterizes the data. Using this data model, the feedback system is able to provide or enable software support in a timely, convenient, and useful way. Specifically, data in the data model is standardized across a number of software applications and/or users, so that multiple data models, along with other data sources, may be meaningfully compared to identify a problem, and possibly a solution, associated with an operation of the software application. Additionally, users of the feedback system may be connected with a virtual community of other users who the system has determined may be helpful in assisting one another.