Abstract: The architecture provides development tools for the occasional developer to build a substantial portion of an application interface for accessing and interacting with actual data. The lack in knowledge of the occasional developer to complete the project is then supplemented by a development service provider such that experienced developers complete the interface and integrate the interface into the application environment so the occasional developer can use the application to access data for which the interface was developed. The architecture provides tools that are understandable for building in a guided way the framework and the user experience for the application, and then passes on the more complex pieces to IT because coding may be needed or a model should be generated that is scalable for a large number of users, for example. IT then completes the development process and integrates the final solution into the application environment.

Abstract: The architecture provides development tools for the occasional developer to build a substantial portion of an application interface for accessing and interacting with actual data. The lack in knowledge of the occasional developer to complete the project is then supplemented by a development service provider such that experienced developers complete the interface and integrate the interface into the application environment so the occasional developer can use the application to access data for which the interface was developed. The architecture provides tools that are understandable for building in a guided way the framework and the user experience for the application, and then passes on the more complex pieces to IT because coding may be needed or a model should be generated that is scalable for a large number of users, for example. IT then completes the development process and integrates the final solution into the application environment.

Abstract: An adaptive picker for selecting data in disparate information systems is provided. The adaptive picker may be implemented by an application to pick items from one or more data stores, which are associated with other applications. The adaptive picker determines items provided by the data store that are available for picking and the types of data associated with the items. The adaptive picker receives key information provided by a user through the first application and searches for the available items based on the key information. The adaptive picker also filters the items to identify a desired item. The adaptive picker can determine the filtering capabilities associated with the data stores and automatically adapt to these filtering capabilities. The adaptive picker can retrieve a desired item with a key information search that matches the key information with a unique identifier associated with desired item. The key information search enables a user to pick an item without browsing.

Abstract: Systems and methods for annotating documents in provided in a collaborative application with data from disparate information systems are provided. The collaborative application enables the annotation of a document with data provided by another application. Particularly, the collaborative application enables a user to pick an item from a data store associated with another application. An association is established between the document and the picked item and retrieves data associated with the picked item from the data store. The document is annotated with the retrieved data. Because of the association, the collaborative application can determine that the picked item in the data store has been modified by the other application. The collaborative application may retrieve modified data associated with the picked item from the data store and update the annotation data associated with the document with the modified data.

Abstract: A data store catalogue service model is disclosed for exposing disparate data store services to clients without requiring explicit knowledge on how to interact with each disparate service. The data store catalogue service model may maintain interaction details for each data store service that clients may access for interacting with those services. The model may also maintain metadata that may describe the different types of services available for access by clients, the data types used by those services, how to access the data provided by the services, and how to communicate semantically with the services for accessing the service's data. Additionally, the data store may include metadata that enables clients to interact with one or more registered data stores in a number of ways, such as for discovering registered data store services, entities, classes, and/or any associations between related entities within the same or among disparate services.

Abstract: An enterprise system may separate the executable functionality existing in backend applications, and the separation may be at differing levels of granularity. The separated functions of the application may be registered in a catalog in the form of metadata objects. Once the executable functionality has been registered, the authorization information for each granular functional object may be associated with authorization information. In this manner, the authorization of a service of an application may be made on a feature by feature (or object by object) basis in a unified manner.

Abstract: A system facilitates the search engine to search for pieces of information in various databases and application documents without the need to know the specific protocols to communicate with the various databases and application documents, such as Microsoft Excel documents. Despite the multitude of possible protocols which a crawler would have to use to connect to the databases, the system includes a unifying application programming interface to unify the way to access pieces of information in the databases and application documents.

Abstract: A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for providing spreadsheet-driven key performance indicators are disclosed. According to the method, a spreadsheet-driven key performance indicator is created that includes a location of a spreadsheet, a location of a cell within the spreadsheet to be utilized as an indicator value, and a goal value. The key performance indicator may be evaluated by retrieving the indicator value from cell of the spreadsheet, comparing the indicator value to the goal value, and providing a visual indication based on the result of the comparison. The goal value may also be expressed as a location within a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet locations may contain references to databases containing the data that should be utilized as the indicator and goal values. A warning value may also be specified, compared to the indicator, and a visual indication may be provided based upon the result of the comparison.

Abstract: A computing system for the publication of actions associated with the current context of an entity, such as a business object is provided. The computing system has a component that stores entities, a component that stores the actions associated with the entities, and a software component that provides information about the current context or contexts of an entity and actions associated with the current contexts of the entity. The computing system may further include a client system that requests and displays the actions associated with the current contexts of an entity. A method for contextual publication of actions associated with an entity is also provided. The method provides the current contexts of the entity. The method further provides the actions associated with the current contexts of the entity. Multiple user interfaces are provided for the management of and access to actions associated an entity.

Abstract: A system and method for managing a portal is described. A portal server application includes a portal manager in communication with a user interface of a web browser. The portal manager includes a database for storing metadata related to elements accessible from a portal. The user interface displays a navigational hierarchy of the elements that a user is authorized to access from the portal. The navigational hierarchy of elements is arranged in accordance with metadata in the database.