Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that automatically layout components/shapes on a design surface. The system receives input from a user to add components to the design surface. At an appropriate time, the system initiates an auto-layout process. The auto-layout process maps each shape in a particular set to a two-dimensional grid and uses the two-dimensional grid to assign an X and Y value to each shape. For any shape having a new X and Y value, the position of the shape is adjusted on the design surface. The system provides a visual indicator on the design surface to indicate that component positions are being adjusted. The system provides an undo feature to allow the user to undo the auto-layout process when desired.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that enhance a user's interaction with components on a design surface. A search feature allows the user to search components on the design surface based on specified search criteria. The system searches the components on the design surface to determine if any components meet the search criteria. The system visually indicates which components on the design surface meet the specified search criteria. A preview pane provides the user with a high level view of the various components on the design surface, including search results that meet specified criteria. The user can collapse the original preview pane, and upon doing so, the system displays a scroll bar with at least one indicator to provide a mini-preview of any search results in a smaller area than the original preview pane. A navigation feature allows the user to navigate the design surface.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that merge components on a design surface. The system receives input from a user to add components or clauses to a design surface and analyzes the components to determine if some of the components can be merged. If the system identifies components that can be merged, then the system merges the identified components to reduce the number of components present on the design surface. The system determines that some components can be merged if the components meet the same criteria, such as having components that are equivalent and that have the same number of incoming paths or the same number of outgoing paths. The system provides a visual indicator on the design surface to indicate that components are being merged. The system provides an undo feature to allow the user to undo the component merging when desired.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide the ability to effectively visualize the mapping between two schemas, referred to herein as a source schema (or first schema) and a destination schema (or second schema), regardless of the size or complexity of the schemas and mappings. According to one aspect of the present invention a method for visually representing a mapping between a first schema and a second schema is provided. The method includes receiving a selection of an object, emphasizing the selected object and identifying a plurality of objects that are relevant to the selected object. The objects that are identified as being relevant to the selected object are also emphasized.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide the ability to effectively visualize the mapping between two schemas, referred to herein as a source schema (or first schema) and a destination schema (or second schema), regardless of the size or complexity of the schemas and mappings. According to one aspect of the present invention a method for visually representing a mapping between a first schema and a second schema is provided. The method includes receiving a selection of an object, emphasizing the selected object and identifying a plurality of objects that are relevant to the selected object. The objects that are identified as being relevant to the selected object are also emphasized.

Abstract: A method of generating code that permits client access to a business process orchestration running on a server as a web service using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Business process orchestrations in XLANG are converted to a web service implementation description from which the Web services code is generated. During runtime, when a SOAP request message comes into the server, it is passed to the target web method. The message is then passed to a Web services adapter that submits the request for further processing by the backend system. The response is forwarded to the Web services adapter, which returns the response as a SOAP response message to the client.

Abstract: Mapping between a source object and a destination or target object uses techniques and functoids that provide an auto-linking feature in which mappings are automatically provided based solely on source and target field names, or, ignoring field names, field locations within hierarchy. Functoids provide support for callout to programming artifacts, such as custom programming logic embedded in .NET assemblies or custom XSLT, and table-looping to generate and map data into a target document even though that data did not exist in the map input.

Abstract: A method of providing an extension mechanism to an schema editor such that custom properties may be defined for nodes within an XSD schema. The custom properties allow the schema editor to define characteristics of non-XML data within XSD schemas in a standard fashion. The XSD schemas may then be used to parse and validate instance data that is not natively in XML format, such as flat files.