Abstract: Method, system and program product for integrating web services on a client computer. Selection criteria is used at a client computer to select web services. Once selected, service data is received from each of the web services. The service data is then aggregated at the client computer. The service data can be assembled into a custom page that can be displayed by a user. Further, the service data can be stored in a structured data object that allows for pre-fetching and caching of the service data.

Abstract: The present invention is a checkpoint processor configured for coupling to individual Web services through a Web services engine. The checkpoint processor can include checkpoint logic programmed to store checkpoint data for the individual Web service instance invocations. The checkpoint processor further can include restart logic programmed to restore the stored checkpoint data to a replacement for failed ones of the individual Web service instance invocations. Finally, the checkpoint processor can include cleanup logic programmed to removed the stored checkpoint data for concluded, non-failed ones of the individual Web service instance invocations. Notably, in a preferred aspect of the invention, logic can be included for identifying an asynchronous correlator for each one of the individual Web service instance invocations and for storing the asynchronous correlator in association with corresponding ones of the stored checkpoint data.

Abstract: Web services may be provided by creating an electronic record of a contract for a service provider to provide web services meeting a web service category definition at a web services hub of a service domain, and providing a web service to a service requestor from the service domain responsive to the electronic record of the contract. A plurality of ports operative to provide web services meeting the service category definition may be identified at the web service hub, and the web service may be provided to the service requester responsive to identification of the ports. For example, a plurality of ports may be identified by polling at least one web services node subordinate to the web services hub to identify at least one service provided by the node, and updating a description of a service category, e.g., a WSDL document, responsive to the polling. A plurality of levels of web services nodes may be polled using a coordinated polling interval scheme to create an updated service view for the service hub.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for caching objects to improve performance and resource utilization of software applications which interact with a back-end data source, such as a legacy host application and/or legacy host data store or database. Read-only requests for information are satisfied from the cache, avoiding the overhead of a network round-trip and the computing overhead of repeating an interaction with the back-end data source. Refreshes of cached objects and update requests to objects may be queued for delayed processing (for example, at a time when the system is lightly loaded), thereby improving system resource utilization. A sequence of actions that may be required to initiate, and interact with, the refresh and update processes is also preferably stored in the cached objects. This technique is applicant-independent, and may therefore be used for objects having an arbitrary format.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically transforming data or business messages to enable communication between parties in a distributed computing environment (e.g. between business partners who exchange data over a public network, and who do not necessarily use the same data formats), where this data transformation preferably occurs at the edge of the computing network. A set of transformation services is described, and include template registration, transformation, forward, and receive services. Services from this set may optionally be combined to create composite transformation services. A template defines how to transform one data format into another. Selection criteria may be provided to enable dynamically selecting a template at run-time.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for non-intrusively dispatching service requests in a service node nested in a service topology. The method can include receiving a service request in the service node and identifying a requested operation and corresponding parameters for the requested operation from the received service request. A port end point address can be obtained for the requested operation and a service list can be located for the requested operation. It can be determined whether the service node is a destination hub. If so, an operation corresponding to THE service request can be invoked. Otherwise, a service node at a different level in the service topology can be selected and the foregoing process can be recursively performed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in a data processing system for converting documents. Source elements and corresponding target elements are identified. An initial target document derived from a source document is presented using the source elements and corresponding target elements. User input is received modifying presentation of the initial target document to form a final target document. Differences between the initial target document and the final target document are identified. A stylesheet is created to convert source documents into target documents using the identified source elements and corresponding target elements and the identified differences between the initial target document and the final target document.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for caching dynamically generated content (including, but not limited to, dynamically generated Web pages), as well as determining when the cached content should be invalidated or purged. Rather than caching the generated datastream (i.e. the end result of the computations used in the dynamic generation process) as in the prior art, the interim results of computations (such as a generated bean instance or object, where the interim results may be stored using properties and methods) are cached according to the present invention. The input properties used to generate the bean or object, along with the input property values, are used to distinguish among cached instances and thereby identify when a cached instance may be used to respond to a subsequent request for the same content. Re-execution of the business logic of the bean or object may then be avoided, using the cached bean's or object's output properties to generate the content response.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for accessing an application is provided. Data from a host application is transformed from a host format to a markup language format to form markup language data. A stylesheet is applied to the markup language data to generate a markup language document. This markup language document is then presented on a display on which user interaction may occur. In response to receiving input to the markup language document, this input is transformed into the host format and returned to the host application. In this manner, access to a legacy application is provided.

Abstract: Under the present invention, a user-issued request for services is received and validated based on the service policy. Once validated, an initial set of service providers from a grid are identified. Once identified, the set can be dynamically varied based on monitored performances of the service providers, and/or based on the discovery of other service providers from other grids. Once the set is finalized, one or more particular service providers are selected to process the request. This system allows the grid to automatically respond to events monitored to optimize and provide reliable operations.

Abstract: A computing services grid. The grid can include a service desk coupled to one or more computing service instances. Each service instance can conform to an interface which is common to all service instances in the grid. A routing component can be disposed in the grid. Specifically, the routing component can route individual service requests to individual ones of the service instances. An instance selection service is used to satisfy QoS characteristics associated with the requester of the service. The grid further can include a service instance monitoring component. The monitoring component can monitor the performance of individual service instances charged with processing individual service requests. Fail-over logic can be configured to re-route service requests from selected service instances to others of the service instances where the monitoring component detects a fail-over condition in the selected service instances.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product that enables software objects and applications to dynamically self-propagate, as needed, through a computer network. This technique may be used to dynamically establish a mirroring site to which processing of work elements can be offloaded. In addition, this technique can be used to automatically deploy a software application that is comprised of a sender part and a receiver part (such as a client/server application) from a single site without manual intervention. The propagation occurs in an application-independent manner, and may operate symmetrically at either or both the sender and receiver. The life-span of propagated software objects and applications can be specified, in order to control the amount of time the downloaded resources reside on the receiving system.

Abstract: Screens generated by a host application are reformatted for viewing by applying styles to the host screens in response to recognized components included therein. In particular, a style defines a desired look and layout to be applied to a respective host screen. The styles are applied to the respective host screens based on recognizing components of the host screen at run time. For example, first and second styles can be associated with respective first and second components included in host screens. The first style is applied to the host screen in which the first component is recognized and the second style is applied to the host screen in which the second component is recognized. Accordingly, the application of the first and second styles provide respective first and second reformatted screens.

Abstract: A rapid GUI refacing system can include one or more display grids, each display grid mapping sections in a legacy application with selected GUI elements in a refaced GUI. The system also can include one or more smart masters, each smart master specifying an arrangement of content and presentation elements in the refaced GUI. The system yet further can include a GUI transformation template generator configured to generate GUI transformation templates from individual combinations of individual ones of the display grids and individual ones of the smart masters. Finally, the system can include a GUI refacing service configured both to select individual matching ones of the generated GUI transformation templates, and also to transform content in the sections in the legacy application into the refaced GUI using the mapped GUI elements according to transformation instructions contained in the selected individual matching ones of the generated GUI transformation templates.

Abstract: A cooperative e-business complex. The cooperative e-business complex can include one or more electronically accessible e-business complex management services configured to handle e-business processing in the e-business complex on behalf of electronically associated virtual store operators, vendors, business partners and professional services providers. A virtual management office can be included which is configured to coordinate e-business transactions between the associated virtual store operators, the on-line shoppers, the vendors, the business partners, and the professional services providers in the e-business complex. Finally, one or more e-business complex management services requesters can be configured to remotely invoke selected ones of the electronically accessible e-business complex management services.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for automatically synchronizing data between a replicated version and a back-end data store version which may or may not have the same format. Queues are used for scheduling refreshes of read-access objects and updates of write-access objects, where the actual processing will occur when the client device connects to the back-end data source. This technique is application-independent, and does not require writing application-specific code to perform a synchronization between data stores having dissimilar storage formats. This technique is particularly advantageous for mobile computing devices, which may operate primarily in a disconnected mode, and for distributed branch-office computing environments where a local server has a replicated copy of data stored at a back-end enterprise system.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for efficient processing of Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents in Content Based Routing (“CBR”) networks. Specifically, the method involves converting existing XML documents to a machine-oriented notation (“mXML”) which is significantly more compact than XML, while still conveying the content and semantics of the data and the structure of the document. Documents are converted from XML to mXML upon entering a CBR subnetwork and/or upon receipt by an mXML-capable device. The documents are then processed in mXML format. Devices within the inventive system are provided with an awareness of whether target devices or processes are mXML-capable. Documents being routed to a target which is mXML-capable are passed in mXML format while documents being routed to a target which is not mXML-capable are converted to XML before they are passed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for representing host datastream screen image information using markup languages is provided. A distributed data processing system contains a network, at least one host computer, at least one client computer, and optionally at least one server. The host computer generates a host datastream containing host screen image information and forwards the host datastream to a client. If the client is not directly connected to the host, then the host datastream may be routed to the client. The host datastream is converted to a markup language tagged datastream at some point within the network according to a Document Type Definition (DTD) authored for the purpose of representing information in host datastreams. The client receives the markup language tagged datastream containing the host screen image information derived from the host datastream and parses the markup language tagged datastream to identify the host screen image information.

Abstract: A method in a data processing system for customizing a graphical user interface of an application on a data processing system is provided. A first customization format is determined. A second customization format is determined. Then customization of the graphical user interface is initiated by automatically switching between the first customization format and the second customization format.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for extracting data from a data stream (including data streams that contain the presentation space for a legacy host screen) using a rule-based approach that does not require a user to write programming language statements. The disclosed techniques apply to presentation space data that is sent from a legacy host application to a workstation, as well as to other types of data streams (including data exchanged between applications, Web page data, etc.). Rules are defined using intuitive, interactive tools to specify the target patterns of data to be extracted. Tags in a markup language (such as the Extensible Markup Language, or “XML”) are defined, and are associated with the defined rules. Upon detecting a match between the data in an incoming data stream and a target rule, an output document (expressed in the markup language) is created.