Business Object Views for Simplified Service Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing application platforms provide complex business object functionality that is not fully utilized by small and medium-sized businesses, leading to unnecessary complexity and resource-intensive efforts to limit access to a narrower scope of functionality, affecting performance and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of business object views within the application platform metadata, which define entities and service providers, allows for the creation of a simplified and optimized view of business objects, enabling direct service calls and reducing complexity by mapping BOV entities to underlying BOs, thereby streamlining consumer access and service provisioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the entire functionality of the application platform including complex BOs is made visible to consumers, then Flexibility and Extensibility scenarios (e.g., Ad hoc reporting, UI extensibility) are supported, but substantial resources are required and performance and maintenance suffer
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex business object functionality into multiple business object views, each exposing only the specific subset of functionality needed for particular scenarios like Ad hoc reporting or UI extensibility. This segmentation allows consumers to access only the required functionality rather than the entire complex BO interface, reducing resource requirements while maintaining flexibility for different use cases.
Solution Approach 2:
Different business object views provide locally optimized functionality tailored to specific consumer needs. Each BOV exposes a customized interface with the appropriate level of complexity for its intended purpose, rather than presenting the same comprehensive interface to all consumers. This local quality approach maintains versatility while reducing the complexity burden on individual consumers.
2Ease of operation
If business configuration or predefined user interfaces are used to hide unnecessary functionality, then small and medium-sized companies can access only needed features, but the entire functionality remains visible in Flexibility and Extensibility scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates specific functionality subsets into separate business object views that are exposed to consumers based on their needs. Rather than relying on configuration to hide functionality, the system physically separates the functionality into different BOVs, ensuring that consumers only see and access the relevant subset while the rest remains inaccessible by design, not just by configuration.
3Quantity of substance
If a consumer domain is limited to access a narrower scope of functionality, then resource requirements are reduced, but performance and maintenance tradeoffs occur
Solution Approach 1:
The business object views are designed to be universal interfaces that can serve multiple consumer domains with different resource constraints. Each BOV provides a standardized way to access a specific functionality subset, allowing the system to maintain consistent performance and maintenance characteristics across different consumer scenarios while adapting the exposed functionality to match resource requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing application services through business object views. In one aspect, a definition of at least one business object (BO) is included in a metadata of an application platform. The definition includes descriptions of entities of the BO, and an identification of a service provider of the BO. The service provider instantiates the business object in response to an application service request. In a further aspect, a definition of a business object view (BOV) is included in the metadata of the application platform. The definition includes description of entities of the BOV, and an identification of the BO. The BO is a data source of the BOV. In one other aspect, a transformation describes a mapping of BOV entities to data source BO entities. A service corresponding to a core service of a BOV entity is called at the BO service provider based on the mapping.