Template-Based Markup Generation for Legacy Back Office Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy back office systems in the insurance industry often lack native browser functionality and Web access, requiring time-consuming and resource-intensive development of separate Web interfaces, which increases errors and costs.
Innovation Solution
An abstraction layer is introduced between back office systems and Web interfaces, allowing business analysts to focus on data placement and workflows, while Web developers concentrate on presentation, using a runtime engine to build markup documents and manage data validation, with plug-in data providers accessing the back office systems through generated schema, metadata, and validation files.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If individual Web interfaces are built for each back office system, then Web access capability is achieved, but development time and resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal Web interface framework that can access multiple different back office systems through a common architecture. The framework includes reusable components such as a connection manager, data transformer, and UI template engine that can be configured to work with various legacy systems without requiring separate custom development for each system, thereby reducing development time while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (Web interface framework) that sits between the Web client and the back office systems. This framework acts as a mediator that handles communication protocols, data transformation, and interface rendering, allowing Web access to legacy systems without modifying the original systems or requiring tight coupling between specific Web interfaces and specific back office systems.
2Manufacturing precision
If Web developers must understand back office system business processes, then integration accuracy improves, but development complexity and error likelihood increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the Web interface development into distinct modular components: connection management, data retrieval, data transformation, validation, and presentation. Each component has a specific responsibility and can be developed, tested, and maintained independently. This segmentation allows developers to focus on individual aspects without needing to understand the entire back office system business process, reducing development complexity while maintaining integration accuracy through standardized interfaces between components.
3Reliability
If separate Web interfaces are developed for each system, then system-specific functionality is optimized, but resource utilization and efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the common functionality across multiple back office system interfaces into a single unified framework. Shared resources such as connection pooling, authentication mechanisms, data transformation rules, and UI templates are consolidated and reused across different system integrations. This merging eliminates redundant code and resources while preserving system-specific functionality through configurable parameters and adapters, thereby improving resource utilization and development efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
An abstraction layer is provided between databases of back office systems and a markup language based interface, which may allow Web access to data in the databases of the back office systems. Schemas, metadata and validation files are generated from an intermediary representation of the database, which may be flat, non-hierarchical files. Markup language based templates may be generated based on the schemas, metadata and validation files. Markup documents or “markup” may be generated using the templates and the schemas, metadata and validation files. Workflow may be defined and imposed on the generation of the markup.