Patent Application
20050050454
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a technique, specifically a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture that implements the method, to control the look and feel of a second web application when integrating the second web application with a first web application where the second web application is external to the first web application.
2. Description of the Related Art
A web application provides users with data that is displayed in a web page having a presentation format with its own “look and feel.” The term “look and feel” refers to the appearance and operation of the web page. For example, “look and feel” comprises the types of objects displayed, the appearance of those objects, and the operation of those objects. The types of objects include, and are not limited to, buttons, lists, tabs, checkboxes, and text fields. The appearance refers to the general appearance of the web page and objects on the page, including, and not limited to, the location of the objects on the web page, the size and color of the objects, whether an object displays a text name (for example, “Apply” or “Cancel” on a button) or whether the object is displayed with graphic image, such as an icon, on that object (for example, an image on a button), the type of font(s) used on a web page, the sizes of the font(s), the color of the font(s), and other font attributes such as bold, italic or underlined. The operation, also referred to as the behavior, refers to how the objects operate, both individually and as a group. Examples of behavior include, and are not limited to, enabling or disabling a response to a click from a mouse on an area of the web page, and how an object responds to a click from a mouse.
When viewing a first web page generated by a first web application, a user may need to access data from a second web application that is integrated with the first web application. The second web application can be invoked from the first web application, and a second web page that is generated by the second web application may be displayed. However, the first and second web pages may have different presentation formats and behaviors. Colors, fonts, the types of objects displayed, their locations on the web page, and the attributes of the objects may differ. Thus the user is not provided with a consistent, that is, seamless “look and feel” in the web environment, even though the web applications are integrated.
More generally, the first web application cannot control the “look and feel” of the second web application. However, some software vendors sell integrated systems and want to provide a consistent or controlled “look and feel” among the web applications. In other words, these software vendors want to provide a user with a seamless or otherwise controlled web experience, even though that vendor is using other vendor's software.
Therefore there is a need for a method, apparatus and article of manufacture that implements the method, for integrating a second web application with a first web application to control the “look and feel” of the second web application.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for controlling the look and feel of a second web application when integrating the second web application with a first web application.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of controlling at least one of a presentation format and a behavior of a web page of a web application is provided. In response to a request from a first web application that has a first web page having a first presentation format and a first behavior, in which the request specifies at least one setting, a second web application generates a second web page. The second web application is external to the first web application. The second web page has a second presentation format and a second behavior. The second web page is generated in accordance with the at least one setting, wherein the at least one setting controls, at least in part, at least one of the second presentation format and the second behavior. In another aspect of the invention, the at least one setting comprises one or any combination of a type setting, a style sheet setting and a graphics setting. In this way, a configurable web environment is provided.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the second presentation format and second behavior is substantially similar to the first presentation format and first behavior. In this way, the user is provided with a seamless web experience. The look and feel of the graphical user interface of the second web application is controlled when the second web application is integrated with a first web application that is external to the second web application.
The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood by considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to some of the figures.
After considering the following description, those skilled in the art will clearly realize that the teachings of the present invention can be utilized to control the “look and feel” of a second web application when integrating the second web application with a first web application, where the second web application is external to the first web application.
A technique, specifically a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture that implements the method, controls at least one of the presentation format and the behavior of a web page of a web application. In response to a request from the first web application in which the request specifies at least one setting to control, at least in part, at least one of the presentation format and the behavior, the second web application generates a second web page that has a second presentation format and a second behavior. The second web application generates the second web page such that at least one of the second presentation format and the second behavior is in accordance with the setting(s). In this way, the first web application can control, at least in part, the “look and feel” of a web page generated by the second web application.
In another embodiment, at least one of the second presentation format and the second behavior is substantially similar to the first presentation format and the first behavior. The terms “substantially similar look and feel” or “substantially similar presentation format and behavior” refer to using the same or substantially similar objects, object size, graphics, page layout, font, colors, text, audio and video, and operation as the first web application in the second web application. In this way, a user is presented with a seamless, that is, a consistent, “look-and-feel” when using integrated web applications.
In yet another more particular embodiment of the invention, the technique provides a configurable method and framework to provide the “look and feel” of a web application that is being extended. In other words, a first web application is integrated with, that is, extended by, a second web application. The technique uses an integrator, in one embodiment, a Java servlet in the second web application, to establish an execution environment for locating and providing access to both structured and unstructured data, and one or more servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP) for generating a web page to display the data based on the following configuration settings: (1) a type setting that controls the objects that appear and the capabilities that are supported within the web page(s) generated by the JSP, (2) a style sheet setting that selects a style sheet specifying fonts and colors similar to those of the first web application, and (3) for a web application that uses graphics in its web pages, a graphics setting that selects graphics similar to those of the first web application. In another embodiment, a print-enabled setting determines whether a print button will appear on the web page. The configuration settings are specified in a properties file. In one embodiment, the properties file specifies one or any combination of the type setting, the style sheet setting and the graphics setting. When the first web application makes a request for data from the second web application, the request specifies a properties file. In the second web application, the integrator accesses the specified properties file to determine the values of the settings. In another embodiment, the technique permits the simultaneous integration of the first web application with multiple external applications.
Referring to
The first web application, the browser and the second web application may be on the same computer. Typically the first web application 32, the browser 30, and the second web application 34 are on different computers, a first web application computer 46, a browser computer 44, and a second web application computer 48, respectively.
The first web application 32 is configured to invoke the second web application 34 and to specify a properties file 44 to use. In one embodiment, the web page generated by the first web application 32 is provided with a control object, for example, a button, that when clicked on, causes a URL to be returned to the web page browser 30 to invoke the second web application 34.
In one embodiment, the settings are specified indirectly. In particular, the URL from the first web application 32 specifies the setting(s) 42 by specifying a properties file 44 that stores the values of the setting(s) 42. Alternately, the settings may be specified directly in the URL.
The invention may be used with both structured and unstructured data. Structured data comprises data stored in traditional databases. Unstructured data comprises data with an unstructured digital content such as text, HTML files, document images, audio and video data.
In another embodiment, the first web application provides a first set of data in the first web page having the first presentation format and the first behavior. The second web application provides a second set of data. The second web page comprises at least a subset of the second set of data having at least one of the second presentation format and second behavior in accordance with the setting(s). The first set of data is structured data and the second set of data is unstructured data. Alternately, the first set of data is structured data and the second set of data is structured data about unstructured data. In another alternate embodiment, the unstructured data is displayed from the second set of data.
Referring to
A user with a web browser 30 is connected to a vendor application 68 executing on a vendor server 66 which can access a datastore 62. For example, the user may be looking at a list of service requests for which the user is responsible. Clicking on a service request in the web browser 30 causes a request for information about the service request to flow to the vendor server 66 and the result to be returned back to the web browser.
Referring also to
When the user activates the “Archived Content” tab 86 in the web browser 30, a request is sent to the vendor server 66 which evaluates a calculated field URL. In this example, the vendor server 66 also substitutes the appropriate service request number in the calculated field URL. The calculated field URL is returned to the web browser 30. The web browser 30 loads the calculated field URL, which causes the request to be handled by the integrator 40 which is running as a web application in an application server. In one embodiment, the application server is an IBM WebSphere® application server 90 (WebSphere is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation). In an alternate embodiment, an application server other than the IBM WebSphere application server may be used. In one embodiment, the integrator 40 generates a search template and invokes an IBM Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) Federated Connector 92, which invokes the IBM Content Manager Connector 94 which uses the search template to execute a search on a Content Manager Library Server 96 for content associated with the specified service request. In the Content Manager 98, the Content Manager Library Server 96 accesses a Content Manager database 102, and a Content Manager Object Server 104 accesses Content Manager Storage 106. In
In one embodiment, the integration of the vendor application with IBM Content Manager 98 is achieved through customization of at least one component within a particular object layer of the vendor application 68. The customization adds one or more calculated fields, each of which contains a calculated field URL. The display of each calculated field value by the vendor application is achieved by (1) associating the calculated field with a control within a vendor applet that uses a web template to display the calculated field, and (2) adding the vendor applet to a view associated with the object that contains the component of interest. The value of the calculated field URL will be the HTML results, that is, the web page that is generated by the integrator that contains the result of a federated search of the IBM Content Manager content store. In one embodiment, the calculated field URL has the following format:
The virtual host name is the name of the eClient server 110 containing the integrator 40. The calculated field URL is the interface that the vendor application 68 uses to invoke the integrator 40 of the eClient server 110. The vendor System Administrator defines the values of the arguments within the URL when adding the calculated field URL to the business component. The values of the arguments specify the search criteria for the federated search that will be initiated by the integrator 40 as well as at least one setting that controls at least one of the presentation format and the behavior of the web page.
Each of the arguments within the calculated field URL will now be described. Table 1 below illustrates the arguments of an embodiment of the calculated field URL.
The eClientToken argument is used to control access to the Content Manager's content servers. The eClientToken argument value is provided in the URL by the vendor application 68 when the application attempts to access any supported content servers. An exemplary eClientToken argument and property value is shown below:
During integrator configuration, a system administrator selects a value for the eClientToken property and adds the value to the properties file 44 for the associated application. This same value of the eClientToken property is provided in the eClientToken argument of the calculated field URL.
In the calculated field URL, the IPFile argument specifies the name of the integrator properties file that is to be used when generating the web page that contains the search results. The integrator 40 adds the file extension “properties” to the name specified by the IPFile argument. For example, if the name specified by the IPFile argument is equal to Vendor, then the integrator 40 will attempt to read the properties and settings from the Vendor.properties file. The integrator 40 assumes that the integrator properties file is in the same directory as an eClient properties file, called IDM.properties. For example, if the eClient root directory is <drive>:\Program Files\CMeclient, then the properties file is placed in the directory <drive>:\Program Files\CMeclient.
The Entity argument specifies the name of a search template for a federated search.
The <search criterion name> argument(s) specify the values for the search criterion defined in the search template. The <search criterion name> arguments have the following syntax:
The ReleaseLevel argument specifies the release level of the first web application.
Argument name/value pairs are separated by the character “&” within the query string of the URL.
Configuring the Integrator
During integrator 40 configuration, an administrator specifies values for the properties in an application-specific properties file that is specified by an external application. The properties file contains the following properties and settings:
(1) An eClientToken property is an administrator-selected token that is provided by an external application when invoking the integrator 40. The integrator 40 for IBM Content Manager compares the value of the eClientToken argument provided in the URL with the value of the eClientToken property in the properties file 44. The integrator permits access to the data in the Content Manager when these two values of eClientToken match. The matching of eClientToken values provides access security. The eClientToken property is case-sensitive. Valid characters for the eClientToken property are any of the ISO 8859-1 Latin 1 characters with the exception of “;”, “/”, “?”, “:”, “@”, “&”, “=”, “+”, “,” and “$”, which are reserved characters within the query string of a URL. During integrator configuration, the system administrator selects a value for the eClientToken property and adds the value to the properties file 44 for the associated application.
(2) A server property specifies the name of the federated server database that the integrator 40 will access. In an alternate embodiment, the integrator assumes a single federated data store.
(3) A user identifier (userid) property specifies a userid to use to access the federated server database.
(4) A password property provides a password for the userid that will be used to access the federated server database.
(5) A type setting specifies some of the characteristics of at least one of the presentation format and the behavior of the web page(s) that will be generated by one or more JavaServer Pages. In one embodiment, the value of the type setting controls at least one or any combination of the following: whether a web page has certain control objects, such as toolbars and buttons, how search result lists are displayed, and whether buttons are identified with text labels or graphics. In one embodiment, for one vendor application, the value of type setting is equal to one.
(6) A cssPrefix setting specifies a file name prefix for a cascading style sheet file that will used by the JavaServer Pages to generate a web page. The cascading style sheet affects the appearance of the web pages by specifying the use of at least one of or any combination of: text fonts, colors, margins, position of text, and alignment of text, such as left, center or right. In one embodiment, an application-specific cascading style sheet uses text fonts, colors, margins, position of text, and alignment of text that are substantially similar to those used in the vendor application web pages. In an alternate embodiment, the application-specific cascading style sheet uses text fonts, colors, margins, position of text, and alignment of text that are different from the vendor application web pages, but selected for that vendor application. In one embodiment, the default css_prefix value for one vendor application is alt1.
(7) An iconPrefix setting specifies a file name prefix for the graphics or icon files used by the JSP to generate the web page. In one embodiment, the icon files provide icons, for example, a “go” button, with a similar appearance to the icons of a vendor application web page. Alternately, the icon files provide icons with a different appearance from the vendor application web page, but selected for that vendor application. In one embodiment, the default icon_prefix value for one vendor application is “alt1.”
(8) A printEnabled setting specifies whether a print capability will be provided in the toolbar of a Document Viewer. When the value of printEnabled is equal to TRUE, a print button will be displayed on a web page. In one embodiment the printEnabled setting is optional. In an alternate embodiment, the printEnabled setting is not used.
In an alternate embodiment, the settings of the properties file are optional. In another embodiment, the properties file comprises at least one or any combination of the type, cssPrefix and iconPrefix settings. In another alternate embodiment, the settings are specified directly in the URL as arguments, rather than specifying the settings using the properties file.
The Integrator
Referring to
In step 120, the integrator obtains the argument values, as described above with respect to Table 1, from the calculated field URL. One argument of the calculated field URL specifies the prefix of the name of the properties file to use, and the name of the properties file is generated as described above. Alternately, the entire properties file name is specified in an argument of the calculated field URL. In step 122, the integrator reads the properties file that was specified as an argument in the URL, and extracts the values of the properties such as the setting(s) from the properties file.
In step 124, the integrator enforces rules for argument and property values. If a rule is violated, the integrator returns an error. If no rules are violated, the integrator stores the settings and other properties in a servlet context in a manner that associates names and values. The servlet context is part of the state information associated with the servlet, and can be shared among servlets and JavaServer Pages.
In step 126, the integrator connects to the federated server. In step 128, the integrator prepares a search template. In step 130, the integrator executes the search. In step 132, the integrator obtains the search results. The search results are structured data about unstructured data. In an alternate embodiment, the search results are unstructured data.
In step 134, a web page containing the search results is generated, at least in part, in accordance with at least one of the settings of the properties file. In one embodiment, the integrator causes the web page to be generated by invoking one or more servlets and JavaServer Pages to generate the web page with the search results. In another embodiment, the integrator causes the web page to be generated within an application server, such as a WebSphere Application Server, execution environment by invoking one or more servlets and JavaServer Pages to generate the web page with the search results. In step 136, the generated web page is sent to the browser. In one embodiment, the integrator causes the generated web page to be sent to the browser. In an alternate embodiment, the integrator causes the application server, such as the WebSphere application server, to send the generated web page to the browser in the application server execution environment.
In step 138, the browser displays the web page. For example, as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
In step 154, if the value of the type setting is NULL, the portion of the presentation format and the behavior that is controlled by the type setting is a default presentation format and a default behavior. In one embodiment, a default presentation format and a default behavior generates a “search entity” tab, a “search results” toolbar, the search results, white space borders around the search results, a page context menu, text buttons, and uses the default cascading style sheet, and default “gif” files.
In one embodiment, if the value of the type setting is equal to one, the web page is generated in accordance with a first presentation format and a first behavior. In one embodiment, the first presentation format and the first behavior comprise the following:
Alternately, if the value of the type setting is equal to three, a Content Manager logoff button is not displayed. In another embodiment, the type setting causes the generated web page to be displayed in a window provided by the calling program, rather than a generating a separate window to display the generated web page.
In step 156, if the printEnabled setting is set to TRUE, a print button will be displayed to allow the user to print individual documents contained in the search results. If the printEnabled setting is set to false, no print button will be displayed and the user will not be able to print the documents contained in the search results. An associated lower level print variable is populated with a value representing the printEnabled setting. Based on the value of the lower level print variable, a print button will or will not be generated in the web page.
In step 158, if the cascading style sheet setting, in a variable called cssPrefix, is NULL, a default cascading style sheet is used, otherwise an application-specific cascading style sheet is used in accordance with the value of cssPrefix. The cssPrefix variable is populated with the value of the cascading style sheet. Using the value of cssPrefix as a prefix, a filename of a cascading style sheet is generated. For example, if the value of the cssPrefix variable is “alt1”, the filename of the associated cascading style sheet is alt1IDM.css. The cascading style sheets are stored in a predetermined target directory. When generating the web page, the generated cascading style sheet filename specifies the cascading style sheet.
In step 160, if the graphics setting, in a variable called iconPrefix, is NULL, a default set of icons, containing graphics, are used. For example, an icon may be used on a button, rather than text. In an alternate embodiment, no icons are used. An associated lower level iconPrefix variable is populated with the value of iconPrefix. Using the value of the iconPrefix variable as a prefix, at least one filename of an icon file is generated. For example, if the value of the iconPrefix variable is equal to “alt1”, the filename of an associated icon file is “alt1buttonLeft_a.gif”. The file names of the icon files are stored in lower level icon filename variables. The icon files are stored in a predetermined target directory. When generating an object on the display that is associated with an icon, the JSP specifies the directory and the name of the lower level icon filename variable that contains the name of the icon file to use with the object.
The steps of
The following exemplary portion of a JSP illustrates another embodiment of the present invention. In the following JSP, the specified properties filename is in the session state, and the values from the properties file have been stored in the servlet context. A lower level variable called bodyAttrs is derived from the value of the type setting from the servlet context and is used to disable the right click in the web page. In addition to the bodyAttrs variable as described above, the cascading style sheet setting from servlet context is used to determine the cascading style sheet prefix variable to derive the name of the cascading style sheet. To more easily identify the lower level variables, the lower level variables are shown in bold text.
Referring back to
Referring to
In step 170, a user selects an individual item from the list of displayed search results, for example, by clicking on that item. In step 172, the integrator connects to the federated server. In step 174, the integrator obtains the item to be displayed. The item to be displayed is unstructured data. Alternately, the item to be displayed comprises structured data. In one embodiment, as shown in
In step 176, a web page containing the item is generated based on at least one setting, if specified in either the properties file or the URL. In one embodiment, the integrator causes the web page to be generated by invoking at least one servlet and/or JSP to generate the web page. In another embodiment, the integrator causes the web page to be generated within an application server, such as the WebSphere application server, execution environment by invoking at least one servlet and/or JSP to generate the web page. In step 178, the generated web page is sent to the web browser. In one embodiment, the integrator causes the generated web page to be sent to the web browser. In an alternate embodiment, the integrator causes the application server, such as the WebSphere application server, to send the generated web page to the web browser. In step 180, the web browser displays the web page.
The memory 210 generally comprises different modalities, illustratively semiconductor memory, such as random access memory (RAM), and disk drives. The memory 210 stores operating system (O/S) 238 and application programs such as the integrator 40. The O/S 238 may be implemented by any conventional operating system, such as z/OS® (Registered Trademark of International Business Machines Corporation), AIX® (Registered Trademark of International Business Machines Corporation), Linux® (Registered Trademark of Linus Torvalds), UNIX® (UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed through X/Open Company Limited), and Windows® (Registered Trademark of Microsoft Corporation).
The software modules are comprised of instructions which, when loaded into the memory 210, are executed by the processor 202. Generally, the software is tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium, for example, memory 210 or, more specifically, one of the disk drives 214, and is comprised of instructions which, when executed, by the computer system 200, causes the computer system 200 to utilize the present invention. In one embodiment, the software modules of the present invention are implemented in the Java® (Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.) language. In alternate embodiments, languages other than Java® may be used.
The memory 210 stores software modules and data. In one embodiment, the memory 210 may store a portion of the software modules and data in semiconductor memory, while other software modules and data are stored in disk memory. In some embodiments, the memory 210 stores the following:
In yet another embodiment, to modify the “look and feel” of a web page, very little, or no code, may need to be modified. The predefined files such as the properties file, the cascading style sheet file, and the icon files can be modified.
The invention has been described by way of specific embodiments, but those skilled in the art will understand that various changes in form and detail may be made without deviating from the spirit or scope of the invention.
