Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-25
2001-04-24
Von Buhr, Maria N. (Department: 2771)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222533
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to the field of supply chain, enterprise and site planning, and more particularly to a system and process having a universal adapter framework and providing a global user interface and a global messaging bus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Supply chain, enterprise and site planning applications and environments are widely used by manufacturing entities for decision support and to help manage operations. Decision support environments for supply chain, enterprise, and site planning have evolved from single-domain, monolithic environments to multi-domain, monolithic environments. Conventional planning software applications are available in a wide range of products offered by various companies. These decision support tools allow entities to more efficiently manage complex manufacturing operations. However, supply chains are generally characterized by multiple, distributed and heterogenous planning environments. Thus, there are limits to the effectiveness of conventional environments when applied to the problem of supply chain planning due to monolithic application architectures. Further, these problems are exacerbated when there is no one “owner” of the entire supply chain.
It is desirable for the next evolutionary step for planning environments to establish a multi-domain, heterogenous architecture that supports products spanning multiple domains, as well as spanning multiple engines and products. The integration of the various planning environments into a seamless solution can enable inter-domain and inter-enterprise supply chain planning. Further, an important function provided by some planning applications is the optimization of the subject environment rather than simply tracking transactions. In particular, the RHYTHM™ family of products available from i2 TECHNOLOGIES™ provide optimization functionality. However, with respect to planning at the enterprise or supply chain level, many conventional applications, such as those available from SAP™, use enterprise resource planning (ERP) engines and do not provide optimization. It is thus also desirable to expand planning analysis and optimization to the inter-enterprise or inter-domain level to enable planning optimization across the supply chain.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a system and process having a universal adapter framework and providing a global user interface and a global messaging bus are disclosed that provide advantages over conventional supply chain, enterprise and site planning environments.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a computer implemented system enables a global user interface. The system includes a plurality of application engines each having an engine interface and composed of a plurality of types of engines. The system also includes a user interface process providing an interface based upon user interface components. The system further includes a visual information broker operating as a middle tier to the plurality of application engines and the user interface process. The visual information broker has dynamically loadable adapters where each adapter is appropriate for accessing one of the plurality of types of engines. The visual information broker can thereby interface between the engine interface of an application engine and the user interface process by dynamically loading an adapter appropriate for that type of engine.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer implemented system enables a global messaging bus. The system includes native messaging supported by a native message protocol across a network messaging layer. The system also includes a plurality of message bus manager processes where each message bus manager process is associated with a software application. Each message bus manager process includes a dynamically loadable message bus adapter appropriate for the native message protocol and communicating across the network messaging layer and includes a message bus application program interface appropriate for and communicating with the associated software application. The plurality of message bus manager processes enable global messaging between the software applications by adapting to the native message protocol of the network messaging layer.
A technical advantage of the present invention is that the visual information broker provides a common interface which can be accessed by the user interface regardless of the type of engine from which information is obtained. The visual information broker can also load-balance application engines of the same type. The application engines supported can include a wide variety of data models, including tables, trees, name-value pairs, multi-dimensional, and object graphs. Another technical advantage is that, in order to add support of a new engine or data model, only a new adapter needs to be added to the visual information broker.
A further technical advantage of the present invention is that the visual information broker and adapters allow user interface-oriented data models from multiple engine types to be adapted into a common data model oriented for the global user interface.
Additional technical advantages should be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.
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Chisolm David A.
Evetts Gregory A.
Hilerio Israel
Mayer John E.
Notani Ranjit N.
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
i2 Technologies, Inc.
Von Buhr Maria N.
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