Interface for initiating an integration task

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10963494-B2
Application number	US-201816204037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2018
Priority date	Nov 29, 2018
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

A computer obtains an integration document comprising integration instructions that, when executed, causes two or more software applications to interact to perform an integration task. The computer determines, from the integration instructions of the integration document, task information representative of at least the integration task. The computer generates, based on the task information, a conversation databank entry for a natural language interface, wherein the conversation databank entry is usable by the natural language interface to determine whether a user desires the integration task to be performed, by processing the conversation databank entry and a natural language input provided by the user to the natural language interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, the computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining an integration document comprising integration instructions that, when executed, causes two or more software applications to interact to perform an integration task;
determining, from the integration instructions of the integration document, task information representative of at least the integration task; and
generating, based on the task information, a conversation databank entry for a natural language interface, wherein the conversation databank entry is usable by the natural language interface to determine whether a user desires the integration task to be performed, by processing the conversation databank entry and a natural language input provided by the user to the natural language interface.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the integration document is formed of computer code which provides the integration instructions on how the two or more software applications are to interact to perform the integration task.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein generating a conversation databank entry further comprises generating one or more example natural language inputs based on the task information, and wherein the one or more example natural language inputs are usable by the natural language interface to compare to a natural language input provided by the user to determine whether the user desires the task performed by the integration process to be performed.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining task information further comprises determining identity information representative of the identity of the two or more software applications, and wherein the task information further comprises the identity information.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining task information further comprises determining actions performed using the two or more software applications when the integration instructions are executed, and wherein the task information comprises the determined actions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining task information comprises determining reference information representative of one or more references to one or more other integration instructions for a respective one or more other integration tasks, and wherein the task information further comprises the reference information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining task information comprises determining variable information representative of at least one input variable of the integration task, and wherein the task information further comprises the variable information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the conversation databank entry further identifies the at least one input variable of the integration task.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
obtaining the natural language input provided by the user;
processing the natural language input and the conversation databank entry to determine whether the user desires the integration task to be performed; and
in response to determining that the user desires the integration task to be performed, generating a control signal for initiating the execution of the integration instructions.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein determining task information comprises determining variable information representative of at least one input variable of the integration task, and wherein the task information further comprises the variable information;
wherein the conversation databank entry further identifies the at least one input variable of the integration task; and the method further comprising:
identifying one or more input variables in the natural language input; and
generating a control signal for initiating the execution of the integration instructions, and wherein the control signal comprises the one or more identified input variables in the natural language input for input to the integration instructions.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the integration instructions, when executed, cause at least three software applications to interact to perform the integration task.

12. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a computer to perform a method comprising:
obtaining an integration document comprising integration instructions that, when executed, causes two or more software applications to interact to perform an integration task;
determining, from the integration instructions of the integration document, task information representative of at least the integration task; and
generating, based on the task information, a conversation databank entry for a natural language interface, wherein the conversation databank entry is usable by the natural language interface to determine whether a user desires the integration task to be performed, by processing the conversation databank entry and a natural language input provided by the user to the natural language interface.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein generating a conversation databank entry further comprises generating one or more example natural language inputs based on the task information, and wherein the one or more example natural language inputs are usable by the natural language interface to compare to a natural language input provided by the user to determine whether the user desires the task performed by the integration process to be performed.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein determining task information further comprises determining actions performed using the two or more software applications when the integration instructions are executed, and wherein the task information comprises the determined actions.

15. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein determining task information comprises determining variable information representative of at least one input variable of the integration task, and wherein the task information further comprises the variable information, and wherein the conversation databank entry further identifies the at least one input variable of the integration task.

16. The computer program product of claim 12 , the method further comprising:
obtaining the natural language input provided by the user;
processing the natural language input and the conversation databank entry to determine whether the user desires the integration task to be performed; and
in response to determining that the user desires the integration task to be performed, generating a control signal for initiating the execution of the integration instructions.

17. A system, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors,
wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
obtaining, by a document obtainer adapted to obtain integration documents, an integration document comprising integration instructions that, when executed, causes two or more software applications to interact to perform an integration task;
determining, from the integration instructions of the integration document, task information representative of at least

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Ross Martin A
• Thorpe Paul S M
• Nicholson Robert B

Classifications

• G10L15/1822

  Parsing for meaning understanding · CPC title

• G10L2015/223

  Execution procedure of a spoken command · CPC title

• G06F16/34

  Browsing; Visualisation therefor (browsing or visualisation for clustering or classification G06F16/358) · CPC title

• G10L15/22

  Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue · CPC title

• G06F16/3329 Primary

  Natural language query formulation · CPC title