API coordination device, API coordination method and API coordination program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11061747-B2
Application number	US-201916971536-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2019
Priority date	Feb 20, 2018
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

An API coordination device according to the present invention executes a coordinated service combining wholesale services of a plurality of wholesale providers by launching an API published to a service provider and by launching, in response to an order from the service provider, APIs through which the wholesale providers publish the wholesale services. The API coordination device includes: a catalog/rule management section configured to hold a coordination rule defining API simplification which is to be performed in such a way that, among parameters for executing the coordinated service, a subset of the parameters is hidden and the others of the parameters are published to the service provider; and an execution section configured to read the coordination rule and to launch the API published to the service provider in such a way as to hide the subset of the parameters and publishes the others of the parameters to the service provider.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An application programming interface (API) coordination device configured to execute a coordinated service combining wholesale services of a plurality of wholesale providers by launching an API published to a terminal device of a service provider providing a communication service to a user and by launching, in response to an order from the terminal device, APIs through which the plurality of wholesale providers publish the wholesale services, the wholesale services providing communications services, the API coordination device comprising:
a management section configured to hold a coordination rule including a first rule defining API simplification which is to be performed in such a way that, among parameters for executing the coordinated service, a subset of the parameters is hidden and the others of the parameters are published to the service provider; and
an execution section configured to read the first rule held by the management section and to launch the API published to the terminal device in such a way as to hide the subset of the parameters for executing the coordinated service and publish the others of the parameters to the terminal device.

2. The API coordination device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the coordination rule includes a description of default values corresponding to the subset of the parameters,
wherein the default values are to be used for complementation of the subset, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to read the coordination rule and to launch the API published to the terminal device in such a way that, among the parameters for executing the coordinated service, those corresponding to the default values are hidden and the others of the parameters are published to the terminal device.

3. The API coordination device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the management section is further configured to hold a catalog in which the coordinated service combining the wholesale services of the plurality of wholesale providers is described as an item of the catalog,
wherein the coordination rule further includes a description of a command associated with parameters corresponding to the coordinated service described as the item of the catalog, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to, upon receipt from the terminal device of an order for execution of a coordinated service by the command, execute the coordinated service which is associated with the command described in the coordination rule via the parameters corresponding to the coordinated service.

4. The API coordination device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the management section is further configured to hold a catalog in which the coordinated service combining the wholesale services of the plurality of wholesale providers is described as an item of the catalog,
wherein the coordination rule further includes a description of an execution sequence according to which the wholesale services of the coordinated service described as the item of the catalog are to be executed, the execution sequence being associated with a service editing process such as establishing a new coordination of wholesale services, modifying the wholesale services, and deleting the wholesale services, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to, upon receipt from the terminal device of an order for the service editing process, execute the wholesale services of the coordinated service in order in accordance with the execution sequence associated with the service editing process, which is described in the coordination rule and corresponds to the order.

5. The API coordination device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the management section is further configured to hold a catalog in which the coordinated service combining the wholesale services of the plurality of wholesale providers is described as an item of the catalog,
wherein the coordination rule further includes a description of a second rule defining a synchronous dependency such that only when a certain one of the wholesale services has been executed, another one of the wholesale services is allowed to be executed and such that a response value out of an API execution of the certain one of the wholesale services is circulated as a parameter to an API execution of the another one of the wholesale services, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to, upon receipt from the terminal device of an order for the coordinated service, execute the coordinated service in conformity with the second rule defining the synchronous dependency.

6. The API coordination device according to claim 5 ,
wherein the coordination rule further includes a description of a third rule stipulating that the coordinated service associated with the item in the catalog be executed according to an asynchronous dependency such that certain ones of the wholesale services can be executed individually or in parallel, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to, upon receipt from the terminal device of an order for the coordinated service, execute the coordinated service in conformity with the asynchronous dependency stipulated in the third rule.

7. The API coordination device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the management section is further configured to hold a catalog in which the coordinated service combining the wholesale services of the plurality of wholesale providers is described as an item of the catalog,
wherein the coordination rule further includes a description of a fourth rule stipulating that the coordinated service associated with the item in the catalog be executed in such a way that a response value in the event of executing one of the wholesale services of the coordinated service is set as a parameter to another one of the wholesale services of the coordinated service in the event of executing the another one and thereby complementation of the parameter is performed, and
wherein the execution section is further configured to, in the event of executing the wholesale services of the coordinated service associated with the item in the catalog, execute the wholesale services according to the complementation stipulated in the fourth rule.

8. An application programming interface (API) coordination method performed by an API coordination device configured to execute a coordinated service combining wholesale services of a plurality of wholesale providers by launching an API published to a terminal device of a service provider providing a communication service to a user and by launching, in response to an order from the terminal device, APIs through which the plurality of wholesale providers publish the wholesale services, the wholesale services providing communications services, the API coordination method comprising steps of:
creating a coordination rule including a first rule defining API simplification which is to be performed in such a way that, among parameters for executing the coordinated service, a subset of the parameters is hidden and the others of the parameters are published to the service provider; and
reading the first rule and launching the API published to the terminal device in such a way as to hide the subset of the parameters for executing the coordinated service and publish the others of the parameters to the terminal device.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program causing a computer to function as an application programming interface (API) coordination device configured to execute a coordinated service combining wholesale services of a plurality of wholesale providers by launching an API published to a terminal device of a service provider providing a communication service to a user and by launching, in response to an o

Assignees

• Nippon Telegraph & Telephone

Inventors

• Takahashi Kensuke
• Tanaka Hiroyuki
• Tanji Naoyuki
• Onai Nobuo
• Take Naoki
• Yazaki Hiroyuki
• Kato Hiroshi

Classifications

• H04L67/567

  Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers · CPC title

• H04L67/133

  Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC] · CPC title

• G06F9/547 Primary

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0613

  using intermediate agents · CPC title

• G06F9/5055

  considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine · CPC title