Dynamically forming and executing application programming interface pipelines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9823950-B1
Application number	US-201615237756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 16, 2016
Priority date	Aug 16, 2016
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

An embodiment of the present executes a sequence of a plurality of application programming interfaces. Request objects are generated for the application programming interfaces of the sequence. Each request object is generated in accordance with a common object model. Execution of each application programming interface is enabled in an order of the sequence to process a corresponding request object and generate a corresponding response object containing results. Each response object is generated in accordance with the common object model and includes information from the corresponding request object aggregated with the results. Further, each request object for a succeeding application programming interface in the sequence includes the aggregated information from a response object of a prior executed application programming interface in the sequence.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of executing a sequence of a plurality of application programming interfaces comprising:
generating request objects for the application programming interfaces of the sequence, wherein each request object is generated in accordance with a common object model, wherein each of a collection of application programming interfaces is associated with a key and a definition for the sequence includes a list of keys of application programming interfaces from the collection included in the sequence, and wherein an order of the keys in the definition specifies an order of execution of the associated application programming interfaces; and
enabling execution of each application programming interface in an order of the sequence to process a corresponding request object and generate a corresponding response object containing results, wherein each response object is generated in accordance with the common object model and includes information from the corresponding request object aggregated with the results, and wherein each request object for a succeeding application programming interface in the sequence includes the aggregated information from a response object of a prior executed application programming interface in the sequence, and wherein enabling execution further comprises:
identifying one or more objects in a request object unrecognized by a corresponding application programming interface: and
placing the one or more unrecognized objects in a separate storage area of the request object and corresponding generated response object for processing by at least one succeeding application programming application interface in the sequence recognizing the one or more unrecognized objects, wherein the separate storage area is reserved for unrecognized objects.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence further includes at least two application programming interfaces designated to be executed in parallel, and the method further comprises:
merging response objects produced by each of the application programming interfaces executed in parallel to generate a resulting response object with merged information.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence further includes a nested sequence of application programming interfaces that generates a resulting response object with aggregated results of the application programming interfaces of the nested sequence.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selectively exchanging at least one of the application programming interfaces in the sequence.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the results of a corresponding application programming interface add at least one additional element from the common object model to the information from the corresponding request object to form the aggregated information.

6. A system for executing a sequence of a plurality of application programming interfaces comprising:
at least one processor configured to:

generate request objects for the application programming interfaces of the sequence, wherein each request object is generated in accordance with a common object model, wherein each of a collection of application programming interfaces is associated with a key and a definition for the sequence includes a list of keys of application programming interfaces from the collection included in the sequence, and wherein an order of the keys in the definition specifies an order of execution of the associated application programming interfaces; and
enable execution of each application programming interface in an order of the sequence to process a corresponding request object and generate a corresponding response object containing results, wherein each response object is generated in accordance with the common object model and includes information from the corresponding request object aggregated with the results, and wherein each request object for a succeeding application programming interface in the sequence includes the aggregated information from a response object of a prior executed

application programming interface in the sequence, and wherein enabling execution further comprises:
identifying one or more objects in a request object unrecognized by a corresponding application programming interface: and
placing the one or more unrecognized objects in a separate storage area of the request object and corresponding generated response object for processing by at least one succeeding application programming application interface in the sequence recognizing the one or more unrecognized objects, wherein the separate storage area is reserved for unrecognized objects.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the sequence further includes at least two application programming interfaces designated to be executed in parallel, and the at least one processor is further configured to:
merge response objects produced by each of the application programming interfaces executed in parallel to generate a resulting response object with merged information.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the sequence further includes a nested sequence of application programming interfaces that generates a resulting response object with aggregated results of the application programming interfaces of the nested sequence.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
selectively exchange at least one of the application programming interfaces in the sequence.

10. A computer program product for executing a sequence of a plurality of application programming interfaces, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code executable by at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to:
generate request objects for the application programming interfaces of the sequence, wherein each request object is generated in accordance with a common object model, wherein each of a collection of application programming interfaces is associated with a key and a definition for the sequence includes a list of keys of application programming interfaces from the collection included in the sequence, and wherein an order of the keys in the definition specifies an order of execution of the associated application programming interfaces; and
enable execution of each application programming interface in an order of the sequence to process a corresponding request object and generate a corresponding response object containing results, wherein each response object is generated in accordance with the common object model and includes information from the corresponding request object aggregated with the results, and wherein each request object for a succeeding application programming interface in the sequence includes the aggregated information from a response object of a prior executed application programming interface in the sequence, and wherein enabling execution further comprises:
identifying one or more objects in a request object unrecognized by a corresponding application programming interface: and
placing the one or more unrecognized objects in a separate storage area of the request object and corresponding generated response object for processing by at least one succeeding application programming application interface in the sequence recognizing the one or more unrecognized objects, wherein the separate storage area is reserved for unrecognized objects.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the sequence further includes at least two application programming interfaces designated to be executed in parallel, and the computer readable program code further causes the at le

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Carrier Scott R
• Goff Robert E
• Huebert Jeffrey K
• La Rocca Jennifer L

Classifications

• G06F9/541 Primary

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · CPC title

• G06F9/543 Primary

  User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE] · CPC title

• G06F9/44505

  Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files · CPC title