System and method for application configuration comparison and reuse

摘要

A system and method allow a user to extract the set of customizations performed on an application and use these to estimate the time and effort and cost of (a) migrating to a new version of the application and/or (b) consolidating systems. The user can browse the extracted data and select configuration elements for re-use. After downloading the one or more configurations and comparing them, the user selects elements of the configurations for re-use. The first step is to scan one or more application systems and extract the configuration data using a surveyor. The method according to the invention automatically identifies configuration differences. The user then selects configuration elements for re-use. A graphic user interface (GUI) can be provided which allows the user to make these selections by dragging and dropping selected elements to a “To Be” configuration. The selected configurations are then uploaded and installed on an instance of the application.

主权项

1. A system for application configuration comparison and re-use, comprising:
a surveyor configured to i) receive a first user selection of one or more data types, ii) scan an application system, and iii) extract application configuration elements having said one or more data types specified by said first user selection, wherein said application system is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, wherein scanning the application system with the surveyor comprises:
creating an asset that will hold data; followed byselecting a system that contains data; followed byauthenticating with the system; followed byselecting a type of extracted data and extraction parameters; followed bydownloading and saving the data into the asset; followed bysaving the asset into a repository; and a computer with a workbench to which extracted application configuration elements from said application system are provided by the surveyor, wherein said workbench is configured to perform steps of
comparing the extracted application configuration elements with a reference system including comparison of one or more of node metadata and nodes of respective extracted application configuration elements and application configuration elements of said reference system;computing one or more differences between the extracted application configuration elements and the reference system, wherein a) when compared node metadata from said comparing step is identical, nodes themselves are compared and node differences are computed, and b) when compared nodes are identical, said comparing step is repeated for children of said compared nodes if children exist;receive a second user selection of one or more of the extracted application configuration elements which contain one or more of said differences computed in said computing step for re-use; andupload said one or more of the extracted application configuration elements of said second user selection to a client system for installation, wherein said surveyor is configured to receive said first user selection from said computer.