Dynamic, non-intrusive personalization of web services

摘要

A method and apparatus to employ a service proxy to dynamically personalize Web service messages by automatically supplying the interface parameters used for communications between a Web service provider and its client businesses. The service proxy does this according to context parameters that the client businesses specifies during configuration set up at the Web service provider's Web site and in messages used to communicate with one or more Web services. For simpler administration, the context variables may be organized in multiple kinds of hierarchies by which communications parameters specified at a higher level are automatically applied to categories at a lower level, although parameters specified directly for a lower-level category will override parameters from a higher category.

主权项

1. A method of automatically and dynamically supplying personalized communications parameters used for communications between a Web service and a source comprising:
executing a service proxy on a server computer, wherein the service proxy manages applying communications parameters to messages communicated across a computer network between one or more client applications and one or more Web services; storing client communications parameters in a computer readable storage accessible to the service proxy by:
receiving at least one configuration of client-specified communications parameters wherein each configuration includes at least one interface variable and at least one context variable;storing each configuration of client-specified communications parameters as an associated subscriber profile in the computer readable storage; storing Web service provider configured information as at least one service profile in the computer readable storage accessible to the service proxy; utilizing the service proxy to apply particular communications parameters to client application messages by:
receiving a client application incoming message, wherein the client application incoming message comprises a header having context information, and a body having a corresponding Web service request;reading the context information from the client application incoming message;utilizing the context information read from the client application incoming message to retrieve a selected subscriber profile from the computer readable storage;utilizing the context information read from the client application incoming message to retrieve a selected service profile from the computer readable storage;applying the particular communications parameters determined from the retrieved subscriber profile and from the retrieved service profile to transform the incoming message to personalize the client's web service request, andforwarding the client's personalized web service request to the web service end point of the associated Web service by invoking the Web service to execute the request contained in that personalized client application message.