JP2005107699A - Conversion method and system of web content including script into web service - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conversion method and a system which convert an existing Web application into a Web service even if the Web page includes a script to call a Web application. <P>SOLUTION: A conversion server acquires a Web page described as input information in a profile in advance and holds its script and a DOM of an HTML text being an operation target. The server creates a Web service having a method corresponding to an event to the Web page. When a Web service client requests the method, the sever executes the corresponding script in the Web page being held. Thereby, the system which converts the Web application into the Web service can handle the script. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and system for converting an existing Web application into a Web service.

  With the spread of the Internet, Web services are spreading. Unlike Web applications that are based on human intervention, Web services are applications that allow computers to exchange data directly over a network without human intervention using a data exchange protocol called SOAP. is there.

  The applicant has applied for, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-42221 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-284899 (both of which are the same as the present applicant and unpublished at the time of filing this application) as technologies for converting existing Web applications into Web services. ing.

  The technology described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-42221 performs mutual conversion between a data exchange protocol SOAP in a Web service and a data exchange protocol HTTP in a Web application. Specifically, a profile that specifies information required to call a specific existing Web application from a Web page that includes a FORM tag or A tag, and a part that is provided as a Web service from the Web page as a return value of the existing Web application Is placed on the proxy server. Based on this profile, the proxy server acquires data from the SOAP request from the Web service client, generates an HTTP request, and acquires an HTTP response from the Web application. Also, data is acquired from the HTML data of the HTTP response based on the profile, a SOAP response is generated, and sent to the Web service client. As a result, the existing Web application is converted into a Web service.

  In addition, the technology described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-284899 is similar to the technology described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-42221, and dynamically converts an existing Web application to a Web service using a proxy server, but provides a Web application. This corresponds to the case where the Web server performs session management.

  However, in the background art described above, information necessary for calling a Web application is specified for each tag in the Web page, but there is a problem that a script included in the Web page is not considered. Recent web pages have scripts written for the purpose of server load reduction, etc., so that the validity of input values and simple calculations are executed on the client's input values, etc. The result is sent to the web application.

  However, the background art described above only performs protocol conversion, and scripts are ignored. For this reason, there was a problem that an inappropriate value was sent to the Web application.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for converting an existing Web application into a Web service, which is compatible with a case where a script is included in a Web page that calls a Web application.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for converting an existing Web application into a Web service, the first step of generating a profile describing information necessary for the conversion, and the Web service based on the profile And a third step of executing the generated Web service. In the first step, a profile in which input information and output information to a Web application are described is generated, and a profile in which a URL of a Web page including a script is described as input information to the Web application. Is to be generated.

  In the second step, a Web page described as input information in the profile is acquired by the conversion server, and the script and the DOM of the HTML document are held. Of the Web page script acquired by the conversion server as input information, keep the script that deletes expressions unnecessary for Web services, such as the display method and format specification of character strings. In addition, the HTML document of the Web page acquired as input information by the conversion server is converted into a DOM consisting only of elements related to the Web application call and script execution, and stored. Further, a Web service having three types of methods, that is, a setting method for setting an input variable to the Web application, an event method corresponding to the event, and an acquisition method for acquiring the output variable of the Web application is generated.

  In the third step, when a setting method is requested, the conversion server sets a given variable value for the held DOM. When an event method is requested, the conversion server refers to the held DOM, and executes the script when a script corresponding to the event method exists. If the script has an instruction to display a message box, the conversion server sets the message in the message box as an exception message and throws an exception to the Web service client. If the requested event method is submit, an HTTP request is generated and transmitted from the DOM held by the conversion server, and an HTTP response is acquired from the Web application. When the acquisition method is requested, the conversion server acquires the part specified by the output information of the profile from the HTML document of the acquired HTTP response, converts it into a SOAP response, and sends it to the Web service client.

  According to the present invention, a system that converts a Web application into a Web service can support a script by holding a script and a DOM of an HTML document that is an operation target of the script in advance in the conversion server. In addition, by holding a DOM composed only of elements necessary for conversion and script execution, it is possible to reduce memory usage and speed up access to data in the DOM. Furthermore, by deleting methods unnecessary for the Web service from the script, the script can be executed at high speed.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system for converting to a web service according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the system for converting to a Web service is necessary for converting a Web application 130 into a Web service, a Web server 130 that provides the Web application, a conversion server 140 that converts the Web application into a Web service, and the Web service. A profile creation device 120 that creates a profile describing information, and a web service client 100 that uses a web service provided by the conversion server 140 via the Internet 110 are provided.

  The conversion server 140 stores a communication unit 141 that communicates with other devices, a profile analysis unit 142 that analyzes a profile generated by the profile generation device 120, and an HTML document specified by the profile as a DOM (Document Object Model). DOM DB 143 to be stored, return value DB 144 that holds the return value of the Web service specified in the profile, script analysis unit 145 that analyzes the script in the HTML document specified in the profile, script DB 146 that holds the analyzed script, An unnecessary method DB 147 that defines and holds unnecessary methods, a Web service generation unit 148 that generates a Web service based on a profile, a Web service DB 149 that stores the generated Web service, and a SOAP request from the Web service client 100 is analyzed SOAP request analysis 150, a control unit 151 that performs control related to provision of a Web service, a DOM operation unit 152 that operates a DOM of an HTML document held based on a request, a script execution unit 153 that executes a script, and an HTTP request to the Web server 130 An HTTP request generation unit 154 that analyzes an HTTP response, and a SOAP response generation unit 155 that generates a SOAP response to the Web service client.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with a specific example.

  2 and 3 are examples of existing Web applications that retrieve employee information. FIG. 2 is a browser display of a web page (http://www.xxx.co.jp/whois.html) that calls a web application, and FIG. 3 is an HTML document thereof. When the user enters the employee number in the employee number input field 201 of this Web page and presses the search button 202, the client executes the script check () in the HTML document and first determines whether the input data is a number. (301). If the input data is not a number, the message “Enter a single-byte number” (302) is bolded (303) and displayed in a message box (304). If the input data is a number, the employee number is transmitted to the Web application (305). The Web application that has acquired the employee number returns the corresponding employee information as a Web page shown in FIG. The employee information in this web page includes employee number, employee name, department, and telephone number.

  In order to convert an existing Web page for retrieving employee information into a Web service, the profile creation device 120 needs to create a profile related to the Web application and place the profile on the conversion server 140. The procedure will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  In step 501, the profile generation apparatus 120 generates a profile in accordance with a developer's instruction.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the generated profile. This profile describes information about the input (602) and output (603) of the Web service (Whois) (601) provided by the conversion server 140. In the input (602), the URL (http://www.xxx.co.jp/whois.html) of the web page that calls the web application is specified. The output (603) specifies the URL (http://www.xxx.co.jp/result.html) of the Web page that is the return value of the Web application. The child element PARAMETER (604, 605) specifies whether or not to be provided as an output value of the Web service. Here, the employee name shimei and the telephone number tel are used as output values, and the location in the Web page where these are described is specified by XPath.

  In step 502, the profile generation device 120 transmits the profile generated in step 501 to the conversion server 140.

  In step 503, the communication unit 141 of the conversion server 140 reads the profile generated by the profile generation device 120 and sends it to the profile analysis unit 142. The profile analysis unit 142 refers to the url attribute of the INPUT element of the profile, and acquires a Web page (see FIGS. 1 and 2) for calling a Web application from the Web server 130.

  In step 504, the profile analysis unit 142 analyzes the profile and secures an area for storing the return value in the return value DB 144 based on the child element PARAMETER of the OUTPUT element. FIG. 7 shows an example of such storage. Under the service Whois, the areas of return values shimei and tel are reserved.

  In step 505, the profile analysis unit 142 generates a DOM including only necessary elements from the Web page acquired in step 503 and stores the DOM in the DOM DB 143. Here, the following two points are used as criteria for determining necessary elements. The first criterion is an element directly related to calling the target Web application, such as the FORM element (306) in FIG. Another criterion is an element referred to in the script, such as “form1.no.value” 301 in FIG. FIG. 8 shows an example of the DOM generated in this example. As is apparent from a comparison between this and the original HTML document of FIG. 3, it can be seen that the generated DOM has no BR element or CENTER element and is compact. With this device, it is possible to reduce the amount of memory required for the DOM and the access time to the data in the DOM.

  In step 506, the script analysis unit 145 acquires the script portion from the Web page acquired in step 503 and stores it in the script DB 146. However, unnecessary processing as a Web service, such as changing the character format, is deleted. For this purpose, an unnecessary method list is stored in the unnecessary method DB 147 in advance, and a method matching this is deleted. FIG. 9 shows an example of unnecessary method storage in the unnecessary method DB 147. FIG. 10 shows an example of a script stored in the script DB 146. Compared with the original script of FIG. 3, the portion of the method “bold ()” stored in the unnecessary method DB 147 is deleted. In this way, scripts can be executed efficiently by deleting methods unnecessary for the Web service.

  In step 507, the web service generation unit 148 generates a web service class and stores it in the web service DB 149. FIG. 11 shows a class example of the generated Web service. The generated class has three types of methods. The first is a set method "setNo (string no)" that sets the variables required to call the Web application, which is automatically set from the HTML document. The second is an event method "submit ()" corresponding to an event such as submit, which is also automatically set from the HTML document. The third is an acquisition method “getShimei (), getTel ()” that acquires a return value set in the OUTPUT element of the profile.

  This completes the settings necessary for the conversion server 140 to dynamically convert the Web application to the Web service.

  Next, a procedure for the conversion server 140 to provide the Web service to the Web service client 100 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  When the communication unit 141 of the conversion server 140 receives a SOAP request from the Web service client 100, the SOAP request analysis unit 150 analyzes the SOAP request and determines the type of the requested method (step 1201).

  When the requested method is a setting method, the control unit 151 passes the value to be set to the DOM operation unit 152. The DOM operation unit 152 sets a value for the corresponding DOM stored in the DOM DB 143 (step 1202). For example, when the setting method “setNo” is requested, the value of “no” is set to the attribute value 801 of the INPUT element whose name attribute is “no” in FIG.

  When the requested method is an event method, the control unit 151 refers to the DOM DB 143 and determines whether there is a script corresponding to the requested event (step 1203). If the script exists, the script execution unit 153 acquires the corresponding script from the script DB 146 and executes it (step 1204). For example, if the requested method is “submit”, the script “check ()” is specified by the onSubmit attribute of the FORM element in the DOM of FIG. 8, so the script of FIG. 10 stored in the script DB 146 is executed. To do. Here, as in the script of FIG. 10, when a method for operating a message box (for example, “alart”) is included, an exception having the message in the message box as an exception message is thrown to the Web service client 100.

  Further, the control unit 151 determines whether or not the requested method is “submit” (step 1205). If the method is “submit”, the HTTP request generation unit 154 generates an HTTP request from the corresponding DOM stored in the DOM DB 143, and transmits the HTTP request to the Web server 130 (step 1206). An example of the generated HTTP request is the same as that described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-42221. When the HTTP response analysis unit 156 receives the HTTP response from the Web server 130 (step 1207), the HTML document included in the HTTP response is set according to the XPath set in the xpath attribute of the child element PARAMETER of the OUTPUT element in the profile. Return values (here, shimei and tel values) are acquired (step 1208). The acquired return value is stored in the return value DB 144.

  If the requested method is an acquisition method, the control unit 151 acquires the value of the corresponding variable from the return value DB 144 and passes it to the SOAP response generation unit 155 (step 1209). The SOAP response generation unit 155 generates a SOAP response from the acquired value and transmits it to the Web service client 100 (step 1210). An example of the generated SOAP response is the same as that described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-42221.

  This completes the process of dynamically converting the Web application to the Web service when the Web page that calls the Web application includes a script.

The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the Web service conversion system of one embodiment of this invention Browser display example showing an example Web page for calling a Web application Example HTML document showing an example Web page for calling a Web application Browser display example showing an example of a Web page that is the output result of a Web application Flowchart showing an overview of the processing procedure for profile generation and placement processing Diagram showing an example profile that describes information for converting a Web application to a Web service Diagram showing an example of the data structure stored in the return value DB that stores the return value of the Web service Diagram showing an example of the DOM structure of a Web page stored in the DOM DB Diagram showing an example of the unnecessary method list stored in the unnecessary method DB Diagram showing an example of a script stored in the script DB Diagram showing an example of a web service generated based on a profile Flowchart showing an overview of the processing procedure for executing Web services

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Web service client, 110 ... Internet, 120 ... Profile creation apparatus, 130 ... Web server, 140 ... Conversion server.

Claims (11)

A method for converting an existing web application into a web service,
A first step of generating a profile in which URL information of a web page including a script is described as the input information in a profile in which input information and output information to the Web application are described as information necessary for conversion;
A second step of generating a web service based on the profile;
A third step of executing the generated web service. A method for converting web content including a script, characterized by comprising a script, to a web service. A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 1 into a Web service.
The second step is a conversion method characterized in that the conversion server acquires a Web page described as input information in the profile and holds the script and the DOM of the HTML document. A method for converting a web content including the script according to claim 2 into a web service.
The conversion method characterized in that the second step holds a script in which an expression unnecessary for the Web service is deleted from the script of the Web page acquired as input information by the conversion server. In the conversion method of the web content containing the script of Claim 2 or 3 to the web service,
The second step is characterized in that the HTML document of the Web page acquired as input information by the conversion server is converted into a DOM consisting only of elements related to Web application call and script execution, and stored. Method. In the conversion method of the web content containing the script as described in any one of Claim 1 to 4 to the web service,
The second step generates a Web service with three types of methods: a setting method that sets input variables to the Web application, an event method that corresponds to the event, and a get method that acquires the output variable of the Web application. A conversion method characterized by: A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 5 into a Web service.
In the third step, when the setting method is requested from a Web service client, the conversion server sets a given variable value for a held DOM. A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 5 into a Web service.
In the third step, when the event method is requested, the conversion server refers to the held DOM, and executes the script when a script corresponding to the event method exists. Conversion method. A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 7 into a Web service.
In the third step, when the script has a command to display a message box, the conversion server sets the message in the message box as an exception message and throws an exception to the Web service client. Conversion method. A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 7 into a Web service.
In the third step, if the requested event method is submit, the necessary information is acquired from the DOM held by the conversion server, an HTTP request is generated and transmitted, and an HTTP response is acquired from the Web application A conversion method characterized by: A method for converting a Web content including the script according to claim 5 into a Web service.
In the third step, when the acquisition method is requested, the conversion server acquires the part specified by the output information of the profile from the acquired HTML document of the HTTP response, converts it into a SOAP response, and converts it into a Web service. A conversion method characterized by being transmitted to a client. A system that converts existing web applications into web services,
Means for generating a profile in which URL information of a Web page including a script is described as the input information in a profile in which input information and output information to the Web application are described as information necessary for conversion;
Means for generating a web service based on the profile;
A system for converting a web content including a script, characterized by comprising means for executing the generated web service.

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