JP4352801B2 - Service cooperation apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to collaborative work support, and more particularly, to a technique for forming a series of service processes by linking services published on a network. The service includes all services provided via a network, such as an online application provided by an ASP or the like, and an application provided by various information appliances.

  In recent years, with the spread of the Internet, ASP (Application Service Provider) that provides services via a network and XML (Extensible Markup Language) as a standard technology for linking services provided on a network to each other UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and other Web services that are developed by standard technologies such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). Along with such a technical trend, several techniques for configuring a series of service processes by linking services provided on the Internet have been proposed.

  In these technologies, first, as shown in Patent Documents 1 to 6 and the like, a “business cooperation server” for linking a plurality of services provided on a network is independent from each service. There is a method of providing an appropriate service to the user via the business cooperation server. However, when it is assumed that service collaboration across companies is realized in an open environment such as the Internet, this "business collaboration server" is in a neutral position that does not reach the interests of each service provider. Need to operate. For this reason, such a business cooperation server must be operated by a third-party organization or in a form agreed between participating companies, which constitutes an operational barrier.

  Further, as shown in Patent Documents 7 to 9, based on an end-user request, a service widely provided on the network is searched to generate a series of processes, and between services constituting the process There is a way to recommend the service while handing over the process. However, in the methods proposed in these patent applications, since service cooperation is performed based on the cooperation relation designated on the end user side, even if there is no business trust relationship between service providers, This means that business processing must be transferred, and when applied to service cooperation between companies, it may be expected that actual business cannot be transferred.

  In addition, as shown in Patent Document 10, collation is not collated from a set of fixed connection interfaces, but collation is performed in parallel for a service added in stages, and the cooperation is determined. There is a calculation method. This method eliminates the need to specify a set of connection interfaces to be calculated when deriving a linkage relationship, and allows stepwise additions and deletions. Processing can be distributed. However, even in this method, if a set of connection interfaces of services to be linked is not specified by any method, even a linkage relationship that does not actually have a possibility may be derived.

In addition, as shown in Patent Documents 11 to 13, a method has been proposed in which business processes individually managed by a company or a department are connected based on a common description format linkage interface. Although this method enables delivery of business processing between companies and departments, it does not deal with the derivation of business cooperation between companies or departments.
JP 10-49471 A JP 10-2322899 A JP-A-11-15849 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-212911 JP2002-150034 JP 2002-324123 A JP-A-8-249290 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-314872 JP 2002-196926 A JP 2001-202408 A JP-A-11-238090 JP 2001-325413 A JP 2002-108632 A

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances. For example, the present invention realizes a basic architecture that enables services provided by various companies provided on the Internet to cooperate with each other. In order to deal with unresolved issues such as those described in the previous technology, alliances established between individual service providers without a “service linkage server” that collectively manages linkages between services. It aims to realize a decentralized service cooperation architecture that enables service cooperation relations to be derived on a related network.

  Also, when linking services, linking between services provided in a public open, linking services that are limited to a specific company, linking services that are limited to a certain department, and being used in a room It is considered necessary to control the service group to be linked at various levels, including service linkage limited to possible services. Therefore, a specific aspect of the present invention aims to enable control of such a service set to be linked at various levels.

  According to this invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the configuration as described in the claims is adopted.

  The present invention relates to a basic architecture that enables peer-to-peer service cooperation using, for example, a service providing server provided by various companies disclosed on a network as a peer. Here, it is not a centralized architecture that puts a “service linkage server” that calculates the linkage relationship of multiple services at once, as in the conventional technology, but enables service linkage across companies with different interests Therefore, each service providing server is connected to each other in an equal position to form a peer-to-peer network, and in that relationship, the cooperative relationship is calculated in parallel in each service providing server. Propose an architecture. (In order to realize service cooperation between companies with a conventional centralized architecture, it was necessary to operate a mechanism for deriving the cooperation by a third party organization.)

  In a specific configuration, for each service providing server device (server computer; hereinafter simply referred to as a server), a “service definition” describing the contents of the service is published on the network in the form of an XML document. Here, the service definition is defined as a format that constitutes a series of processes in units of activities expressed in units of “operation target” and “operation”.

  In addition, a partnership relationship is established between service providing servers based on mutual trust relationships, and a peer-to-peer network is configured. The partnership relationship set between the service providing servers is managed in units of “service communities”, and service definitions are shared within individual service communities. The “service community” is composed of multiple service definitions, but the addition of service definitions was confirmed by exchanging the credentials given to each service community between the service community and the service to subscribe to. Implemented above. The “service community” can be generated on any service providing server, and for each service community, the address of the service providing server that provides the service definition constituting the service community is held. The Then, when a partnership is formed between the service providing servers and the service definition is provided to the service community, it is also in the partnership with the other service providing servers held by the service community. The partnership with the service providing server is automatically set, thereby improving the connection density of the peer-to-peer network formed by the service providing server and improving the reliability of the entire system.

  In each service providing server, the service community is used as a unit, and the cooperation relationship between services is calculated based on the service definition constituting each service community. The calculation of the cooperation relationship may be executed at regular time intervals, or may be executed by notifying between servers when a new service is added. The service definition includes a description of a service to be requested to others for providing the service. When a service to be requested is found, service candidates that can provide the service content are searched in the service community, and when a service that can be provided is found, a cooperative relationship is set. Further, when calculating the linkage relationship, a service obtained by integrating a plurality of services is abstracted as one service and treated as one virtual linkage target service.

  The service user requests a service from an arbitrary service providing server. Then, the cooperation candidate derived | led-out within the service community in which the service provision server participates is searched, and the cooperation relationship which provides a desired service is provided.

  In such a configuration, when services are linked between companies with different interests, service management managed by each company is provided without placing a service coordination server (coordination server) that handles the coordination between services at once. By connecting servers equally, non-centralized service linkage is possible. That is, instead of a method in which a specific server calculates a service linkage relationship, each service provider calculates a linkage relationship with another service to enable linkage.

  When setting a cooperative relationship with a service group provided on the network, the range of the service group to be linked can be controlled by using a unit called “service community”. For this reason, the scale of collaboration targets can be specified in a wide range from a completely public open range to between service providers who have a trust relationship, and the linkage relationship between services is calculated. It is possible to avoid the explosion of calculation (it is difficult to perform a calculation to set up a cooperative relationship between service groups provided all over the world).

  Since the calculation of the cooperation relationship between services is distributed to a plurality of service providing servers, the reliability of the entire system can be improved. (A kind of grid computing is realized.)

  Furthermore, the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 as an example.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention does not include a single service cooperation server that controls cooperation between a plurality of services, and forms a peer-to-peer relationship established between individual services. Based on the network configuration, it is assumed that decentralized service linkage that enables linkage between services is realized.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in a service cooperation apparatus that connects a plurality of computers each functioning as the service providing server apparatus 102 via the network 101 and coordinates a service provided by the plurality of computers, Each includes: a service definition holding unit (105) that holds a service definition describing the service contents of each service provided by the computer; and calculates a cooperative relationship between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding unit A service cooperation relationship deriving unit (106) for maintaining the cooperation relationship between the service providing server devices and holding the information on the cooperation relationship with other service providing server devices (102); Based on the information on the linkages held by the means. So that having a service definition sharing means for sharing a service definition between the other service providing server device in a cooperative relationship with the computer (104).

  In this configuration, the service defined in each service providing server is established by following the peer-to-peer cooperation relationship established between the individual service providing servers without placing a server for service cooperation in the center. Connection interfaces are shared, and it is possible to derive a cooperation relationship between services based on them.

  In this configuration, each of the plurality of computers includes a service community holding unit that holds a service community corresponding to a set of service definitions to be linked. Information related to the service community held by the service community holding unit of the service providing server device may be shared, and the service definition holding unit may publish the service in relation to the service community held by the service community holding unit. .

  As described above, the service community is a unit of service cooperation, and is specifically configured by a service providing server having a single cooperation relationship. By introducing the concept of service community, one service providing server can participate in a plurality of service communities.

  In this way, the linkage relationship set between the service providing servers is managed in units called “service communities”, and the service providing servers belong to various groups, and each group is serviced within the scope of cooperation. Cooperation can be performed. This makes it possible to link services in various credit ranges.

  Further, in this case, the service community holding unit holds information of service providing server devices that provide services to the service communities, and the service providing server device cooperation holding unit holds the service Based on the service community information shared by the definition sharing means, a linkage relationship between a plurality of service providing server devices that provide services to the service community may be set and held.

  In this way, it is possible to make the peer-to-peer cooperation relationship set between the service providing servers more reliable network as a whole system. In other words, since the connection relationship of the networks forming the service community is made closer to a mesh shape, even when a certain service providing server is down, the service providing server is connected between the service providing servers via other service providing servers. It becomes possible to share information.

  In addition, the service linkage relationship deriving unit automatically generates a service definition that abstracts a plurality of service definitions held by the service definition holding unit, and registers the service definition in the service definition holding unit so that it becomes a service to be linked. You may make it do.

  In this case, in addition to the defined service, a service formed as a result of linking a plurality of services can be linked as one service.

  In addition, a standard name or a standard operation name for describing a business used when a computer provided separately from the plurality of computers or one of the plurality of computers defines service contents In each of the plurality of computers, the service definition holding unit provides a standard name used for description of business provided by the service ontology providing unit when defining a service. Or an operation name may be retrieved and used.

  In this case, since the contents of the service definition are described using a common word, it is easy to collate the service definition when calculating the linkage relationship of the service, and the synonym dictionary or the dictionary based on the abstract relationship of the concept It is possible to absorb differences in meaning and differences due to abstract relations.

  Further, a computer provided on the end user side separately from the plurality of computers is defined by a service process definition means for defining a series of processes formed by a plurality of services defined by the end user, and defined by the service process definition means. Service search request issuing means for issuing a search request for searching for each service in the processed process to at least one of the plurality of computers constituting the service providing server device, and each of the plurality of computers includes a service search When a service matching the search request sent from the request issuing means is searched from the services held by the service definition holding means, the search result is returned to the computer provided on the end user side, and there is no corresponding service. Search for other service provider servers that are linked It may be provided with means for requesting.

  In this case, it is possible to provide a service configured by a series of processes provided by the network of the service providing server to the end user who is to receive the service.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used to cause a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, non-centralized service cooperation is enabled by simply connecting service providing servers on an equal basis without placing a service cooperation server (coordination server) that collectively manages cooperation between services.

  In a more specific configuration, when setting a linkage relationship with a service group provided on the network, the range of the service group to be linked is controlled by using a unit called “service community”. Can do. For this reason, the scale of collaboration targets can be specified in a wide range from a completely public open range to between service providers who have a trust relationship, and the linkage relationship between services is calculated. It is possible to avoid the explosion of calculation (it is difficult to perform a calculation to set up a cooperative relationship between service groups provided all over the world).

  Similarly, in a specific configuration, since the calculation of the cooperation relationship between services is distributed to a plurality of service providing servers, the reliability of the entire system can be improved. (A kind of grid computing is realized.)

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[Principle configuration]
FIG. 1 schematically shows the basic configuration of a service cooperation apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the service cooperation apparatus includes a plurality of service providing servers 102 connected to a network 101, and a plurality of end users. The client 103 (only one is shown in the figure, but usually there are a plurality), is composed of one service description ontology server 110. The service providing server 102 includes a server affiliation relationship holding unit 103, a service definition sharing unit 104, a service definition holding unit 105, a service cooperation relationship deriving unit 106, and the like. The end user client 107 includes a service process definition unit 108, a service search unit 109, and the like. The service description ontology server 110 has service ontology providing means 111 and the like.

  Each service providing server 102, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 2 and later, specifically, service server data 301, service data 302, service community data 303, service content description data 304 as shown in FIG. , Activity interface description data 305, process description element data 306, and the like.

  The server cooperation relationship holding unit 103 holds the cooperation server aggregate data of the service server data 301. In some cases, the server cooperation relationship holding unit 103 may hold information on the service provision server aggregate data of the service community data 303.

  The service definition sharing unit 104 shares a service definition (or only a service ID) using, for example, a service community message 602 shown in FIG.

  The service definition holding unit 105 holds the service definition of the service provided by the service providing server 102. Specifically, the service definition 302, the service content description data 304, and the activity interface description data 305 shown in FIG. The process description element data 306 and the like are held, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  The service cooperation relationship deriving unit 106 calculates a cooperation relationship between the service and another service, and determines that there is a cooperation relationship when a predetermined condition is satisfied. This is performed especially when a new service is introduced, but it may also be performed for an existing service such as recalculation under different conditions.

  The service ontology providing means 111 of the service description ontology server 110 provides meaning information related to services as shown in FIG. 11, for example.

  In this configuration, it is defined in each service providing server 102 by following a peer-to-peer cooperative relationship established between the individual service providing servers 102 without placing a server for service cooperation in the center. The connection interface of each service is shared, and it is possible to derive a cooperation relationship between services based on them.

  The above configuration can be understood more clearly by the configuration of the following embodiments.

[Configuration of Example]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a more specific configuration example of the service cooperation apparatus according to the present invention. In the example of FIG. 2, the service cooperation apparatus includes a plurality of service providing servers 202 connected to a network 201, a plurality of end user clients 203, and one service description ontology server 204.

  Here, an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) server is installed in the service providing server 202 and the service description ontology server 204, and data expressed in the XML format is disclosed on the network for realizing the present invention. be able to. The system is realized on a Java (trademark) platform, and an end user client side 203 can execute an applet for service search execution provided by the service providing server 202. In 202, an ontology search applet provided by the service providing ontology server 204 can be executed.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the data structure of the data object handled in the processing in the embodiment of the present invention. These data are respectively held in the service providing server 202 and are all managed by the service providing server 202. Specifically, these data are service server data 301, service data 302, service community data 303, service content description data 304, activity interface description data 305, and process description element data 306.

  The service server data 301 describes a service set, a service community set, a linked server set, and the like. The service data 302 describes a service name, interface address, belonging community set, service window address, service content, and the like. The service community data 303 describes a community name, a group of service providing servers, a credential (authentication code), and the like. The service content description data 304 includes an activity interface description, a process description, and the like. The activity interface description data 305 describes an operation target set, operation name, provided service address, provided service address set, and the like. The process description element data 306 describes a preceding activity set, a sub-activity set, and the like.

[Partnership setting process between service providing servers]
Alliance between the service providing servers 202 is performed by sending an association request message from one service providing server 202 (association request source) to the other service providing server 202 (association request destination). The process at the affiliation request source is as shown in process 401 in FIG. 4, and the process at the affiliation request destination is as shown in process 402 in FIG. The description itself of FIG. 4 is clear from the drawing and will not be described in particular.

  The service providing server 202 can establish a partnership with any other service providing server 202 connected to the network. However, in order to establish an alliance, the side requesting the alliance needs to obtain a credential for authentication offline beforehand from the alliance partner.

  The service providing server 202 serving as the cooperation request source transmits a message expressed in the XML format as shown in the “cooperation request message 601” (FIG. 6) to the service providing server 202 serving as the cooperation request destination.

  On the other hand, in the service providing server 202 of the partner request destination that has received the partner request message 601, the credential included in the partner request message 601 is the same as the value calculated from the credential notified in advance offline. Check if it exists. If it is correct, a partnership is established with the service providing server 202 of the cooperation request source, and information on the service community is expressed as a “service community shared message” 602 (FIG. 6) in XML format. Notify the service provider server that is the partner requester. The “service community sharing message” 602 includes the names of all service communities held by the service providing server that is the cooperation destination and the addresses of the services that form the individual service communities.

  In the partner requester, the service community information included in the “service community sharing message” 602 in the XML format returned from the partner requester is converted into a data object format that can be handled on the computer and stored. Furthermore, the information about the service community originally held by the service providing server of the cooperation request source is converted into the format of “service community sharing message” 602 and transmitted to the service providing server of the cooperation request destination. As a result, information regarding the service community is shared between the two service providing servers that have formed a partnership.

  On the other hand, a new service community can be selected by selecting “new registration” from the pop-up menu 1403 on the service community list view 1402 of the service definition window 1401 having an overview as shown in FIG. The user can add the information independently, and information on the new service community added in this way is propagated by the cooperation between the service providing servers as described above.

[Add service]
When the service is added, the service providing server 202 to which the service has been added performs the process 501 in FIG. 5, and the partner service providing server 202 performs the process 502 in FIG. The description itself of FIG. 5 is clear from the drawing and will not be particularly described.

  The service is defined on each service providing server 202 through an overview service definition window 1401 as shown in FIG. When defining a new service, the user first selects and designates a service community in which the service is registered on the service community name list view 1402. Then, “new registration” is selected on the service name list pop-up menu 1405 that can be displayed on the service name list view 1404. Then, a new service registration window 1410 for service registration opens.

  On the new service registration window 1410, the contents of the service are designated by an operation target name (corresponding to “what”) and an operation name (corresponding to “what”). These names are specified on the basis of the ontology held by the service description ontology server 204, and these are abstraction levels of concepts as shown in the operation name ontology 1101 and the operation target name ontology 1102 (see FIG. 11 respectively). Is expressed as a keyword set constituting a hierarchical structure. When the user selects the selection button 1411 on the new service registration window 1410, the operation name ontology 1101 is acquired from the service description ontology server 204, and the operation name ontology 1011 is displayed hierarchically on the ontology view 1418 of the selection window 1417. Is done. When the user designates an appropriate operation name from them and presses a “select” button 1419, the operation name is designated. The above processing can be canceled by a “cancel” button 1920. Similarly, when the selection button 1412 or the selection button 1413 is pressed on the new service registration window 1410, the same processing is performed, and the operation target name ontology 1102 is acquired from the service description ontology server 204, Select and specify the operation target name from the list.

  On the other hand, a service group constituting the new service defined above is specified through a process view (context relation) 1406 and a process view (subtask relation) 1408. Here, the process view (context relation) 1406 is used to specify an order relation regarding a plurality of services constituting the service, and the process view (subtask relation) 1408 is a task / subtask relating to a plurality of services constituting the service. Specifies the relationship. These services are also specified by opening a new service registration window 1410 similar to the above from the pop-up menu 1407 or pop-up menu 1409.

  The service defined as described above is converted into an XML format (public service information 801) as shown in FIG. 8, and is made public on the network by the HTTP server provided in the service providing server. (Another service providing server can access information related to the service.)

  On the other hand, when the service defined as described above is added to the service community, the process 501 in FIG. 5 is performed in the service providing server. That is, the service providing server that is affiliated with the service community is extracted from the “affiliation service providing server set” of the service community 203, and the service community is added to the service providing server. It is transmitted in the form of a shared message 602.

  The service providing server 202 that has received the service community sharing message 602 transmitted from the service providing server 202 to which a new service has been added by the above process 501 includes the message as shown in process 502 in FIG. Based on the information regarding the service community, the service community data 303 held therein is updated, and the calculation of the cooperation relationship between services is started according to the following processing procedure.

[Process of deriving linkage relationship between services]
The calculation of the linkage relationship between services is performed by comparing the operation name specified in the activity description with the operation name for the provided service in the process included in each service definition. This is performed, for example, by processes 701 and 702 as shown in FIG. The description itself of FIG. 5 is clear from the drawing and will not be described in particular.

  The inclusion relationship between the operation name and the operation target is determined based on the ontology held by the service designation ontology server. When the following conditions are satisfied, it is determined that a cooperative relationship can be set between the provided service A and the provided service B. (Here, a <b indicates that the abstraction level of the keyword a in the ontology is narrower than the abstraction level of the keyword b, that is, belongs to the lower level of the hierarchical relationship.)

Condition 1) Operation name of provided service A <= Operation name of provided service B Condition 2) Input operation object name of provided service A <= Input operation object name of provided service B Condition 3) Input operation of provided service A Set of target names 集合 Set of input operation target names of provided service B Condition 4) Output operation target name of provided service A <= Output operation target name of provided service B Condition 5) Output operation target name of provided service A Set of output operation target names of the collective provision service B

If it is determined that the linkage relationship can be set, the URL of the service that can be linked is added to and stored in the provided service address set 305 in the activity interface description, and the linkage relationship is set between these services. . The linkage relationship between services is added to the “provided service address set” in the activity interface description data 305 and held.
[Synthesis service derivation process]

  Each service providing server 202 calculates a composite service for each service community held by each service providing server 202 at regular intervals. This is performed, for example, by a process 901 as shown in FIG. The description itself of FIG. 9 is clear from the drawing and will not be described in particular.

  The synthesis service is derived based on a service synthesis rule 1201 as shown in FIG. Here, for all combinations of two services registered in each service community, whether or not they match the pattern of the synthesis rule is checked, and if it is determined that they match, the new service is described above. Added according to the same procedure as defining a new service. The new service derived here is treated as a service to be linked as well as other services.

[Service search and execution process]
The search and execution of the service is performed by a process 1001 as shown in FIG. The description itself of FIG. 10 is clear from the drawing and will not be described in particular.

  The user who receives the service searches for a desired service through a user interface screen for service search / request as shown in FIG. Here, as in the case of defining a service, an operation name and an operation target are designated by “select” buttons 1502, 1504, 1505, and a “search” button 1503 is pressed to execute a search. The search is performed on the operation target and the operation name specified in the activity interface of the service (service A) registered in all service communities in the service providing server, and the operation target of the service (service B) specified in the search condition. And the service name (service A) having the following inclusion relationship is extracted as a candidate service that matches the search result.

Condition 1) Service A operation name <= Service B operation name Condition 2) Service A input operation target name <= Service B input operation target name Condition 3) Set of service A input operation target names ⊆ Service B Set of input operation target names Condition 4) Output operation target name of service A <= Output operation target name of service B Condition 5) Set of output operation target names of service A 集合 Set of output operation target names of service B

  The search results are displayed in a search result list view 1506, and the internal process of the service selected in this view is displayed through a process view (context relationship) 1508 and a process view (subtask relationship) 1509.

  As a result of the above search, when a service whose service content matches the request is found, a “service provision request” button 1507 is pressed to access the service provision window and start execution of the service.

[Effect of Example]
As described above, according to this embodiment, when services are linked between companies having different interests, the service linkage server (coordination server) that manages the linkages between the services at once is not placed. By connecting service providing servers managed by other companies on an equal basis, non-centralized service cooperation becomes possible. (This is not a method in which a specific server calculates the service linkage, but individual service providers calculate the linkage with other services and enable linkage)

  Further, when a cooperative relationship is set with a service group provided on the network, the range of the service group to be linked can be controlled by using a unit called “service community”. For this reason, the scale of collaboration targets can be specified in a wide range from a completely public open range to between service providers who have a trust relationship, and the linkage relationship between services is calculated. It is possible to avoid the explosion of calculation (it is difficult to perform a calculation to set up a cooperative relationship between service groups provided all over the world).

  Since the calculation of the cooperation relationship between services is distributed to a plurality of service providing servers, the reliability of the entire system can be improved. (A kind of grid computing is realized.)

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example,

It is a figure explaining the schematic structure of the Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the structure of the implementation example of the said Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure of the data object used in the above-mentioned Example. It is a flowchart explaining the process at the time of the cooperation between the service provision servers of the said Example. It is a flowchart explaining the service registration process to the community of the said Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the message exchanged in relation to cooperation in the above-mentioned Example. It is a flowchart explaining the cooperation process between services of the said Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the public service information used by the above-mentioned Example. It is a flowchart explaining the synthetic | combination service derivation process of the said Example. It is a flowchart explaining the service search and execution process of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the service description ontology used in the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the rule used for the synthetic | combination service derivation process of the said Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the user interface used for service affiliation destination designation | designated in the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the user interface used for a service definition, community registration, and community generation in the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the user interface used for a service search and request in the above-mentioned Example.

Explanation of symbols

101 Network 102 Service Providing Server 103 Server Alliance Relationship Holding Unit 104 Service Definition Sharing Unit 105 Service Definition Holding Unit 106 Service Cooperation Relationship Deriving Unit 107 End User Client 108 Service Process Definition Unit 109 Service Search Unit 110 Service Description Ontology Server 111 Service Ontology Provision Means 201 Network 202 Service providing server 203 End user client 204 Service description ontology server 301 Service server data structure 302 Service data structure 303 Service community data structure 304 Service content description data structure 305 Activity interface description data structure 306 Process description Element data structure 401 Cooperation processing between service providing servers (cooperation Processing at the request source)
402 Cooperation processing between service providing servers (processing at the cooperation request destination)
501 Processing associated with the addition of a new service (processing at the service providing server where the addition has occurred)
502 Processing associated with the addition of a new service (processing at a service providing server in a partnership)
601 Server cooperation request message 602 Service community sharing message 701 Processing for calculating the cooperation relationship between services (whole)
702 Processing to calculate the cooperation relationship between services (collation processing)
801 Public service information 901 Composite service derivation process 1001 Service search / execution process 1101 Operation name ontology 1102 Operation target name ontology 1201 Composite service derivation rule 1301 Service partner designation window 1302 Partner designation field 1303 Credential designation field 1304 Alliance process execution button 1305 Alliance processing cancel button 1401 Service definition window 1402 Service community list view 1403 Service community list popup menu 1404 Service name list view 1405 Service name list popup menu 1406 Process view (context)
1407 Process view popup menu (context)
1408 Process view (subtask relationship)
1409 Process view pop-up menu (related to subtasks)
1410 New service registration window 1411 Operation name selection button 1412 Input operation target selection button 1413 Output operation target selection button 1414 Service registration button 1415 Service registration cancel button 1416 Service property designation button 1417 Ontology selection window 1418 Ontology view 1419 selection button 1420 Selection cancel button 1501 Service search / request window 1502 Operation name selection button 1503 Search execution button 1504 Input operation target selection button 1505 Output operation target selection button 1506 Service community name list view 1507 Service community name list popup menu 1508 Service name list view 1509 Service name list popup Menu 1510 Process view (front and back Engagement)
1511 Process view popup menu (context)
1512 Process view (related to subtasks)
1513 Process view popup menu (related to subtasks)

Claims (9)

In a service cooperation apparatus that connects a plurality of computers each functioning as a service providing server apparatus via a network and links services provided by the plurality of computers,
Each of the plurality of computers is
Service definition holding means for holding a service definition describing the service contents of each service provided by the computer;
Service linkage deriving means for calculating a linkage relation between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding means;
A partnership relationship holding means between service providing server devices, which holds information on linkage relationships with other service providing server devices,
Service definition sharing means for sharing a service definition with other service providing server apparatuses that are in a cooperative relationship with the computer based on the information on the cooperative relation held by the partnership relation holding means between the service providing server apparatuses ;
Service community holding means for holding one or more service community identifiers for specifying a set of service definitions to be linked,
Further, the service definition sharing means shares information related to the service community held by the service community holding means of another service providing server apparatus in a cooperative relationship, and the service definition holding means is held by the service community holding means. Maintain a service definition that describes the service content of the service associated with the service community,
In addition, for a new service, service addition means for registering the service definition describing the service content of the service in the service definition holding means in association with the service community,
The service definition sharing means transmits a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server device belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service, and Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
Furthermore, the service cooperation deriving means derives a cooperation relationship between the new service and another service,
Furthermore, when a message indicating that a service has been added is received from another service providing server device, the service definition of the new service is registered in the service definition holding means, and the new service and the other service are registered. A service cooperation apparatus characterized by deriving a cooperation relationship with the service. The service community holding means holds information of service providing server devices that provide services to each service community, and the service providing server device cooperation holding means is shared by the service definition sharing means. It is based on the information of the service community, the service linkage apparatus of claim 1, wherein the setting and holding the linkage relationship between the plurality of service providing server that provides a service to the service community. The service cooperation relationship deriving unit automatically generates a service definition that abstracts a plurality of service definitions held by the service definition holding unit, and registers the service definition in the service definition holding unit so as to become a service to be linked. Item 3. The service cooperation apparatus according to Item 1 or 2 . Provide a standard name or standard operation name for describing the business used when defining the service contents by a computer provided separately from the plurality of computers or by one of the plurality of computers. In each of the plurality of computers, the service definition holding means provides a standard name and operation used to describe a business provided by the service ontology providing means when defining a service. The service cooperation apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3 , wherein the name is searched and used. A computer provided on the end user side separately from the plurality of computers,
A service process definition means for defining a series of processes formed by a plurality of services defined by an end user;
Service search request issuing means for issuing a search request for searching for each service in the process defined by the service process definition means to at least one of the plurality of computers constituting the service providing server device;
Each of the plurality of computers is
A service that matches the search request sent from the service search request issuing means is searched from the services held by the service definition holding means, and the search result is returned to the computer provided on the end user side. If not, according to claim 1 comprising means for requesting a search to other service providing server device in a cooperative relationship, service cooperation apparatus 3 or 4. In a service cooperation apparatus that connects a plurality of computers each functioning as a service providing server apparatus via a network and links services provided by the plurality of computers,
Each of the plurality of computers is
Service definition holding means for holding a service definition describing the service contents of each service provided by the computer;
A partnership generation unit for generating a partnership between the service providing server device and the other service providing server device based on a partnership request from another service providing server device;
A partnership relationship holding means between service providing server devices, which holds information on linkage relationships with other service providing server devices,
Service linkage deriving means for calculating a linkage relation between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding means;
Service information sharing means for sharing service information with other service providing server apparatuses that are in a cooperative relationship with the computer based on the information on the cooperative relation held by the partnership relation holding means between the service providing server apparatuses,
Service community holding means for holding one or more service community identifiers for specifying a set of service definitions to be linked,
Further, the service definition sharing means shares information related to the service community held by the service community holding means of another service providing server apparatus in a cooperative relationship, and the service definition holding means is held by the service community holding means. Maintain a service definition that describes the service content of the service associated with the service community,
In addition, for a new service, service addition means for registering the service definition describing the service content of the service in the service presentation holding means in association with the service community,
The service definition sharing means transmits a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server device belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service, and Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
Furthermore, the service cooperation deriving means derives a cooperation relationship between the new service and another service,
Furthermore, when a message indicating that a service has been added is received from another service providing server device, the service definition of the new service is registered in the service definition holding means, and the new service and the other service are registered. A service cooperation apparatus characterized by deriving a cooperation relationship with the service. A service providing server device that provides a service and is connected to a network together with another service providing server device to link a service provided by the service providing server device with a service provided by the other service providing server device In the device
Service definition holding means for holding a service definition describing the service contents of each service provided by the computer;
Service linkage deriving means for calculating a linkage relation between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding means;
A partnership relationship holding means between service providing server devices, which holds information on linkage relationships with other service providing server devices,
Service definition sharing means for sharing a service definition with other service providing server apparatuses that are in a cooperative relationship with the computer based on the information on the cooperative relation held by the partnership relation holding means between the service providing server apparatuses ;
Service community holding means for holding one or more service community identifiers for specifying a set of service definitions to be linked,
The service definition sharing means transmits a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server device belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service, and Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
In addition, for a new service, service addition means for registering the service definition describing the service content of the service in the service presentation holding means in association with the service community,
The service definition sharing means transmits a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server device belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service, and Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
Furthermore, the service cooperation deriving means derives a cooperation relationship between the new service and another service,
Furthermore, when a message indicating that a service has been added is received from another service providing server device, the service definition of the new service is registered in the service definition holding means, and the new service and the other service are registered. A service providing server device for deriving a cooperative relationship between the service providing server and the service providing server device. A service cooperation method in which a plurality of computers each functioning as a service providing server device are connected via a network to link services provided by the plurality of computers,
In each of the plurality of computers,
A service definition holding step for holding in the service definition holding means a service definition describing the service content of each service provided by the computer;
A service linkage derivation step for calculating a linkage between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding step;
A partnership relationship holding step between service providing server devices, which holds information on the linkage relationship with other service providing server devices in the partnership holding device between service providing server devices,
A service definition sharing step for sharing a service definition with other service providing server devices in a cooperative relationship with the computer based on the information on the cooperative relationship held by the cooperative relationship holding step between the service providing server devices ;
A service community holding step for holding one or more service community identifiers for identifying a set of service definitions to be linked,
Further, the service definition sharing step shares information about the service community held in the service community holding step of the other service providing server devices that are in a cooperative relationship, and the service definition holding step is held in the service community holding step. Maintains a service definition that describes the service content of the service associated with the service community
In addition, for a new service, it has a service addition step of registering the service definition describing the service content of the service in the service presentation holding means in association with the service community,
In the service definition sharing step, a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server apparatus belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service is transmitted, and the new service Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
Furthermore, the service cooperation deriving means derives a cooperation relationship between the new service and another service,
Furthermore, when a message indicating that a service has been added is received from another service providing server device, the service definition of the new service is registered in the service definition holding means, and the new service and the other service are registered. A service linkage method characterized by deriving a linkage relationship with the service. A computer program used for connecting a plurality of computers each functioning as a service providing server device via a network and linking services provided by the plurality of computers,
A service definition holding step for holding a service definition describing the service content of each service provided by the computer;
A service linkage derivation step for calculating a linkage between services based on the service definition held by the service definition holding step;
A partnership relationship holding step between service providing server devices, which holds information on the linkage relationship with other service providing server devices in the partnership holding device between service providing server devices,
A service definition sharing step for sharing a service definition with other service providing server devices in a cooperative relationship with the computer based on the information on the cooperative relationship held by the cooperative relationship holding step between the service providing server devices ;
Causing the computer to execute a service community holding step of holding one or more service community identifiers that specify a set of service definitions to be linked ,
In addition, for a new service, it has a service addition step of registering the service definition describing the service content of the service in the service presentation holding means in association with the service community,
In the service definition sharing step, a message indicating that a service has been added to another service providing server apparatus belonging to the service community associated with the service definition describing the service content of the new service is transmitted, and the new service Share the service definition of the new service by registering the service definition of the service in the service definition holding means in another service providing server device belonging to the service community,
Furthermore, the service cooperation deriving means derives a cooperation relationship between the new service and another service,
Furthermore, when a message indicating that a service has been added is received from another service providing server device, the service definition of the new service is registered in the service definition holding means, and the new service and the other service are registered. A computer program for service cooperation characterized by deriving a cooperation relation with the service.

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