Software application program interface method and system

1. A method comprising:

receiving a call message specifying a type of application program to be called from a calling application program that is executing on a computer system;

determining whether the computer system has any application programs of the specified type available for execution;

if an application program of the specified type is available for execution on the computer system, performing the following:

identifying an application having a type that matches the type specified in the call message;

converting the call message directly to a format recognized by the identified application; and

calling the identified application program using the converted application call message.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining comprises using information in an application registry to determine whether an application of the specified type is available.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said identifying comprises selecting one of a plurality of available application programs of the specified type as the particular available application program to be called.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said identifying further comprises selecting one of a plurality of different versions of an application program as the particular available application program to be called.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified type of application is one of a spreadsheet type application, a word processor type application, or a database type application.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving data along with the call message from the calling application;

converting the data to a format recognized by the identified application; and

forwarding the converted data to the identified application.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises sending an error message to the calling application if an application program of the specified type is not available.

8. A machine-readable medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions capable of being executed by a processor to implement a method comprising:

receiving a call message specifying a type of application program to be called from a calling application program that is executing on a computer system;

determining whether the computer system has any application programs of the specified type available for execution;

if an application program of the specified type is available for execution on the computer system, performing the following:

identifying an application having a type that matches the type specified in the call message;

converting the call message directly to a format recognized by the identified application; and

calling the identified application program using the converted application call message.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein said determining comprises using information in an application registry to determine whether an application of the specified type is available.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein said identifying comprises selecting one of a plurality of available application programs of the specified type as the particular available application program to be called.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein said identifying further comprises selecting one of a plurality of different versions of an application program as the particular available application program to be called.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving data along with the call message from the calling application;

converting the data to a format recognized by the identified application; and

forwarding the converted data to the identified application.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises sending an error message to the calling application if an application program of the specified type is not available.

14. A method comprising:

responsive to a call message entered via a first application executing on a computer system to launch a second application, the call message specifying a type of application program to be called;

searching an application registry that identifies available applications to determine if an application identified therein is of an application type that matches the application type identified in the call message;

when a match occurs,

identifying an application having a type that matches the type specified in the call message,

converting the call message directly to a format appropriate for the identified application, and,

launching the identified application using the converted application call message.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first application resides on a first computer in a network and the application registry resides on a second computer in the network.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first application resides on a first computer in a network and the identified application resides on a second computer in the network.

17. The method of claim 3 , wherein said identifying comprises:

providing a list of available application programs of the specified type;

receiving a selection from the list of available application programs of the specified type; and

designating the selection as the identified application program.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein said identifying comprises:

providing a list of available application programs of the specified type; and

receiving a selection from the list of available application programs of the specified type; and

designating the selection as the identified application program.