Designer and player for web services applications

1 . A computer enabled method for using a web service, comprising the acts of:

a first organization accessing a web services object of a second organization, wherein the accessing is via a web browser and over a computer network; and

binding at least a portion of the accessed web services object to a software object of the first organization, wherein the web services object is operable to interact with the software object.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the software object is an application component, further comprising the acts of:

receiving a request for the accessed web services object, wherein the request is associated with the software object; and

executing the accessed web services object using a portion of the application component bound to the software object.

3 . A computer enabled method for using a web service which supports a web services object, comprising the acts of:

identifying the web services object;

receiving a request for the web services object, wherein the request is associated with an application component; and

executing the web services object in response to the request.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the accessed web services object has an associated description, and the act of accessing includes accessing the description.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the description is in Web Services Description Language format.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the act of providing an adapter associated with the web services object.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the act of binding binds a first software object to a second software object.

8 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising the act of providing a builder adapted to carry out the acts of accessing and binding thereby to enable the subsequent act of executing.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising the act of providing a player adapted to carry out the act of executing.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the builder is embodied in a web page executed on a web browser.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the player is embodied in a web page executed on a web browser.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the act of accessing includes making a web service call.

13 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the act of executing includes making a web service call.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the acts of:

accessing a software object of the first organization; and

combining the object of the first organization with the accessed web services object of the second organization.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the software object of the first organization includes data.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the web services object is accessible via an open protocol.

17 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the act of binding at least a portion of the web services object to the software object of the first organization.

18 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the act of enabling the method by a server of a third organization.

19 . A computer enabled method for using a web service, comprising the acts of:

a second organization allowing a first organization access to a web services object of the second organization, wherein the accessing is via a web browser and over a computer network; and

binding at least a portion of the accessed web services object to a software object of the first organization, wherein the software object is operable to interact with the bound portion of the web services object.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the accessed web services object has an associated description, and the act of accessing includes accessing the description.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the description is in Web Services Description Language format.

22 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising the act of providing an adapter associated with the web services object.

23 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the act of binding binds a first software object to a second software object.

24 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising the act of providing a builder adapted to carry out the acts of accessing and binding.

25 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising the act of providing a player adapted to execute the web services object.

26 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the builder is embodied in a web page executed on a web browser.

27 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the player is embodied in a web page executed on a web browser.

28 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the act of accessing includes making a web service call.

29 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the software object is operable to interact with the bound portion of the web services object by making a web service call.

30 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising the acts of:

accessing the software object of the first organization; and

combining the software object of the first organization with the accessed web services object of the second organization.

31 . The method of claim 30 , wherein the software object includes data.

32 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the web services object is accessible via an open protocol.

33 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising the act of enabling the method by a server of a third organization.

34 . A computer enabled apparatus for using a web service, comprising:

a factory module which creates instances of a web services object;

a credentials manager coupled to the factory module and which verifies a web services object accessed via a web browser and over a computer network;

a web services manager coupled to the factory module and which manages web service sessions;

an event manager which manages access to the accessed web services object; and

an adapter coupled to the web services manager and which maps the accessed web services object to the created instance of the web services object.

35 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the factory module binds software objects in the accessed web services object to software objects in the created instance.

36 . The apparatus of claim 34 , further comprising a software application that accesses data using the web services object.

37 . The apparatus of claim 34 , further comprising an access handler coupled to the adapter.

38 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the accessed application component has an associated description, and the accessing accesses the description.

39 . The apparatus of claim 38 , wherein the description is in Web Services Description Language format.

40 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the accessing includes making a web service call.

41 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the web services object is accessible via an open protocol.

42 . A computer enabled method for generating a generic object which represents a web service, comprising the acts of:

identifying the generic object representing the web service, the web service having a plurality of attributes; and

creating a field in the generic object for each attribute of the web service, wherein the field has a name, a type, and a value based upon a corresponding attribute of the web service.

43 . A computer enabled method for generating a description of a web service in XML format, comprising the acts of:

identifying a plurality of fields of the web service object; and

creating an XML element for each identified field of the web service object.

44 . A computer enabled method for invoking a web service, comprising the acts of:

generating a request according to a predefined format;

sending the request to a web service by using AJAX;

waiting for a response from the web service;

receiving a response from the web service, wherein the response is in a predefined format; and

updating application components based on the response.

45 . The method of claim 44 , wherein the method is performed by a computer program code script executed by an application player in response to a user's selection of an application component associated with the script.

46 . The method of claim 44 , wherein the predefined format is XML.

47 . A computer enabled method for invoking a web service, comprising the acts of:

receiving a request from a client , wherein the request includes request data in a predefined format;

generating objects based on the request data;

invoking a web service by using AJAX, wherein invoking is based on the objects;

converting at least one result of invoking the web service to at least one generic object;

converting the at least one generic object to response data in a predefined format; and

sending the response data to the client.

48 . A method of designing an application program in a web browser, comprising the acts of:

executing a designer program on a web browser, wherein the designer program presents a user interface that includes a workspace upon which a user can place an interface component at a specified location,

the interface component associated with a component data value; and

associating the component with a computer program code script received from a user, wherein the computer program code script includes a web service call.

49 . The method of claim 48 , wherein the computer program code script is operable to set the value of another component based on a value received from a web service call.