Integrated business application system and method with distributed extension and adapter agent

摘要

B "INTEGRATED SYSTEM AND METHOD OF BUSINESS APPLICATION WITH DISTRIBUTED EXTENSION AND ADAPTER AGENT" D. An agent-adapter architecture (100, 210, 310) and a message object for use in systems and methods that integrate applications (100) of the type normally deployed by a network enterprise. An agent (210) encapsulates a plurality of adapters (222, 226, 224), each of which are adapted to perform discrete functions, associated with a plurality of enterprise applications. Such agent (222, 226, 224) is extensible, and includes one or more embedded objects (230-240). Each embedded object is adapted to perform a discrete function, which may or may not be associated with a plurality of similar enterprise applications. The message object includes a message scheme that is adapted for use with a plurality of accessors and a plurality of converters. The message scheme is a hierarchical data structure, which includes a plurality of message elements, each of which are selected from a plurality of section elements (620), a plurality of table elements (640), and a plurality of item elements (660). The item elements (660) contain native data for a plurality of selected enterprise applications.