Patent ID: 9729589
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for integrating a collaboration system with an application system, comprising: making, by a computing device at the collaboration system, an Application Program Interface (API) call according to a self-describing Open Data (OData) protocol to the application system; receiving, by the computing device at the collaboration system in response to the API call, a first data structure belonging to a hierarchy from the application system; creating, by the computing device at the collaboration system, a reconstructed hierarchy from metadata of the first data structure according to the self-describing OData protocol; creating, by the computing device applying an object consumption definition stored at the collaboration system to the reconstructed hierarchy, a first collaboration group around the first data structure within the reconstructed hierarchy, the first collaboration group configured to enable a plurality of collaboration group members to view information in the first data structure and use collaboration tools to collaborate around a topic relating to the first data structure; storing, by the computing device, a permanent reference to the first data structure in a data store associated with the collaboration system, the permanent reference identifying a location of the first data structure in the application system; using, by the computing device, the permanent reference to send communications to the first collaboration group regarding creation of a second collaboration group around the first data structure in the collaboration system, and receive communications regarding creation of the second collaboration group taken with respect to the first data structure in the application system; sending, by the computing device, a first message to the application system comprising information relating to a first action taken by a member of the first collaboration group with respect to the first data structure, using the permanent reference for the first data structure; receiving at the collaboration system a message from the application system notifying the collaboration system of a modification made to the first data structure in the application system; and retrieving a modified version of the first data structure using the permanent reference for the first data structure, wherein the application system is configured such that a message notifying the collaboration system of modifications made to the first data structure is automatically generated when the first data structure is modified in the application system.