Patent ID: 7870286

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of adapting a transaction-based mainframe application to process transactions over a network, said transaction-based mainframe application comprising source code describing a transaction and information related to the transaction, hereinafter related information, said method comprising: scanning the source code of the transaction-based mainframe application and identifying the transaction and the related information, wherein the transaction-based mainframe application originally does not process transactions over a World Wide Web (Web); storing in a database the related information identified in the scan of the source code, hereinafter identified information; extracting from the database parameter definitions describing a communication of information by the transaction, hereinafter extracted information; identifying a parameter usage type for each parameter, said parameter usage type selectable from the parameter usage type set comprising input, output, input/output, and unreferenced, hereinafter identified information; displaying the transaction and a subset of the related information and the extracted information; receiving user input selecting the transaction; and in response to receiving the user input, generating a communication area file that includes a definition and a declaration of the data to be passed to and from the transaction-based mainframe application and a documentation file that provides documentation that describes the communication area file using the identified information and the extracted information; and with a connector building tool, parsing the communication area file; and building a connector using the identified information and the extracted information, wherein the transaction-based mainframe application is enabled to process transactions over the Web.