Patent ID: 8281324

Claim:
A system for linking software applications, the system comprising: a memory to store machine readable instructions; and a processing unit to access the memory and execute the machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions comprising: a message backplane configured to link software applications by sharing messages associated with events occurring in a respective linked software application with one or more other linked software applications; and a controller configured to instruct the message backplane to link software applications, the controller comprising a GUI controller work space that contains icons that represent application programs that are currently running, wherein a user can drag one icon associated with a first application program over another icon associated with a second application program that causes the controller to instruct the message backplane to link events in the first and second application programs, wherein a user can select a given transformer from a given plurality of transformers to link data types of a first data type understandable by the first application program to data types of a second data type understandable by the second application program, wherein each of the given plurality of transformers specifies a first category of information to extract from the first data type and a second category of information to provide to the second data type; wherein the first data type is an email comprising: a name of a person; and an e-mail address associated with the person; wherein the second data type is a spreadsheet data set comprising: a name of the person; and a telephone number associated with the person; wherein the first and second categories of information are the name of the person; wherein the user can further drag a second icon associated with the second application program over another icon associated with a third application program that causes the controller to instruct the message backplane to link events in the second and third application programs, wherein the user can select another transformer from another plurality of transformers to link data types of the second data type understandable by the second application program to data types of a third data type understandable by the third application program, wherein each of the another plurality of transformers specifies a third category of information to extract from the second data type and a fourth category of information to provide to the third data type, wherein the third data type comprises a phone number lookup record, and the third and fourth categories of information are the telephone number associated with the person.