Patent ID: 7337440

Claim:
A method for migrating Business Applications executed on a data processing system to a modern environment wherein said Business Applications hitherto offer their services interactively controlled by a multitude of Business Application panels and wherein said Business Applications may enter succeeding Business Application panels dependent on user interactions, user specified data and the contents of a database operated on by the Business Applications, said method comprising: arranging one or more of the Business Applications into one or more Transaction Objects; arranging one or more of said Transaction Objects into one or more Transaction Object Methods enabled to transparently and autonomously execute the underlying Business Applications by handling a sequence of Business Application panels; transparently signaling Transaction Objects in at least one of said Transaction Object Methods to execute Business Applications to create Business Objects, said Business Objects being maintained in Business Object Instance Space in the database; communicating between Transaction Objects in said Transaction Object Methods with messages arranged in defined Transaction Records, each Transaction Record being instantiated with a related one Transaction Object to supply or retrieve data as part of the related one Transaction Object invocation; retrieving Business Objects from said Business Object Instance Space automatically and placing said retrieved Business Object in a Transaction Record when said retrieved Business Object is needed later in the Transaction Object Method such that Business Objects may be reused; placing said Transaction Object Methods into a graph, said graph including predecessors of Business Applications, Transactions Objects and Business Objects making up said Transaction Object Methods; and determining from said graph, legacy Business Applications which provide data and Business Objects needed for performing said Transaction Object Methods in the modern environment.