Patent ID: 7415716

Claim:
A system for providing access to external operations from within local applications, comprising: a plurality of queues for storing input data; a component adapter registry configured to associate a plurality of component adapters with a plurality of external components and with a plurality of external operations performed by the plurality of external components, wherein each component adapter from the plurality of component adapters is associated with a queue from the plurality of queues and communicates with an associated external component from the plurality of external components and causes the external component to execute an external operation from the plurality of external operations selected by that component adapter; a plurality of component definitions identifying the plurality of component adapters for accessing the plurality of external components; a plurality of operation definitions identifying the plurality of external operations, wherein at least one operation definition includes a description of parameters that are received by an external operation and parameters that are returned by that external operation; a component manager in communication with the component adapter registry, the plurality of component definitions, and the plurality of operation definitions, configured to: receive input data that at least in part, aids the component manager to identify an external operation from the plurality of external operations that is to be executed, wherein the input data is stored in a queue from the plurality of queues that comprises one or more data structures; identify, with reference to the input data, the component adapter registry, the plurality of component definitions, and the plurality of operation definitions, the external operation that is to be executed and a component adapter from the plurality of component adapters that causes an external component from the plurality of external components to execute the identified external operation; transmit a request for the identified component adapter to cause the external component from the plurality of external components to execute the identified external operation; and receive data from the identified component adapter, wherein the received data results from the execution of the identified external operation.