Patent ID: 8145593

Claim:
A method of allowing access to a line of business application through a web service interface that exposes functionality of the line of business application, the method comprising: accessing a web service model at a computer implemented repository, the web service model including one or more web service model objects that each expose one or more objects of a line of business application to web service clients, the web service model comprising: a service description, a metadata map that maps line of business object metadata to web service object metadata, including at least one metadata mapping that maps an input parameter of a particular web service model object to a corresponding input parameter of a particular line of business application object, and configuration information for configuring the web service interface using the web service model; exposing the web service model to one or more web service clients via the web service interface; setting up a connection pool for use by the one or more web service clients when using the web service model, so as to efficiently utilize licensed connections for the line of business application; receiving a message from a web service client using the particular web service model object; allocating a licensed connection from the connection pool for sending the message to the line of business application; sending the message to the line of business application through the licensed connection while translating communications between the line of business application and the web service client, including: transforming the message to an equivalent line of business message, including mapping first parameter data received as part of the input parameter of the particular web service model object to the corresponding input parameter for the particular line of business application object, and passing the equivalent line of business message to the line of business application through the licensed connection; and transforming at least one line of business notification to an equivalent web service notification, based on the metadata map, and passing the translated notification to the web service client through the licensed connection; determining that the licensed connection should stay open for a period of time longer than the duration of the message; and keeping open the licensed connection after the message has been sent.