Patent ID: 8549514

Claim:
A method for distributing software products in a data processing system, the method including the steps of: providing a set of models of each software product to be distributed, the models including an indication of relationships among a plurality of available logical items, representing functions provided by the software product, and a plurality of available distribution artifacts, used to distribute the software product, selecting a set of logical items among the available logical items, identifying a set of distribution artifacts required to implement the selected logical items among the available distribution artifacts, the required distribution artifacts being identified according to the corresponding relationships in the models, building a software package including the required distribution artifacts, and distributing the software package to a set of data processing entities of the system to cause each entity to install the required distribution artifacts on the entity, further including the steps for each entity of: determining the logical items being available on the entity, the available logical items being implemented by the corresponding required distribution artifacts installed on the entity, and disregarding the available logical entities in the step of identifying the required distribution artifacts for building the software package to be distributed to the entity.