Patent ID: 8352516

Claim:
A method for mapping objects, comprising: receiving at a mapping tool from a requesting application of multiple applications during runtime of the requesting application, a request identifying first and second objects both to be accessed and used within the requesting application, wherein the objects have defined identifiers that identify the objects and their object types, the two objects being of different types, and wherein the mapping tool is accessible to the multiple applications having different object mapping methods that indicate how to manage the objects together, the mapping tool accessible via an application interface common to the multiple applications such that each of the multiple applications can invoke the mapping tool, the mapping tool having logic generic to the multiple applications to map objects for the multiple applications with the same mapping logic; receiving from the requesting application a relationship definition for first and second objects, the relationship definition defining how the first and second objects interact with each other within the requesting application, the relationship related to a business process executed with the requesting application; dynamically generating a mapping between the first object and the second object to represent the relationship definition for the objects during runtime of the requesting application; and storing the object identifiers and the mapping in a mapping table to assign the relationship to the first and second objects within the requesting application.