Patent ID: 8386420

Claim:
A method of exposing functionality from a line of business application as a web service, the method comprising: receiving user input requesting information about objects exposed by a line of business application; gathering metadata about a first set of one or more objects exposed by the line of business application according to the user input requesting information; returning the metadata to the user; receiving user input selecting a second set of one or more objects from among the first set of one or more objects to be exposed as a web service; constructing a web service model that exposes the second set of one or more objects, the web service model comprising a service description, a metadata map, and configuration information; and publishing the web service model in a computer implemented repository to allow for web service clients to access the second set of objects by accessing the web service model, wherein the web service clients access the second set of objects through the web service model by way of a connection pool that is provided as part of the web service and that manages licensed connections for the line of business application, wherein a message from one of the web service clients using a particular web service object of the second set of the one or more objects results in a licensed connection being allocated from the connection pool for sending the message to the line of business application, and wherein the licensed connection is kept open after the message has been sent, in response to a determination that the licensed connection should stay open for a period of time longer than the duration of the message.