Patent ID: 8341189

Claim:
A computing device, comprising: a processing unit; a system memory connected to the processing unit, the system memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to: create a business data catalog module that accesses and manipulates data residing on an internal data store and an external data store, wherein the business data catalog module receives a request for data, determines whether the data resides in the internal data store or the external data store, accesses the data residing on the external data store using one or more (application programming interface (API) calls specific to the external data store, wherein information about APIs associated with the external data store is contained in the internal data store, and wherein the information includes permissible operations and one or more pre-defined constraints for rendering and operating on the external data, and creates definitions of business objects that encapsulate a set of defined attributes related to the business objects, the set of defined attributes including: an identifier attribute that represents a persistent identity of a specific entity; a filter attribute that includes criteria for filtering data members returned from the external data store; an actions attribute that includes references of a uniform resource locator related to a specific entity; a relationships attribute that includes a reference to at least one entity having an association defined thereon; and an access attribute that includes methods for setting access rights; and create an external data provisioning module that provisions data accessed from the external data store, maps external data from the external data store for presentation on a client computing device, and generates forms and views for presentation and access to a user on the client computing device via a graphical user interface, wherein the forms and views contain content associated with the permissible operations embodied in application programming interfaces of an external business system associated with the external data store, the permissible operations including: a creator method that generates a first selectable menu item that enables the user to create a new entity instance including data for storage in the external data store; a specific finder method that generates a second selectable menu item that enables the user to view data associated with an entity instance; an updater method that generates a third selectable menu item that enables the user to modify at least one property of an entity instance; and a deleter method that generates a fourth selectable menu item that enables the user to delete an entity instance; wherein a user can access and manipulate the data from the external data store in a same manner as accessing and manipulating data from the internal data store.