Patent ID: 7668836

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of enabling an application in a legacy system to be accessed as a web service, comprising: in response to receiving, by a deployment utility, a task command of a plurality of task commands: deploying by said deployment utility, to a gateway server, a web service that was generated based on a web service description language (WSDL) file that is based on an input-output message description of said application, wherein said web service is accessible to a client using a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message, said gateway server to send a request message to said application based on said SOAP message in accordance with said web service, and said gateway server to receive a reply message from said application and return a SOAP response to said client based on said reply message in accordance with said web service; providing a connection bundle comprising connection information to interface with said application, wherein said deployment utility makes said connection bundle accessible to said gateway server, said providing said connection bundle comprising: prompting, by said deployment utility, for at least one connection property; in response to said prompting, by said deployment utility, for said at least one connection property, receiving said at least one connection property to access said legacy system; and storing said at least one connection property in said connection bundle; and providing a correlator file comprising a name of an interface module associated with said application, also comprising a name of said connection bundle, wherein said deployment utility makes said correlator file accessible to said gateway server.