Patent ID: 7614057

Claim:
A computer executable method of linking a first entity in a source application program with a second entity in a destination application program, the method comprising: receiving from the source application program, at an integration component, a document containing information representing the first entity in the source application program; transforming the document, using a processor of the computer, from a first format associated with the source application program to a second format associated with the destination application program, wherein transforming is performed by the integration component; posting the transformed document to the destination application program; in response to posting the transformed document to the destination program, receiving from the destination application program, at the integration component, information representing the second entity in the destination application program; creating a plurality of records in an instance table for a plurality of entities, wherein each of the plurality of records comprises an entry for a particular entity of the plurality of entities, the entry including a source system ID that identifies one of the source and destination application programs that created the particular entity, an entity ID that identifies the particular entity, and an entity type that identifies a type of the particular entity, wherein creating the plurality of records comprises: creating a first record in the instance table for the first entity, the first record in the instance table including information that identifies the first entity and the source application program, wherein if the source system ID for the entry of the first record is provided as a source system name, querying the source application program that created the first entity, searching a system table for the source system name, identifying a corresponding system ID for the source system name in the system table, and returning to the integration component the corresponding system ID; creating a second record in the instance table for the second entity, the second record in the instance table including information that identifies the second entity and the destination application program; and creating a link record in a link table including an entry that links the first record and an entry for the second record.