17. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the converting step comprises the steps of: selecting a provider that corresponds to an associated report authoring tool by which a report is authored, and obtaining definitions of objects in the report through the selected provider; converting the definitions of objects in the report in to web service definitions using the selected provider; and generating an object model based on the web service definitions of the objects.
18. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein the converting step converts the definitions of the objects by mapping a report definition format of each provider, from elements and containment hierarchy defined in the report definition, to a representation of the elements in a common representation format; and the object model generating step generates the object model using the common representation format.