Declarative representation for an extensible workflow model

• US 20060074734A1
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mehta, Mayank, Shukla, Dharma K., Valegerepura, Kumarswamy P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,631,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/316 Aspect-oriented programming techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Representing a componentized workflow model via a declarative markup language. Each step of the workflow is modeled as an activity that has metadata to describe design time aspects, compile time aspects, and runtime aspects of the workflow step. A user selects and arranges the activities to create the workflow via user interfaces or application programming interfaces. The metadata associated with each of the activities in the workflow is collected to create a persistent representation of the workflow. Users extend the workflow model by authoring custom activities.

Claims

1. A computerized method for creating and compiling a declarative file, said declarative file having a plurality of activities therein, said plurality of activities being arranged to create a workflow defined by a user, each of said plurality of activities having a serializer and metadata associated therewith, said computerized method comprising:

receiving the plurality of activities corresponding to the workflow defined by the user;

identifying a plurality of serializers, each of the identified plurality of serializers being associated with at least one of the received plurality of activities; and

executing the identified plurality of serializers to transfer the metadata for the plurality of activities to a declarative representation of the workflow, said metadata defining functionality associated with each of the plurality of activities.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises one or more of the following:

properties, methods, and events.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises software code, and further comprising:

retrieving the metadata from the declarative representation of the workflow;

compiling the software code; and

recreating the workflow as a function of the retrieved metadata and the compiled software code.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising mapping the transferred metadata to an extensible schema definition namespace for validation.

5. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising compiling the declarative representation of the workflow to create an executable file.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising validating each of the plurality of activities.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising associating the metadata with one or more data sources.

8. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising defining declarative data for association with each of the plurality of activities.

9. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components for creating and compiling a declarative file, said declarative file having a plurality of activities therein, said plurality of activities being arranged to create a workflow defined by a user, each of said plurality of activities having a serializer and metadata associated therewith, said components comprising:

an interface component for receiving the plurality of activities corresponding to the workflow defined by the user;

a metadata component for identifying a plurality of serializers, each of the identified plurality of serializers being associated with at least one of the plurality of activities received by the interface component; and

a serialization component for executing the plurality of serializers identified by the metadata component to transfer the metadata for the plurality of activities to a declarative representation of the workflow, said metadata defining functionality associated with each of the plurality of activities.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, further comprising a validation component for mapping the transferred metadata to an extensible schema definition namespace for validation.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the interface component comprises one or more of the following:

a graphical user interface and an application programming interface.

13. A system for creating and compiling a declarative file having a plurality of activities therein, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing the plurality of activities, said plurality of activities being arranged to create a workflow defined by a user, said memory area further storing a serializer and metadata for each of said plurality of activities, said metadata defining functionality associated with each of the plurality of activities; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

retrieving the plurality of activities from the memory area, said plurality of activities corresponding to the workflow defined by the user;

identifying a plurality of serializers from the memory area, each of the identified plurality of serializers being associated with at least one of the received plurality of activities; and

executing the identified plurality of serializers to transfer the metadata for the plurality of activities from the memory area to a declarative representation of the workflow.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for retrieving the plurality of activities from the memory area, said plurality of activities corresponding to the workflow defined by the user.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for identifying a plurality of serializers from the memory area, each of the identified plurality of serializers being associated with at least one of the received plurality of activities.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for executing the identified plurality of serializers to transfer the metadata for the plurality of activities from the memory area to a declarative representation of the workflow.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a component model associated with each of the plurality of activities, said component model comprising:

an icon for visually representing the activity;

software code associated with the metadata; and

a runtime application program for executing the software code.

18. The system of claim 13, further comprising a data structure representing the declarative representation of the workflow, said data structure comprising:

a manifest storing identification information for the workflow; and

a list of the plurality of activities, each of the plurality of activities having properties, methods, and events associated therewith to define the workflow.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the properties comprises common language runtime types.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the identification information comprises one or more of the following:

a name, a version, a description, and an identity.