Activity forms for automated business processes

• US 20060206346A1
• Filed: 03/08/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Daegis Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Daegis Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Glende, David, Grand, Arthur
• Application Number:
  US11/075,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206346A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

A method and computer-readable storage medium for performing the method of creating a business process workflow user interface (“activity form”) featuring process data and process-related data where no manual coding is required to integrate different data sources into the user interface. An activity form associated with an activity from a business process workflow is created with at least one field associated with an operand of the related process definition. A relationship is specified with at least one operand and at least one process-related data source.

Claims

1. A method for creating an activity form featuring process data and process-related data, the method comprising:

a) identifying an activity within a process requiring a form;

b) creating an activity form with least one field associated with an operand representing process data;

c) modifying the activity form by adding at least one field from the process-related data source to the activity form; and

d) specifying a relationship between the at least one operand and at least one process-related data source.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating series of JAVA classes from each activity form.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising packaging the JAVA classes into a J2EE application.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising customizing an appearance of the activity form.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein no manual coding of either the process data or the process-related data source is required to create the activity form.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising compiling the activity form to run as part of an application.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising adding to the activity form at least one button indicating a decision to be made by an end user of the activity form.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the process-related data source is a relational data source.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the process-related data source is a non-relational data source.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising entering data in the activity form.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising saving data entered in the activity form.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying data from a plurality of process-related data sources in the activity form.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting the activity form to an end user via a web interface.

14. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for creating an activity form featuring process data and process-related data, the method comprising:

a) identifying an activity within a process requiring a form;

b) creating an activity form with least one field associated with an operand representing process data;

c) modifying the activity form by adding at least one field from the process-related data source to the activity form; and

d) specifying a relationship between at the least one operand and at least one process-related data source.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises creating series of JAVA classes from each activity form.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises packaging the JAVA classes into a J2EE application.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises customizing an appearance of the activity form.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein no manual coding of either the process data or the process-related data source is required to integrate the process and process-related data into the activity form.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises compiling the activity form to run as part of an application.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises adding to the activity form at least one button indicating a decision to be made by an end user of the activity form.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the process-related data source is a relational data source.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the process-related data source is a non-relational data source.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises entering data in the activity form.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises saving data entered in the activity form.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises displaying data from a plurality of process-related data sources in the activity form.

26. A method for automating at least part of a business process by using an activity form comprising:

a) identifying an activity within a business process flow where a form may be used;

b) creating an activity form having at least one field associated with an operand representing process data and at least one field of process-related data, wherein a relationship between the operand and a source of the process-related data is indicated during creation of the activity form, and a button indicating a decision to be made by an end user of the activity form;

c) presenting the activity form to an end user when requested by the end user; and

d) saving any changes made by the end user to any data in the activity form.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising creating series of JAVA classes from each activity form.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising packaging the JAVA classes into a J2EE application.

29. The method of claim 26 further comprising customizing an appearance of the activity form.

30. The method of claim 26 wherein no manual coding of either the process data or the process-related data source is required to create the activity form.

31. The method of claim 26 further comprising compiling the activity form to run as part of an application.

32. The method of claim 26 wherein the process-related data source is a relational data source.

33. The method of claim 26 wherein the process-related data source is a non-relational data source.

34. The method of claim 26 wherein the activity form is presented to the user via a web interface.

35. The method of claim 26 further comprising displaying data from a plurality of process-related data sources in the activity form.