System and method for enabling assisted visual development of workflow for application tasks

• US 20060236304A1
• Filed: 10/17/2005
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Luo, Zhong Hai, Shenfield, Michael, Goring, Bryan R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A method of enabling assisted visual development of workflow for an application task. A workflow wizard provides a tasking page from which a user selects a desired one of a plurality of candidate tasks. The workflow wizard then provides a data selection page from which the user selects a desired set of data components from a plurality of candidate data components. A target selection page is then provided, from which the user can select a desired one of a plurality of candidate objects. Finally, an assignment page is provided, to enable the user to specify a detailed assignment relationship between the selected set of data components and fields of the selected target. The workflow wizard then auto-generates code that, when executed, will implement the selected task using the selected set of data components, the selected target and the specified assignment.

Claims

1. A method of enabling assisted visual development of workflow for an application action, the method comprising steps of:

providing an action page from which a user can select a desired one of a plurality of candidate actions;

providing a data selection page from which the user can select a desired set of data components from a plurality of candidate data components;

providing a target selection page from which the user can select a desired one of a plurality of candidate targets;

providing an assignment page adapted to enable the user to assign the selected set of data components to fields of the selected target; and

automatically generating one or more action codes to implement the selected action using the selected set of data components and the selected target.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing the action page comprises providing a selection of candidate actions that include sending a message, transferring data to another screen, and customizing a definition of a processing script.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing the data selection page comprises the step of providing an option to define a new data component.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing the target selection page comprises the step of providing an option to define a new target.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing the target selection page comprises the steps of filtering out the targets that are not compatible with the selected data components and displaying only the targets that are compatible with the selected data components.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the filtering step comprises providing a choice of either exact or subset matching of data components and targets for messages and a choice of either exact or superset matching of data components and targets for screens and scripts.

7. A system for visually assisting an application developer with development of workflow for an application task, the system comprising:

a computing device for exchanging data with a data network whereby an update of a wireless application can be uploaded to an application gateway that mediates between the data network and a wireless network serving a plurality of wireless devices to thus enable the wireless devices to download the update;

an application development environment (ADE) running on the computing device, the ADE including a workflow wizard for visually assisting the application developer with the development of workflow that defines the steps for executing the application task, the ADE including a plurality of graphically presented options for viewing and selecting data options, viewing and selecting target options, assigning the selected data to the selected target, whereby the ADE visually guides the application developer through the creation of workflow and then automatically generates code for executing the task defined by the workflow.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the ADE comprises a workflow wizard for graphically presenting the options in a sequence of pages including:

a tasking page to enable the application developer to define an action trigger for triggering execution of a task;

a data selection page to enable the application developer to select desired data components from a plurality of prescribed data component options;

a target selection page to enable the application developer to select a target from a plurality of prescribed target options;

an assignment page enabling the application developer to assign selected data to the selected target; and

a code auto-generator for automatically generating the code that is capable of executing the task.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the data selection page further comprises an option to define a new data component.

10. The system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the target selection page further comprises an option to define a new object.

11. The system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the workflow wizard graphically presents a data dialog box presenting data component options and then a target dialog box presenting target options determined by the data component selected in the data dialog box.

12. A method of visually assisting with programming of workflow for an application task, the method comprising steps of:

providing a task page from which a user can select a desired task from a plurality of candidate tasks;

providing a data selection page from which the user can select at least one data component from a plurality of candidate data components;

providing a target selection page from which the user can select a desired object from a plurality of candidate objects;

providing an assignment page to enable the user to assign the at least one data component that was selected from the data selection page to fields of the selected object; and

automatically generating code to execute the task using the selected set of data components and the assigned fields of the selected object.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the step of providing the data selection page comprises the step of providing an option to define a new data component.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the step of providing the target selection page comprises the step of providing an option to define a new object.

15. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the step of providing the target selection page comprises the step of displaying a selection of objects that have been filtered for compatibility with selected data components.

16. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the step of providing the target selection page comprises the step of providing a choice of exact matching or subset matching for message data components and message objects and a choice of exact matching or superset matching for screen data components and screen objects as well as script data components and script objects, wherein matching entails a comparison of:

the number of data component selections versus the number of fields of the selected objects;

the number and categories of data types of the selected data components versus the number and categories of data types defined for the selected objects; and

the amount of reference to each data type in the data selections versus the amount of reference to each data type in the objects.

17. The method as claimed in claim 12 further comprising the step of providing a message characteristics page that provides a choice of either exact matching or subset matching of data components and objects.

18. The method as claimed in claim 12 further comprising the step of providing a screen characteristics page that provides a choice of either exact matching or superset matching of data components and objects.

19. The method as claimed in claim 12 further comprising the step of providing a script customization page that provides a choice of either exact matching or superset matching of data components and objects.