Schematization of establishing relationships between applications

• US 20060294197A1
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mital, Vijay, Hilpert, Wolfgang Werner
• Granted Patent: US 7,693,861 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

Establishing relationships between one or more entities of a first application and one or more entities of a second application using metadata. At least one entity of the second application is identified for establishing a relationship with at least one entity of the first application. Metadata from the second application is received at the first application. The metadata includes information associated with the identified entity of the second application. An expression is generated, based on the metadata, specifying a relationship between the entity of the first application with the identified entity of the second application.

Claims

1. A computerized method of establishing relationships between one or more entities of a first application and one or more entities of a second application, said computerized method comprising:

identifying at least one entity of the second application for establishing a relationship with at least one entity of the first application;

receiving, at the first application, metadata from the second application, said metadata including information associated with the identified entity of the second application; and

generating, based on the metadata, an expression specifying a relationship between the entity of the first application with the identified entity of the second application.

2. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes information relating to at least one of the following associated with the identified entity of the second application:

business role information and business entity information.

3. The computerized method of claim 2 wherein generating the expression comprises identifying the business role information and the business entity information of the identified entity of the second application and associating the identified information with the entity of the first application.

4. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes information relating to relationships among the one or more entities of the second application.

5. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the generated expression includes one or more limitations imposed on at least one of the relationships among the one or more entities of the second application.

6. The computerized method of claim 5 further comprising applying the one or more limitations associated with specified relationship in the generated expression such that the one or more entities of the second application are correlated to the one or more entities of the first application.

7. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a user input for defining new relationships between the one or more entities of the first application and one or more entities of the second application based on the obtained metadata.

8. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the first application comprises a workflow.

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

10. A system of establishing relationships between one or more entities of a first application and one or more entities of a second application, said system comprising:

an interface for receiving metadata from the second application by the first application, said metadata including information relating to the one or more entities defined by the second application;

a memory for storing the received metadata;

a processor for executing computer-executable instructions, for generating an expression specifying a relationship associating an entity of the first application with one or more entities of the second application based on the received metadata; and

wherein said memory stores the generated expression.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the metadata includes information relating to at least one of the following associated with one or more entities of the second application:

business role information and business entity information.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor is configured to identify the business role information and business entity information of the one of the entities of the second application and associating the identified information with the entity in the first application for generating the expression.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the generated expression includes one or more limitations imposed on at least one of the relationships among the one or more entities of the second application.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor is configured to apply the one or more limitations associated with specified relationship in the generated expression such that the one or more entities of the second application are correlated to the one or more entities of the first application.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the metadata includes information specifying relationships among the one or more entities of the second application.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the interface further receives a user input for defining new relationships between the one or more entities of the first application and the one or more entities of the second application based on the obtained metadata.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the first application is a workflow management application specifying one or more tasks and wherein the second application includes one or more entities indicating performance of the one or more specified tasks.

18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure for establishing relationships between one or more entities of a first application and one or more entities of a second application, said computer-readable medium comprising:

a first data field including metadata representing information associated with the one or more entities defined by the second application; and

a second data field including metadata representing an expression specifying a relationship associating one or more entities of the first application with the one or more entities of the second application based on the metadata of said first data field.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the metadata in the first data field includes information relating to at least one of the following associated with the one or more entities of the second application:

business role information, and business entity hierarchy information.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the metadata in the first data field includes information relating to relationships among the one or more entities of the second application, and wherein the expression in the second data field includes one or more limitations imposed on at least one relationships among the one or more entities of the first application.