Data-driven and plug-in defined event engine
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- computer storage storing an event engine that implements at least one finite state machine (FSM) comprising states and event-driven transitions between the states, a specification expressed in a computer language, that specifies for each one of a plurality of the transitions a set of one or more actions to be performed upon occurrence of that transition, and executable plug-ins whose execution implements the actions specified by the sets; and
a processor, coupled to the computer storage, that executes the stored event engine, and responds to occurrence of an event by causing the event engine to undergo one of the transitions that is driven by the event, and responds to occurrence of the undergone transition by executing those plug-ins that implement the actions of the set that corresponds to the undergone transition.
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Abstract
An event engine enables application developers to define finite state machines (FSMs) that they want to implement, via a data-driven approach as opposed to having to hardcode the FSMs. The event engine has three notable characteristics: computations may be associated with FSM state transitions, the set of computations that is associated with each transition is specified by data (illustratively an XML document), and the particulars of the computations are defined and handled by plug-ins, each with the same interface.
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22 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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computer storage storing an event engine that implements at least one finite state machine (FSM) comprising states and event-driven transitions between the states, a specification expressed in a computer language, that specifies for each one of a plurality of the transitions a set of one or more actions to be performed upon occurrence of that transition, and executable plug-ins whose execution implements the actions specified by the sets; and
a processor, coupled to the computer storage, that executes the stored event engine, and responds to occurrence of an event by causing the event engine to undergo one of the transitions that is driven by the event, and responds to occurrence of the undergone transition by executing those plug-ins that implement the actions of the set that corresponds to the undergone transition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method comprising:
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using a specification expressed in a computer language to initialize by a processor an executable event engine that implements at least one finite state machine (FSM) comprising states and event-driven transitions between the states, including specifying, for each one of a plurality of the transitions, a set of one or more actions to be performed upon occurrence of that transition;
providing executable plug-ins whose execution implements the actions;
in response to occurrence of an event, executing the event engine by the processor to cause the event engine to undergo one of the transitions that is driven by the event, and in response to the undergone transition, executing by the processor those plug-ins that implement the actions of the set that corresponds to the undergone transition. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification