Triggering workflows based on middleware events

• US 20070168397A1
• Filed: 09/20/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Satyanarayana, Sudhir Krishna
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Workflows are triggered for time-sensitive, user-specific data queued for delivery to a plurality of users. Responsive to time-sensitive data being queued, time-based triggers are created based at least in part upon content of the time-sensitive data. If the time-sensitive data is still in the queue when the time-based trigger expires, one-or-more rules are executed to change a destination of the time-sensitive data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

queuing user-specific data for a plurality of users, at least some of the data being time sensitive;

responsive to time sensitive data being queued, creating a first time-based trigger based at least in part upon content of the time-sensitive data; and

changing a destination of the time-sensitive data if the time-sensitive data is still in the queue when the first time-based trigger expires.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-sensitive data is associated with a workflow, the method further comprising:

generating a workflow tracking message indicating that the time-sensitive data has been removed from the queue if the time-sensitive data is removed from the queue.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

canceling the first time-based trigger if the time-sensitive data is removed from the queue.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

responsive to transmitting at least some of the queued time-sensitive data to a device of a respective user of the plurality of users, removing the transmitted data from the queue.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein changing the destination of the time-sensitive data comprises:

transmitting at least some of the queued time-sensitive data to a destination other than the plurality of users; and

removing the transmitted data from the queue.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the destination of the time sensitive data comprises:

changing the destination of the queued data from a first user to a second user; and

replacing the first time-based trigger with a second time-based trigger.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the time-sensitive data is associated with a workflow, the method further comprising:

responsive to changing the destination of the time-sensitive data, generating a workflow tracking message indicating that the destination of the time-sensitive data has been changed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-specific data includes an identifier indicating time-sensitivity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying at least one rule to determine whether the user-specific data is time sensitive.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the destination of the time-sensitive data includes executing at least one rule.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the rule to be executed to change the destination of the time-sensitive data is included in the time-sensitive data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first time-based trigger is created on a first computer, the method further comprising:

opening a communication session between the first computer and a second computer over a network;

responsive to the opening of the communication session, moving the user-specific data from the first computer to a local data store of the second computer;

closing the communication session;

responsive to the time sensitive being moved to the local data store, setting a second time-based trigger on the second computer; and

executing a rule on the second computer to change a destination of the time-sensitive data if the time-sensitive data is still in the local data store when the second time-based trigger expires.

13. The method of claim 12, the method further comprising, responsive to the time sensitive data being moved to the local data store of the second computer, canceling the first time-based trigger on the first computer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the time-sensitive data is associated with a workflow, the method further comprising the first computer generating a workflow tracking message indicating that the time-sensitive data has been moved to the second computer if the time-sensitive data is moved from the first computer to the second computer.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the second time-based trigger is set based at least in part upon content of the time-sensitive data.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

creating the second time-based trigger on the first computer; and

transmitting the second time-based trigger to the second computer during the communication session.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising, responsive to a device of a respective user of the plurality of users connecting to the second computer:

transmitting at least some of the time-sensitive data from the local data store to the device;

removing the transmitted data from the local data store; and

canceling the second time-based trigger.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the time-sensitive data is associated with a workflow, the method further comprising, responsive to the device of the respective user connecting to the second computer:

generating a workflow tracking message indicating that the time-sensitive data has been delivered to the respective user;

storing the workflow tracking message in the local data store; and

transmitting the workflow tracking message to the first computer during a next communication session.

19. A machine-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a computer to perform a method comprising:

adding a time-based trigger to a list of time-based triggers if user-specific data is inserted into a memory and is time-sensitive, the memory to queue user-specific data for one or more users for distribution;

responsive to determining that at least one of the time-based triggers in the list has expired, initiating an operation to act upon the time-sensitive data in memory that is associated with the expired time-based trigger; and

deleting the time-based trigger from the list if the time-sensitive data associated with the respective trigger is removed from the memory.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, the method further comprising:

determining whether user-specific data is time sensitive by application of one or more rules to the respective data if the user-specific data is inserted into the memory.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, the method further comprising:

transmitting, to a second computer, a copy of the time-based triggers from the list together with associated queued user-specific data, if the queued user-specific data is transferred from the first computer to the second computer for distribution to one or more users from the second computer.

22. A system comprising:

a workflow engine module to generate workflow tasks in conjunction with one or more software application programs, and to monitor progress toward completion of the workflow tasks;

a middleware module to queue user-specific data associated with workflow tasks for delivery to one or more users, the middleware module including;

memory to store the queued user-specific data; and

an event generation module to manage the queued user-specific data in the memory that is time sensitive,

wherein the middleware module is to communicate to the workflow engine module operations executed upon the user-specific data associated with the workflow tasks.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the middleware module is to determine whether user-specific data is time sensitive based upon information embedded in the user-specific data by the workflow engine module.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the middleware module is to determine whether user-specific data is time sensitive based upon information embedded in the user-specific data by said one or more software application programs.

25. The system of claim 22, further comprising a rules engine module, the rules engine module to determine the operations to be executed upon the time-sensitive data in memory by application of one or more rules to attributes of the respective data.