Request Processing with Mapping and Repeatable Processes

• US 20080189705A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Weinert, Alexander T., Zhang, Kan, Kashi, Asaf, Bequette, Bruce P., Gill, Jasjeet, Wang, Darren, McMurtry, Craig
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

The embodiments described herein generally relate to a method and system of injecting repeatable processes, or workflows, into the processing of data-oriented or procedural requests in an entity management system. A request in such a system is subject to authentication, authorization, and action phases of processing, and workflows may be associated with each phase for automatic processing upon the triggering of a certain request under particular circumstances. A declarative mapping associates workflows with the request type, phase, requester, and target. The mapping may be created at the system administrator level, or by any person with the necessary capabilities, through the application of the processing concept in API or UI and may be consulted and invoked upon receipt of a request matching the mapping'"'"'s criteria. Mappings may also be created and retrieved to manage state changes resulting from processing in other phases of the request processing model.

Claims

1. A method of processing data-oriented or procedural requests, comprising:

receiving a request by a requesting agent;

consulting a mapping to determine workflows associated with phases of a processing model, including an authentication workflow;

executing the authentication workflow;

if the authentication workflow is successful, consulting a mapping to determine a workflow associated with an authorization phase;

executing the authorization workflow;

if the authorization workflow is successful, consulting a mapping to determine a workflow associated with an action phase; and

executing the action workflow.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

parsing the request to determine if there are any request details constituting conditions for a certain mapping.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining if there is an entity data change;

if there is an entity data change, consulting a mapping for a set transition; and

executing the process specified in the consulted mapping.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

executing one or more activities within one or more workflows associated with each phase if specified by the mapping.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the activities comprise one or more of the following:

authentication, notification, and logging.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

organizing principal entities into sets based on matching criteria; and

organizing target entities into sets based on matching criteria.

7. The method as defined in claim 6, the method further comprising:

creating mappings by associating workflows to processing phases dependent on the sets the principal belongs to and the sets the target belongs to.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises one or more of the following steps:

executing a system authentication, executing a system authorization, and executing a system action.

9. A system for processing data-oriented or procedural requests, comprising:

a module for receiving a request by a requesting agent;

a processing module for executing a system authentication of the requesting agent;

a mapping module for determining one or more workflows associated with one or more phases of a processing model; and

an executing module for executing an authentication workflow.

10. A system as defined in claim 9 wherein the processing module resides in an operating system.

11. A system as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

an authorization processing module for executing a system authorization for the request if the authentication workflow is successful.

12. A system as defined in claim 11, further comprising:

an authorization mapping module for consulting a mapping to determine a workflow associated with an authorization phase; and

an authorization executing module for executing the authorization workflow.

13. A system as defined in claim 12, further comprising:

an action processing module for executing a system action for the request if the authorization workflow is successful.

14. A system as defined in claim 13, further comprising:

an action mapping module for consulting a mapping to determine a workflow associated with the action phase.

15. A system as defined in claim 14, further comprising:

an action processing module for executing the action workflow.

16. A system as defined in claim 15, further comprising:

a module for determining if there is a set transition.

17. A system as defined in claim 16, further comprising:

a transition mapping module for consulting a mapping for the set transition; and

a transition executing module for processing the set transition.

18. A computer-readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method of processing a request with mapping and repeatable processes comprising:

receiving a request;

executing a system authentication of the requesting agent;

executing any authentication workflows associated with the system authentication based on mapping;

if the authentication workflow is successful, executing a system authorization for the request;

executing any authorization workflows associated with the system authorization for the request based on mapping;

if the authorization workflow is successful, executing a system action for the request; and

executing the action workflow based on mapping.

19. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 18 wherein the request is parsed to determine if there are any request details constituting conditions for a certain mapping.

20. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, further comprising:

determining if there is an entity data change;

if there is an entity data change, consulting a mapping for a set transition; and

executing the process specified in the consulted mapping.