MODEL DRIVEN STATE MANAGEMENT OF APPLICATIONS

• US 20090044202A1
• Filed: 08/09/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Brunswig, Frank, Drabant, Bernhard, Bloching, Uwe
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,251 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for model driven state management of applications. In one aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented method. The method may include instantiating one or more business objects associated with an application. The transitions between states of the application may be checked using one or more models defined based on at least one of a context of the business object and a context of the application. An indication regarding the results of checking of the transitions may be provided to a user interface. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium containing instructions to configure a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

instantiating one or more business objects associated with an application;

checking transitions between states of the application using one or more models defined based on at least one of a context of the business object and a context of the application;

providing to a user interface an indication regarding the result of the checking.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein checking further comprises:

checking transition based on the following matrix;

$S_{\stackrel{\_}{\mathrm{lk}<br><br>\left(1,<br><br>\mathrm{\dots <br><br>}<br><br>,m\right)}}=\left(\begin{array}{c}{t}_{R,11}\\ t_{R,21}\\ \mathrm{⋮<br><br>}\\ t_{R,m<br><br><br><br>1}\end{array}\right),$

wherein each value In the matrix represents whether a transition may be performed between two states.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising:

defining properties for one or more business objects, the context of one of the business objects representing the allowed set of values of the,properties of an entity of the business object.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising:

defining transition rules using a user interface to access a state manager for defining the transition rules between states of the application.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein defining the transition rules further comprises:

defining the transition rules based on one or more user roles.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising:

defining the context of the application to include one or more user roles.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising:

providing as part of an application a set of business object contexts.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

instantiating one or more business objects associated with an application;

checking transitions between states of the application using one or more models defined based on at least one of a context of the business object and a context of the application;

providing to a user interface an indication regarding the result of the checking.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein checking further comprises:

checking transition based on the following matrix;

$S_{\stackrel{\_}{\mathrm{lk}<br><br>\left(1,<br><br>\mathrm{\dots <br><br>}<br><br>,m\right)}}=\left(\begin{array}{c}{t}_{R,11}\\ t_{R,21}\\ \mathrm{⋮<br><br>}\\ t_{R,m<br><br><br><br>1}\end{array}\right),$

wherein each value in the matrix represents whether a transition may be performed between two states.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:

defining properties for one or more business objects.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:

defining transition rules using a user interface to access a state manager for defining the transition rules between states of the application.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein defining the transition rules further comprises:

defining the transition rules based on one or more user roles.

13. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory, the processor and the memory are configured to perform a method comprising;

instantiating one or more business objects associated with an application;

checking transitions between states of the application using one or more models defined based on at least one of a context of the business object and a context of the application;

providing to a user interface an indication regarding the result of the checking.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein checking further comprises:

checking transition based on the following matrix;

$S_{\stackrel{\_}{\mathrm{lk}<br><br>\left(1,<br><br>\mathrm{\dots <br><br>}<br><br>,m\right)}}=\left(\begin{array}{c}{t}_{R,11}\\ t_{R,21}\\ \mathrm{⋮<br><br>}\\ t_{R,m<br><br><br><br>1}\end{array}\right),$

wherein each value in the matrix represents whether a transition may be performed between two states.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

defining properties for one or more business objects.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

defining transition rules using a user interface to access a state manager for defining the transition rules between states of the application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein defining the transition rules further comprises:

defining the transition rules based on one or more user roles.