FLEXIBLE CHAINING OF DISPARATE HUMAN WORKFLOW TASKS IN A BUSINESS PROCESS
First Claim
1. A method for chaining tasks in a process execution environment, said method comprising:
- defining one or more graphical process definitions including a set of tasks;
persisting the one or more process definitions in a repository;
instantiating a first process instance and a second process instance based on said one or more graphical process definitions, the first process instance including a first task and the second process instance including a second task, wherein separate state objects are generated for the first task and the second task within the repository;
chaining the first task of the first process instance to the second task of the second process instance, wherein a reference is created from the state object associated with the first task to state object associated with the second task; and
querying data associated with the first task, wherein the data for the first task and the second task is retrieved by using the reference as a result of the querying.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for providing task chaining as part of modeling a business process (e.g. a BPEL process). Chained tasks maintain a reference to the previous task and during retrieval of that task, the system can append relevant information, including but not limited to task history, attachments and comments of the previous task. Task chaining can be enabled by selecting a previously completed task and marking that the current task chains the selected task. In one embodiment, tasks are chained across multiple instances of a process. Accordingly, tasks in different processes can be chained together to obtain access to the same context information and other data.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A method for chaining tasks in a process execution environment, said method comprising:
-
defining one or more graphical process definitions including a set of tasks; persisting the one or more process definitions in a repository; instantiating a first process instance and a second process instance based on said one or more graphical process definitions, the first process instance including a first task and the second process instance including a second task, wherein separate state objects are generated for the first task and the second task within the repository; chaining the first task of the first process instance to the second task of the second process instance, wherein a reference is created from the state object associated with the first task to state object associated with the second task; and querying data associated with the first task, wherein the data for the first task and the second task is retrieved by using the reference as a result of the querying. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system for chaining tasks in a process execution environment, said system comprising:
-
a process designer interface used to define one or more graphical process definitions, the one or more process definitions including a set of tasks; a repository that persists the one or more process definitions; a process engine that instantiates a first process instance and a second process instance based on said one or more graphical process definitions, the first process instance including a first task and the second process instance including a second task, wherein separate state objects are generated for the first task and the second task within the repository; wherein the first task of the first process instance is chained to the second task of the second process instance by creating a reference from the state object associated with the first task to state object associated with the second task; and a query mechanism that queries data associated with the first task, wherein the data for the first task and the second task is retrieved by using the reference as a result of the querying. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for chaining tasks in a process execution environment, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:
-
defining one or more graphical process definitions including a set of tasks; persisting the one or more process definitions in a repository; instantiating a first process instance and a second process instance based on said one or more graphical process definitions, the first process instance including a first task and the second process instance including a second task, wherein separate state objects are generated for the first task and the second task within the repository; chaining the first task of the first process instance to the second task of the second process instance, wherein a reference is created from the state object associated with the first task to state object associated with the second task; and querying data associated with the first task, wherein the data for the first task and the second task is retrieved by using the reference as a result of the querying.
-
Specification