Workflow management system, method, and medium that morphs work items

• US 6,442,563 B1
• Filed: 04/30/1998
• Issued: 08/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Enterworks Acquisition, Inc. (Winshuttle Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Enterworks Incorporated
• Inventors: Lindenfelser, Matthew M., Sheffield, Edwin C. Jr., Bacon, Ian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Choules, Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US09/070,639
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/1, 707/3, 707/4, 707/10, 707/104, 705/8, 705/9, 709/203, 709/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A workflow system for distributing work items to actors so that the actors may perform an activity within a defined workflow process. A server interprets the workflow process and facilitates the scheduling and routing of work items in the system to an actor. Each work item has a set of work item contents data. Morphing logic determines which data is needed by an actor to which a work item has been scheduled and morphs a work item so that the actor receives only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs. Particular implementations are described for client actors and agent actors. A particular embodiment uses Java and distributed object along with application specific and system default HTML pages to display work item contents data to a participant.

Claims

1. A workflow system for distributing work items to actors so that the actors may perform an activity within a defined workflow process, the system comprising:

a server for interpreting the workflow process and facilitating the scheduling and routing of work items in the system to an actor, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data; and

morphing logic to determine which data is needed by an actor to which a work item has been scheduled and to morph a work item so that the actor receives only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs,

wherein the actor is client logic that cooperates with a participant to perform an activity in the defined workflow process, and wherein the client logic includes logic to cooperate with a browser to cause the browser to display an HTML page associated with the activity performed by the client logic, and wherein the client logic includes logic to iterate over the HTML page to learn what data is needed by the HTML page.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the work item is a Java object distributed between the server and the client and wherein the work items contents data comprises a Java hash table of key value pairs.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the logic to iterate detects tags in the HTML page and uses the detected tags as a key to retrieve data from the Java hash table so that the retrieved data may be displayed in the HTML page.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the client logic includes logic to cause a browser to open a new browser window and to load a predefined HTML page, having two frames in the page, in the new browser window, and wherein the HTML page associated with the activity performed by the client logic is loaded into one of the two frames of the predefined HTML page.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the work item routed to an actor includes a reference to the HTML page associated with the activity and wherein this reference is used to load the HTML page associated with the activity.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the client causes a browser to open a new browser window and to load a predefined HTML page, having two frames in the page, in the new browser window, and wherein the HTML page associated with the activity performed by the client is loaded into one of the two frames of the predefined HTML page.

6. A method of distributing work items to actors in a workflow system so that the actors may perform an activity within a defined workflow process, comprising:

scheduling and routing a work item in the system to an actor, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data; and

morphing the work item by determining which data is needed by an actor to which the work item has been scheduled and providing to the actor only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs, wherein the actor is a client and wherein the method further comprises causing a browser to display an HTML page associated with an activity that is to performed by the client and wherein the client iterates over the HTML page to learn what data is needed by the HTML page.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the work item is a Java object distribute between a server and the client and wherein the work items contents data comprises a Java hash table of key value pairs, and wherein the method further comprises detecting tags in the HTML page and using the detected tags as a key to retrieve data from the Java hash table so that the retrieved data may be displayed in the HTML page.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the work item routed to an actor includes a reference to the HTML page associated with the activity and wherein this reference is used to load the HTML page associated with the activity.

10. A set of computer processable instructions on a computer readable medium, including:

server instructions for interpreting a defined workflow process and facilitating the scheduling and routing of work items to an actor so that the actors may perform an activity within the defined workflow process, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data; and

morphing instructions to determine which data is needed by an actor to which a work item has been scheduled and to morph a work item so that the actor receives only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs, wherein the server instructions and the morphing instructions are implemented in run-time interpretable instructions, and wherein the run-time interpretable instructions include instructions to operate in one of a browser environment or browser context.

11. A set of computer processable instructions on a computer readable medium, including:

server instructions for interpreting a defined workflow process and facilitating the scheduling and routing of work items to an actor so that the actors may perform an activity within the defined workflow process, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data; and

morphing instructions to determine which data is needed by an actor to which a work item has been scheduled and to morph a work item so that the actor receives only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs, wherein the client instructions include instructions to cause a browser to display an HTML page associated with the activity performed by the client instructions and wherein the client instructions include instructions to iterate over the HTML page to learn what data is needed by the HTML page.

12. The set of computer processable instructions of claim 11 wherein the client instructions include instructions to cause a browser to open a new browser window and to load a predefined HTML page, having two frames in the page, in the new browser window, and wherein the HTML page associated with the activity performed by the client instructions is loaded into one of the two frames of the predefined HTML page.

13. A set of computer processable instructions on a computer readable medium, including:

server instructions for interpreting a defined workflow process and facilitating the scheduling and routing of work items to an actor so that the actors may perform an activity within the defined workflow process, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data; and

morphing instructions to determine which data is needed by an actor to which a work item has been scheduled and to morph a work item so that the actor receives only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs, wherein the work item is a Java object and wherein the work items contents data comprises a Java hash table of key value pairs.

14. The set of computer processable instructions of claim 13 wherein the morphing instructions include instructions to detect tags in the HTML page and to use the detected tags as a key to retrieve data from the Java hash table so that the retrieved data may be displayed in the HTML page.

15. A method of distributing work items to actors in a workflow system so that the actors may perform an activity within a defined workflow process, comprising:

scheduling and routing a work item in the system to an actor, utilizing CORBA, wherein each work item has a set of work item contents data;

morphing the work item by determining which data is needed by an actor to which the work item has been scheduled and providing to the actor only the data from the work item contents that the actor needs,

wherein the actor includes logic to query a server for a set of possible next actors that may be scheduled, wherein the actor includes logic to select from the set of next possible actors and to inform the server of the selection, and wherein the server includes logic to notify the selected actor that a work item has been scheduled to the selected actor, and

wherein the server constructs a work item ID that uniquely identifies a work item at a stage of completion for an activity within the process.