Systems and methods for business process plug-in development

• US 7,424,717 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2003
• Issued: 09/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Blevins, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H
• Application Number:
  US10/404,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20040049481A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 719311-318, 719/328, 719/310, 709202-204, 709217-219, 717100-109, 707/1
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A system and method for using session beans to integrate business processes. The system includes a process engine which includes a workflow and a plug-in manager. The system further allows for creating session beans, packaging the session beans for deployment, and deploying the session beans to the process engine as a plug-in, to dynamically modify the workflow. The plug-in manager handles event notifications to and from the deployed session beans at runtime, according to the workflow. In this manner, the environment allows for easy development of software applications that are intended to communicate with business processes and external components.

Claims

1. A method for using session beans to integrate business processes, comprising the steps of:

operating a process engine on a computer server, wherein the process engine includes a workflow stored and executing thereon, and wherein the process engine allows applications to interact with business processes, including triggering notifications to the business processes when events occur within the workflow;

providing a plug-in framework that operates on the computer server, and provides an interface for the applications to interact with the process engine, and allows an existing workflow to be dynamically modified, wherein the plug-in framework includes a plug-in manager that allows for plug-ins to be registered with the workflow, and a database store that includes plug-in configuration information, and wherein the plug-in framework allows for;

creating session beans for use with the process engine,

defining the session beans in the database store,

packaging the session beans for deployment, and

deploying the session beans to the process engine as a plug-in, to dynamically modify the workflow running therein, so that when packaged and deployed to the process engine as a plug-in the session beans are automatically discovered by the plug-in framework and dynamically modify the workflow currently running on the process engine by registering listeners for specific notifications and then executing a workflow functionality when the specific notifications are triggered; and

using the plug-in manager to handle event notifications to and from the deployed session beans at runtime, according to the workflow, as modified.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

defining the plug-in session bean by implementing session bean interface methods.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

implementing plug-in home and remote interface methods.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting up notification management, including registering the plug-ins to be notified when events occur in the workflow, and then notifying the plug-ins when corresponding events occur.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a plug-in data interface in order to enable the reading and parsing of plug-in data.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a plug-in panel class for each plug-in to display a plug-in GUI within a design client, and to allow a developer to select and to customize the operation of the plug-in within the process engine.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

defining a plug-in deployment descriptor file to define the plug-in, wherein the deployment descriptor file is used during deployment to customize the operation of the plug-in.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of packaging the session bean further includes:

creating a build directory and compiling source files into the directory in order to package the plug-in in an archive file.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

deploying the session bean as part of an integration application by editing a configuration file for the application, and reading the configuration file during deployment.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

implementing classes necessary for each component related to the plug-in in order to define the functionality for that component.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the applications trigger the execution of a business process by sending non-XML events to the process engine, and wherein the plug-ins extend the behavior of the Start node to include support for the non-XML event triggers.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the process engine detects the plug-ins via Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) and a home interface for each of the plug-ins.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plug-in manager loads and unloads the plug-ins, using load( ) or unload( ) methods respectively.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plug-in can be registered as a notification listener to receive different types of notifications, including a task notification to notify a user of events including one of a task being assigned, completed, executed, overdue, started, unassigned, unmarked as done, and updated.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the session beans are automatically discovered by the plug-in framework and wherein the plug-in framework then makes software classes within those session beans available for use by client applications, and wherein the plug-in session beans are automatically discovered by registering the home interface for each plug-in with a Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) service.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a plug-in API that includes a plurality of client side classes that allow client applications to access to the process engine.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the notifications are broadcast to all plugged in listeners as the workflow operates, and wherein event messages are broadcast by processing incoming XML messages through a Java Message Service (JMS) event queue, wherein each event listener listens for events, via the JMS event queue, which are received in XML format and delivered using JMS.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the notifications are broadcast to all plugged in listeners as the workflow operates, and wherein event messages are broadcast using an on event( ) method of the plug-in manager at run time.

19. A system that uses session beans to integrate business processes, comprising:

a computer including a processor and computer readable medium with instructions stored thereon and executable by the computer;

a process engine that runs on a computer server and includes a workflow stored and executing thereon, wherein the process engine allows applications to interact with business processes, including triggering notifications to the business processes when events occur within the workflow;

a plug-in framework that operates on the computer server, and provides an interface for the applications to interact with the process engine, and allows an existing workflow to be dynamically modified, wherein the plug-in framework includes a plug-in manager that allows for plug-ins to be registered with the workflow, and a database store that includes plug-in configuration information, and wherein the plug-in framework allows for creating, defining, packaging and deploying session beans to the process engine as a plug-in, to dynamically modify the workflow running therein, so that when packaged and deployed to the process engine as a plug-in the session beans are automatically discovered by the plug-in framework and dynamically modify the workflow currently running on the process engine by registering listeners for specific notifications and then executing a workflow functionality when the specific notifications are triggered; and

wherein the plug-in manager then handles event notifications to and from the deployed session beans at runtime, according to the workflow as modified.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the applications trigger the execution of a business process by sending non-XML events to the process engine, and wherein the plug-ins extend the behavior of the Start node to include support for the non-XML event triggers.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the process engine detects the plug-ins via Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) and a home interface for each of the plug-ins.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the plug-in manager loads and unloads the plug-ins, using load( ) or unload( ) methods respectively.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein a plug-in can be registered as a notification listener to receive different types of notifications, including a task notification to notify a user of events including one of a task being assigned, completed, executed, overdue, started, unassigned, unmarked as done, and updated.

24. A computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon and executable by a computer, which instructions when executed by the computer cause the computer to perform the steps of:

operating a process engine on a computer server, wherein the process engine includes a workflow stored and executing thereon, and wherein the process engine allows applications to interact with business processes, including triggering notifications to the business processes when events occur within the workflow;

providing a plug-in framework that operates on the computer server, and provides an interface for the applications to interact with the process engine, and allows an existing workflow to be dynamically modified, wherein the plug-in framework includes a plug-in manager that allows for plug-ins to be registered with the workflow, and a database store that includes plug-in configuration information, and wherein the plug-in framework allows for;

creating session beans for use with the process engine,

defining the session beans in the database store,

packaging the session beans for deployment, and

deploying the session beans to the process engine as a plug-in, to dynamically modify the workflow running therein, so that when packaged and deployed to the process engine as a plug-in the session beans are automatically discovered by the plug-in framework and dynamically modify the workflow currently running on the process engine by registering listeners for specific notifications and then executing a workflow functionality when the specific notifications are triggered; and

using the plug-in manager to handle event notifications to and from the deployed session beans at runtime, according to the workflow, as modified.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the applications trigger the execution of a business process by sending non-XML events to the process engine, and wherein the plug-ins extend the behavior of the Start node to include support for the non-XML event triggers.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the process engine detects the plug-ins via Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) and a home interface for each of the plug-ins.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the plug-in manager loads and unloads the plug-ins, using load ( ) or unload( ) methods respectively.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein a plug-in can be registered as a notification listener to receive different types of notifications, including a task notification to notify a user of events including one of a task being assigned, completed, executed, overdue, started, unassigned, unmarked as done, and updated.