Transformation of componentized and extensible workflow to a declarative format

• US 7,451,432 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sagar, Akash J., Mehta, Mayank, Schmidt, Robert B., Bhandarkar, Aditya G., Shukla, Dharma K., Parasnis, Abhay Vinayak, Valegerepura, Kumarswamy P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phillip H
• Application Number:
  US11/047,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20060074732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,380 Days
• Field of Search: 717104-110
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Building a componentized workflow model. Each step of the workflow is modeled as an activity that has metadata to describe design time aspects, compile time aspects, and runtime aspects of the workflow step. A user selects and arranges the activities to create the workflow via user interfaces or application programming interfaces. The metadata associated with each of the activities in the workflow is collected to create a persistent representation of the workflow. Users extend the workflow model by authoring custom activities. The workflow may be compiled and executed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to be executed on a computing device for modeling a workflow, said workflow including activities, said method comprising:

presenting a plurality of activities via an interface, said plurality of activities comprising a structured set of steps including an ordered sequence of events, a set of asynchronous events, or both, each of the plurality of activities including metadata for a step in the workflow;

receiving, via an input interface, a selection of the presented activities by a user;

serializing the received activities to create a declarative and persistent representation of the workflow to model a business logic, said serializing comprising binding metadata to objects associated with the received activities and transferring the included metadata of the received activities into the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow such that the computing device can process the workflow based on the declarative representation, said declarative and persistent representation being based on a serialization format, said serialization format defining the following rules;

an object is serialized as an XML element, a property of an object is categorized as simple property or complex property, and a child object of an object is serialized as a child element, wherein the serialized is in the form of code statement collection in the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow;

wherein the serialized activities are mapped to an extensible schema definition namespace for validation;

compiling the serialized workflow representation and the received selection into a single assembly containing an executable representation of the workflow, wherein the compiling is not tied to a particular programming language and the declarative representation of the workflow does not need a translation to the particular programming language for the compiling; and

executing the executable representation of the workflow created by the compiling.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving software code representing the business logic from a user for association with one of the plurality of activities;

compiling the software code to create one or more binary files; and

executing the created binary files to perform the workflow.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the software code conforms to a common language runtime (CLR) schema.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising compiling the serialized workflow representation and software code into a single assembly containing an executable representation of the workflow.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-defined activity from the user, said user-defined activity having one or more semantics associated therewith;

evaluating the semantics for conformance to a predefined interface requirement;

presenting the user-defined activity as one of the plurality of activities as function of said evaluating.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein presenting the plurality of activities comprises presenting a plurality of activities each having one or more properties associated therewith specifying design time, compile time, and run time behavior.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein presenting the plurality of activities comprises visually presenting the plurality of activities.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising translating the serialized workflow representation of the received activities to another workflow language.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a hierarchical organization of the selected activities from the user, and wherein the received hierarchical organization comprises one or more of the following:

an event-condition-action workflow, a structured workflow, and a constraint-driven workflow.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable storage media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable components for modeling a workflow, said workflow including activities, said workflow modeling a business logic, said components comprising:

a palette component for visually presenting a plurality of activities, said plurality of activities comprising an ordered sequence or a set of asynchronous events, or both, each of the plurality of activities including metadata for a step in the workflow;

an interface component for receiving, from a user, a selection and hierarchical organization of the activities presented by the palette component;

a declarative component for serializing the activities received by the interface component to create a declarative and persistent representation of the workflow, said serializing comprising binding metadata to objects associated with the received activities and transferring the included metadata of the received activities into the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow based on a serialization format, said serialization format defining the following rules;

an object is serialized as an XML element, a property of an object is categorized as simple property or complex property, and a child object of an object is serialized as a child element, wherein the serialized is in the form of code statement collection in the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow;

wherein the declarative component farther maps the serialized activities to an extensible schema definition namespace for validation; and

a runtime component for compiling the workflow representation serialized by the declarative component and the selection received by the interface component into a single assembly containing an executable representation of the workflow, wherein the compiling is not tied to a particular programming language and the declarative representation of the workflow does not need a translation to the particular programming language for the compiling, wherein the runtime component executes the executable representation of the workflow.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the interface component further receives software code representing business logic from a user for association with one of the plurality of activities.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 11, further comprising hosting the palette component, interface component, and declarative component in an application program.

14. A computer-implemented system for modeling a workflow, said workflow including activities, said workflow modeling a business logic, said computer-implemented system comprising:

a memory area for storing a package identifying a plurality of activities, said plurality of activities comprising an ordered sequence or a set of asynchronous events, or both, each of the plurality of activities including metadata for a step in the workflow;

an interface for selecting and interrelating one or more of the activities from the package to create a workflow; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions embodied in the following;

a serializer for serializing the received activities to create a declarative and persistent representation of the workflow, said serializing comprising binding metadata to objects associated with the received activities and transferring the included metadata of the received activities into the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow, said declarative and persistent representation being based on a serialization format, said serialization format defining the following rules;

an object is serialized as an XML element, a property of an object is categorized as simple property or complex property, and a child object of an object is serialized as a child element, wherein the serialized is in the form of code statement collection in the declarative and persistent representation of the workflow;

a validator for mapping the serialized activities to an extensible schema definition namespace;

a compiler for compiling the serialized workflow representation and the received selection into a single assembly containing an executable representation of the workflow, wherein the compiler is not tied to a particular programming language and the declarative representation of the workflow does not need a translation to the particular programming language for the compiling; and

a runtime engine for executing the executable representation of the workflow created by the compiler.

15. The computer-implemented system of claim 14, wherein the interface receives software code that implements business logic associated with the selected activities, wherein the processor is configured to execute the compiler for compiling the serialized workflow representation and the software code into an executable representation of the workflow.

16. The computer-implemented system of claim 15, wherein the package, interface, serializer, compiler, and runtime engine are hosted in an application program.

17. The computer-implemented system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of activities includes a user-defined activity, said user-defined activity having one or more properties, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute a semantic checker for verifying a format associated with each of the properties.

18. The computer-implemented system of claim 14, wherein the interface comprises one or more of the following:

a user interface component and an application programming component.

19. The computer-implemented system of claim 14, further comprising a data structure representing a component model associated with each of the activities in the workflow, said data structure comprising:

an image field storing data for visually representing the activity;

one or more author time fields storing metadata defining properties, methods, and events associated with the activity;

a serializer field storing data for transferring the metadata stored in the author time fields to a declarative representation of the activity;

a business logic field storing software code associated with the metadata stored in the author time fields;

an executor field storing data for executing the software code stored in the business logic field; and

a semantic checker for validating the software code stored in the business logic field.