Postprocessing office method and system

• US 7,562,351 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Issued: 07/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Haas, Rolf W., Bruetzel, Otfried
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAO, THUY CHAN
• Application Number:
  US10/747,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144527A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,023 Days
• Field of Search: 717/124
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for post-processing of errors from mass/batch processing of business processes. A method includes executing a business process; determining a failure occurred during the execution of the business process; obtaining information related to the failed business process; and creating a post-processing order using the information including the errors that occurred when the business process failed. The method also includes correcting the errors identified in the post-processing order and re-executing the failed business process. The method further includes determining whether re-executing the corrected business process was successful; and setting a status of the post-processing order related to the business process to indicate completion and setting a status related to correcting the error to indicate completion, if re-executing the failed business process was successful.

Claims

1. In an enterprise system, a method of post-processing to correct errors resulting from executing a business process, the method comprising:

executing a plurality of business processes, each business process operating on at least one business object;

if a failure is detected during the execution of a business process of the plurality of business processes;

identifying the at least one business object affected by the failure of the business process, including a master business object most closely related to the business process;

identifying each error associated with the business process failure;

creating a post-processing order for the failed business process, the post-processing order;

identifying the failed business process;

storing links to the at least one business object affected by the business process failure; and

storing the each error associated with the business process failure;

correcting the each error identified in the post-processing order, said correcting comprising;

locking the post-processing order to prevent concurrent access to the post-processing order during said correcting;

accessing a business object that is identified by an error of the each error using a corresponding stored business object link;

changing an aspect of the business object causing the error; and

repeating said accessing and said changing for each business object referenced in the each error;

re-executing the business process;

determining whether re-executing the business process was successful; and

setting a status of the post-processing order related to the failed business process to indicate completion and setting a status related to correcting the each error, if re-executing the business process was successful.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein executing a business process comprises:

executing the business process in a batch-processing mode.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein executing a business process further comprises:

executing the business process without user interaction during the execution.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining information related to the failure of the business process comprises:

obtaining information including

an identification of the post-processing order,

a status of the error correction work,

a status of the business process,

an identification of the source business process,

a business object that is involved in executing the business process,

an error responsible for the failure of the business process,

one or more implementation-specific fields,

a master business object that controls the business object,

information on the error log,

information on the correcting of the errors in the post-processing order, and

information on the execution of the business process.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a post-processing order using the at least one business object and the each error comprises:

creating the post-processing order to include a header using the at least one business object and the each error.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein creating a post-processing order using the at least one business object and the each error further comprises:

creating the post-processing order to further include at least one post-processing order position using one or more other errors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein correcting the each error identified in the post-processing order comprises:

correcting an error responsible for failure of the business process in the post-processing order.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein correcting the each error identified in the post-processing order further comprises:

correcting at least one other error identified in the post-processing order, if there is more than one error identified in the post-processing order.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the corrected business process comprises:

immediately executing the corrected business process.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the corrected business process comprises:

scheduling the execution of the corrected business process for a specified time.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to create a new post-processing order or append new errors to the post-processing order, if re-executing the business process failed;

closing the post-processing order related to the failed business process, if it was determined to create the new post-processing order; and

creating the new post-processing order using information related to the failed re-executed business process, one or more post-processing positions and one or more errors related to the failed re-executed business process.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

creating the new post-processing order with a link to the closed post-processing order.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to create a new post-processing order or append new errors to the post-processing order, if re-executing the business process failed;

appending error information to the post-processing order related to the failed business process, if it was determined to append the errors to the post-processing order; and

creating the new post-processing order using information related to the failed re-executed business process, one or more post-processing positions and one or more errors related to the failed re-executed business process.

14. The method of claim 1,

wherein said creating the post-processing order using the at least one business object and the each error comprises recording the post-processing order on the computer-readable medium.

15. In an enterprise system, a method comprising:

executing a business process, the business process operating on at least one business object;

determining if a failure occurred during the execution of the business process;

if the failure did not occur during the execution of the business process,

creating a first post-processing order upon successful execution of the business process, the first post-processing order identifying a task to perform that is dependent on the successful execution of the business process;

setting a status of the first post-processing order related to the business process to indicate completion and setting a status related to the dependent task; and

if a failure occurred during the execution of the business process;

identifying the at least one business object affected by the failure of the business process, including a master business object most closely related to the business process;

identifying each error associated with the business process failure;

creating a second post-processing order for the failed business process, the second post-processing order;

identifying the failed business process;

storing links to the at least one business object affected by the business process failure; and

storing the each error associated with the business process failure;

correcting the each error identified in the second post-processing order, said correcting comprising;

locking the second post-processing order to prevent concurrent access to the second post-processing order during said correcting;

accessing a business object that is identified by an error of the each error using a corresponding stored business object link;

changing an aspect of the business object causing the error; and

repeating said accessing and said changing for each business object referenced in the each error;

re-executing the failed business process;

determining whether the re-executing of the failed business process was successful;

setting a status of the second post-processing order related to the business process to indicate completion, if the re-executing of the failed business process was successful; and

setting a status of error correction work to indicate completion, if one of the re-executing the failed business process was successful.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein creating a second post-processing order comprises:

creating the second post-processing order to include;

a header having the information related to the failed business process and an error responsible for the failure identified during the execution of the business process, and zero or more post-processing order positions having information about all of the other errors.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein creating the second post-processing order to include a header having the information related to the failed business process comprises:

creating the header to include;

an identification of the second post-processing order,

a status of the error correction work,

a status of the business process,

an identification of the source business process,

a business object that executes the business process,

an error responsible for the failure,

one or more implementation-specific fields,

at least one master business object, which controls the business object,

information on the error log,

information on the correcting of the errors in the post-processing order, and

information on the execution of the business process.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein creating the header further comprises:

creating the header to include a worklist.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein creating the header further comprises:

creating the header to include a reference to a related post-processing order.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein said creating the first post-processing order upon successful execution of the business process comprises recording the first post-processing order on a computer-readable medium;

and

wherein said creating the second post-processing order using the at least one business object and the each error comprises recording the second post-processing order on the computer-readable medium.

21. A method of post-processing to correct errors resulting from executing a business process, the method comprising:

executing, by a business process control program, a business process, the business process operating on at least one business object;

determining whether a failure occurred during the execution of the business process;

if the failure occurred during the execution of the business process,

identifying the at least one business object affected by the failure of the business process, including a master business object most closely related to the business process;

identifying each error associated with the business process failure;

creating a post-processing order for the failed business process, the post-processing order;

identifying the failed business process;

storing links to the at least one business object affected by the business process failure; and

storing the each error associated with the business process failure;

determining whether to re-execute the business process without error correction, if the execution of the business process failed;

correcting the at least one error in the second post-processing order, if the execution of the business process failed and the business process was not re-executed, said correcting comprising;

locking the post-processing order to prevent concurrent access to the post-processing order during said correcting;

accessing a business object that is identified by an error of the each error using a corresponding stored business object link;

changing an aspect of the business object causing the error; and

repeating said accessing and said changing for each business object referenced in the each error;

re-executing the business process, if the each error in the post-processing order was corrected;

determining whether one of the re-executions of the business process was successful;

setting a status of the second post-processing order related to the business process to indicate completion; and

setting a status of error correction work to indicate completion.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said executing a business process comprises:

executing the business process with a plurality of other business processes in a batch-processing mode.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein said executing a business process comprises:

executing the business process using a control program.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein said determining whether a failure occurred during the execution of the business process comprises:

determining whether one or more errors occurred during the execution of the business process.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining an error responsible for the failure of the business process from one or more errors that occurred during the execution of the business process.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

determining at least one master business object to which the at east one business object is strongly related.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

obtaining information on manually processing the post-processing order.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein said creating the post-processing order comprises:

creating the post-processing order to include the at least one business object, the each error, and position information.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said position information comprises:

a technical key for the post-processing order;

a position number;

one or more message numbers;

a message text for each one or more message numbers; and

a kind of message for each one or more message numbers.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein said determining whether to re-execute the business process without error correction comprises:

determining whether a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the execution of the business process failed.

31. The method of claim 21, wherein said determining whether to re-execute the business process without error correction comprises:

determining whether an instruction to re-execute the business process has been received.

32. The method of claim 21,

wherein said creating the post-processing order to include the at least one business object and the each error identified during the execution of the business process, if the execution of the business process failed, comprises recording the post-processing order on the computer-readable medium.