Asynchronous fault handling in process-centric programs

• US 7,739,135 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sagar, Akash J., Shukla, Dharma, Schmidt, Bob, Mehta, Mayank, Raman, Karthik, Talbert, Nathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Arcos; Jeison C
• Application Number:
  US11/393,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20070234129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,538 Days
• Field of Search: 714/16, 705 7- 9, 370/245
• US Class Current: 705/7.27
• 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

Abstract

Asynchronous fault handling for a workflow. A state automaton for an activity in the workflow is defined. The state automaton includes at least an executing state, a faulting state, and a closed state and classifies an execution lifetime of the activity. The activity is defined to include work items and includes an execution hierarchy for the work items. Each work item includes an operation for executing a portion of the activity. Each work item is transitioned to the executing state. The included operation of transitioned work items is executed in the executing state. One or more of the transitioned work items are identified in response to the faulting event as a function of the execution hierarchy and the included operation. The faulting event is asynchronously handled by transitioning the one or more identified work items to the faulting state while executing the included operation of the remaining transitioned work items.

Claims

1. A computerized method for asynchronously handling a faulting event for an activity of a workflow, said workflow being processed by a computing device, said method comprising:

defining a state automaton for an activity, said state automaton including at least an executing state, a faulting state, and a closed state, said state automaton classifying an execution lifetime of the activity;

defining the activity to include a plurality of work items, said defined activity having an execution hierarchy for the plurality of work items, each of the work items including an operation for executing a portion of the activity;

transitioning each of the work items to the executing state;

executing the included operation of transitioned work items in the executing state;

receiving the faulting event associated with one or more work items;

identifying the one or more of the transitioned work items in response to a fault-handling operation that handles the received faulting event as a function of the execution hierarchy and the included operation, wherein each of the identified one or more of the transitioned work items including the fault-handling operation therein; and

asynchronously handling the faulting event by executing the fault-handling operation associated with the each of the identified one or more of the transitioned work items to the faulting state in response to the received faulting event and transitioning the one or more identified work items to the faulting state while executing the included operation of the remaining transitioned work items not identified in response to the faulting event, wherein the one or more identified work items in the faulting state are transitioned to the closed state after execution of the fault-handling operation is completed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein asynchronously handling the faulting event comprises invoking a fault handling operation in the one or more identified work items.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein invoking the fault handling operation comprises enqueuing the one or more identified work items in a scheduler queue.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising propagating a notification from the one or more identified work items to the remaining transitioned work items as a function of the execution hierarchy of the activity, said notification indicating that the identified one or more work items being in the faulting state.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising transitioning the remaining transitioned work items from the executing state to the faulting state in response to the propagated notification.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising suppressing a notification from the one or more identified work items to the remaining transitioned work items as a function of the execution hierarchy of the activity such that the remaining transitioned worked items in the executing state continue to be executed.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing operations to a user for post-faulting handling in response to the one or more identified work items being transitioned to the faulting state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer storage media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

9. A system for asynchronously handling faulting events in a workflow, said system comprising:

a storage for storing data associated with work items of an activity in the workflow, said activity having an execution hierarchy for the work items, each of the work items including an operation for executing a portion of the activity;

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

defining a state automaton for the activity, said state automaton including at least an executing state, a faulting state, and a closed state, said state automaton classifying an execution lifetime of the activity;

transitioning each of the work items to the executing state;

executing the included operation of transitioned work items in the executing state;

receiving a faulting event associated with one or more work items;

identifying the one or more of the transitioned work items in response to a fault-handling operation that handles the received faulting event based on the execution hierarchy and the included operation, wherein each of the identified one or more of the transitioned work items including the fault-handling operation therein; and

asynchronously handling the faulting event by executing the fault-handling operation associated with the each of the identified one or more of the transitioned work items to the faulting state in response to the received faulting event and transitioning the one or more identified work items to the faulting state while executing the included operation of the remaining transitioned work items not identified in response to the faulting event, wherein the one or more identified work items in the faulting state are transitioned to the closed state after execution of the fault-handling operation is completed.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to asynchronously handle the faulting event using one or more of the following method:

by invoking a fault handling operation in the one or more identified work items, and by enqueuing the one or more identified work items in a scheduler queue.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to execute computer-executable instructions embodied in a component for propagating a notification from the one or more identified work items to the remaining transitioned work items as a function of the execution hierarchy of the activity, said notification indicating that the identified one or more work items being in the faulting state.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to execute computer-executable instructions embodied in a component for transitioning the remaining transitioned work items from the executing state to the faulting state in response to the propagated notification.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor defines a compensating state in the state automaton and wherein the processor is configured to execute computer-executable instructions embodied in a component for transitioning the activities from the faulting state to the compensating state to recover data that was previously used for executing the remaining work items associated with the activity from the storage.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to execute computer-executable instructions embodied in a component for suppressing the propagation of the notification to the remaining transitioned work items.

15. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components for asynchronously handling a faulting event in a workflow, said computer-executable components comprising:

a state machine for defining a state automaton for the activity, said state automaton including at least an executing state, a faulting state, and a closed state, said state automaton classifying an execution lifetime of the activity;

an activity component for defining the activity to include a plurality of work items, said defined activity having an execution hierarchy for the plurality of work items, each of the work items including an operation for executing a portion of the activity;

a scheduler component for transitioning each of the work items to the executing state;

an execution component for executing the included operation of transitioned work items in the executing state;

an identification component for identifying one or more of the transitioned work items in response to a fault handling operation that handles the faulting event based on the execution hierarchy and the included operation, wherein each of the identified one or more of the transitioned work items including the fault handling operation therein; and

a fault handler, in response to receiving the faulting event associated with one or more identified work items, for asynchronously handling the faulting event by invoking the fault handling operation in each of the identified one or more transitioned work items in response to the received faulting event to transition the one or more identified work items to the faulting state while executing the included operation of the remaining transitioned work items not identified in response to the faulting event by the identification component, wherein the one or more identified work items in the faulting state are transitioned to the closed state after execution of the fault handling operation is completed.

16. The computer storage media of claim 15, wherein the fault handler enqueues the one or more identified work items in a scheduler queue to transition the one or more identified work items to the faulting state.

17. The computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising a fault propagation component executable by a processor in a computing device for transmitting a notification from the one or more identified work items to the remaining transitioned work items as a function of the execution hierarchy of the activity, said notification indicating that the identified one or more work items being in the faulting state.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, further comprising a transition component executable by a processor in a computing device for transitioning the remaining transitioned work items from the executing state to the faulting state in response to the transmitted notification.

19. The computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising a compensation component executable by a processor in a computing device for recovering data associated with the activity as a function of the asynchronously handling the faulting event.

20. The computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising an inhibition component executable by a processor in a computing device for suppressing the transmission of the notification to the remaining transitioned work items.