State transition management according to a workflow management policy

• US 7,937,432 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2007
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Rowley, Peter A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino; Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): WASEL, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US11/707,358
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201333A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 705/9
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method, an apparatus, and a system for managing data using state transition controlled attributes have been presented. For example, a workflow management policy and a set of states are defined at a server coupled to one or more client machines, each of the states corresponding to a distinct value of a set of values of an attribute of data. The method may further include implementing a state machine on the server to manage state transitions initiated by the one or more client machines operating on the data according to the workflow management policy.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting, by a server coupled to one or more client machines, relationships between a plurality of states from a configuration data stored on the server to define a workflow management policy comprising rules on how data in a workflow is manipulated, wherein an attribute of the data has a value selected from a group of predetermined values, each of the predetermined values corresponding to a distinct one of the plurality of states and a change on the value of the attribute corresponding to a state transition; and

implementing a state machine on the server to manage state transitions initiated by the one or more client machines operating on the data according to the workflow management policy, wherein implementing the state machine on the server to manage state transitions comprises;

in response to a request from the one or more client machines to transition from a first state to a second state, verifying, by the server, if a transition from the first state to the second state conforms with the workflow management policy;

allowing the request if the transition conforms with the workflow management policy; and

denying the request if the transition violates the workflow management policy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein implementing the state machine on the server comprises:

creating business logic for the state machine on the server based on relationships between the plurality of states.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving configuration data by the server, wherein the management policy is defined according to the configuration data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning, by the server, an ordering value to each of the plurality of states based on a corresponding value of the attribute of the data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of states corresponds to one or more events, which trigger an operation attempting to change a corresponding value of the attribute of the data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by the server, the attribute in a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface to couple a server to at least one client machine;

a user interlace on the server to receive configuration data;

a processing device on the server to extract relationships between a plurality of states from the configuration data stored on the server to define a workflow management policy comprising rules on how data in a workflow is manipulated, wherein an attribute of the data has a value selected from a group of predetermined values, each of the predetermined values corresponding to a distinct one of the plurality of states and a change on the value of the attribute corresponding to a state transition; and

a state machine on the server to manage state transitions according to the workflow management policy, the state transitions initiated by the at least one client machine while processing data, wherein the state machine verifies if a transition from a first state to a second state violates the workflow management policy in response to a request from the at least one client machine to transition from the first state to the second state, and the state machine denies the request if the transition violates the management policy.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of states is associated with an ordering value.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of states corresponds to an event, which causes a corresponding attribute of the data to change.

10. A system comprising:

a repository to store a plurality of attributes of data; and

a server coupled to the repository and a plurality of client machines, the server comprising a first user interface to receive configuration data;

a processing device to extract relationships between a plurality of states from the configuration data to define a workflow management policy comprising rules on how data in a workflow is manipulated, wherein an attribute of the data has a value selected from a group of predetermined values, each of the predetermined values corresponding to a distinct one of the plurality of states and a change on the value of the attribute corresponding to a state transition; and

a state machine to manage state transitions initiated by the plurality of client machines according to the workflow management policy, wherein the state machine comprises;

in response to a request from the one or more client machines to transition from a first state to a second state, verifying, by the server, if a transition from the first state to the second state conforms with the workflow management policy;

allowing the request if the transition conforms with the workflow management policy; and

denying the request if the transition violates the workflow management policy.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the repository is a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the server further comprises:

a second user interface to allow an administrator to modify the workflow management policy, wherein the

processing device modifies the state machine in response to a change in the workflow management policy.

13. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium for providing data instructions, executed by a processor, to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

extracting relationships between a plurality of states from configuration data stored on a server to define a workflow management policy comprising rules on how data in a workflow is manipulated, wherein an attribute of the data has a value selected from a group of predetermined values, each of the predetermined values corresponding to a distinct one of the plurality of states and a change on the value of the attribute corresponding to a state transition; and

implementing a state machine on the server to manage state transitions initiated by the one or more client machines operating on the data according to the workflow management policy, wherein implementing the state machine on the server to manage state transitions comprises;

in response to a request from the one or more client machines to transition from a first state to a second state, verifying, by the server, if a transition from the first state to the second state conforms with the workflow management policy;

allowing the request if the transition conforms with the workflow management policy; and

denying the request if the transition violates the workflow management policy.

14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein implementing the state machine comprises:

creating business logic for the state machine on the server based on relationships between the plurality of states.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving configuration data at the server, wherein the management policy is defined according to the configuration data.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

assigning an ordering value to each of the plurality of states based on a corresponding value of the attribute of the data.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of states corresponds to one or more events, which trigger an operation attempting to change a corresponding value of the attribute of the data.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing the attribute in a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory.