Methods and apparatus for storing data associated with an electronic form

• US 7,996,758 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintex USA LLC (The Nintex Group Pty Limited)
• Original Assignee: SourceCode Technology Holdings, Inc. (Nintex Global Ltd.)
• Inventors: du Toit, Wynand, de Jager, Schalk, Raath, Natachya, Janson, Pieter, Fourie, Ben, le Roux, Lenz, Wagner, Olaf, van Wyk, Adriaan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hillery; Nathan
• Application Number:
  US11/556,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,741 Days
• Field of Search: 715/223, 715/234, 715/205
• US Class Current: 715/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The disclosed system empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects, author intelligent business forms, and create automated workflows. The logical business objects include data definitions and methods from existing and new data sources. An object broker interprets the business object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources. The intelligent business forms are created by an information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment. Each form is intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. The automated workflow tools include process discovery features that assist users during the process identification phase. The tools assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization.

Claims

1. A method of storing data associated with an electronic form, wherein the electronic form interacts with a business object, the method comprising:

retrieving a first data field from a first data source, the first data source having a first protocol;

retrieving a second data field from a second data source, the second data source having a second protocol, the second protocol being different than the first protocol;

providing a graphical user interface where the first data field and the second data field are to be combined in the electronic form;

allowing a third data field to be added to the form through the graphical user interface, wherein adding the third data field automatically changes a definition of the business object; and

storing data indicative of the third field in a third data source, the third data source having a third protocol, the third protocol being different than the first protocol, the third protocol being different than the second protocol,

wherein the first, second, and third data fields are part of a single business object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data source and the first protocol are associated with a first legacy system, and the second data source and the second protocol are associated with a second legacy system, the first legacy system being different than the second legacy system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the data indicative of the third field in the third data source includes storing the data indicative of the third field in a declarative format.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the declarative format includes an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

5. The method of claim 1, including storing a function associated with the electronic form, the method comprising:

receiving a definition of the function via a graphical user interface, wherein at least one parameter in the function is defined by selecting a graphical representation of the parameter, the graphical representation of the parameter being associated with the electronic form;

generating a structure portion based on the received definition of the function, the structure portion defining the function;

generating a user interface portion associated with the structure portion, the user interface portion defining a user interface to be used to test the function;

combining the structure portion and the user interface portion to form a function snippet; and

storing the function snippet in a computer readable memory.

6. The method of claim 1, including modifying the electronic form based on a role associated with a user.

7. The method of claim 1, including updating a plurality of data fields in the electronic form by:

detecting an event associated with an update at a client device;

sending a method call from the client device to a broker server in response to detecting the event, the method call using the third protocol; and

receiving data from the first broker server using the third protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a resource map, the first object being indicative of a first business resource, the second object being indicative of a second different business resource;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of the workflow process;

associating a second computer based design canvas with the arrow; and

placing a plurality of objects on the second computer based design canvas to create a process map, each object in the plurality of objects being indicative of a step in the workflow process.

9. The method of claim 1, including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and

creating a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

10. The method of claim 1, including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a plurality of objects on a computer based design canvas at a first client device to create a workflow representation;

sharing at least a portion of the workflow representation with a second different client device via a network;

exchanging messages associated with the portion of the workflow representation between the first client device and the second client device; and

storing data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the workflow representation.

11. The method of claim 1, including displaying a setup sequence associated with the electronic form by:

displaying a plurality of thumbnail images in a first area of a display, each of the thumbnail images representing a step in the setup sequence;

displaying a full image in a second area of the display, the full image representing one of the steps in the setup sequence;

detecting a first event associated with a thumbnail image in the plurality of thumbnail images; and

displaying a popup image in response to detecting the first event, the popup image being a larger version of the thumbnail image associated with the first event.

12. The method of claim 1, including displaying a setup sequence associated with the electronic form by:

displaying a graphical object indicative of a step in a workflow process that uses the combined business object;

detecting an event associated with the graphical object;

displaying an animation of the graphical object rotating in three dimensions in response to detecting the event associated with the graphical object;

displaying a setup sequence associated with the step in the workflow process; and

receiving configuration parameters associated with the step in the workflow process.

13. A computer readable memory storing instructions for generating data associated with an electronic form that interacts with a business object, the instructions to cause a computing device to:

retrieve a first data field from a first data source, the first data source having a first protocol;

retrieve a second data field from a second data source, the second data source having a second protocol, the second protocol being different than the first protocol;

provide a graphical user interface where the first data field and the second data field are to be combined in the electronic form;

allow a third data field to be added to the form through the graphical user interface wherein adding the third data field automatically changes a definition of the business object; and

generate data indicative of the third field for a third data source, the third data source having a third protocol, the third protocol being different than the first protocol, the third protocol being different than the second protocol,

wherein the first, second, and third data fields are part of a single business object.

14. The computer readable memory of claim 13, wherein the data indicative of the third field in the third data source is in a declarative format.

15. The computer readable memory of claim 13, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to store a function associated with the electronic form by:

receiving a definition of the function via a graphical user interface, wherein at least one parameter in the function is defined by selecting a graphical representation of the parameter, the graphical representation of the parameter being associated with the electronic form;

generating a structure portion based on the received definition of the function, the structure portion defining the function;

generating a user interface portion associated with the structure portion, the user interface portion defining a user interface to be used to test the function;

combining the structure portion and the user interface portion to form a function snippet; and

storing the function snippet in a computer readable memory.

16. The computer readable memory of claim 13, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to generate a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a resource map, the first object being indicative of a first business resource, the second object being indicative of a second different business resource;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of the workflow process;

associating a second computer based design canvas with the arrow; and

placing a plurality of objects on the second computer based design canvas to create a process map, each object in the plurality of objects being indicative of a step in the workflow process.

17. The computer readable memory of claim 13, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to generate a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and

creating a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

18. The computer readable memory of claim 13, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to generate a workflow process to use the electronic form by:

placing a plurality of objects on a computer based design canvas at a first client device to create a workflow representation;

sharing at least a portion of the workflow representation with a second different client device via a network;

exchanging messages associated with the portion of the workflow representation between the first client device and the second client device; and

storing data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the workflow representation.