Systems and methods for controlling transaction participation for groups of steps in a workflow

• US 20060149698A1
• Filed: 01/05/2005
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Haselden, J. Kirk, Ivanov, Sergei, Howey, James K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for designing and executing workflows can be equipped with a means for manipulation of workflow steps by grouping them, such as by placing them in containers. A container can be associated with a database transaction. In some embodiments, a container property can be set to indicate whether the container must participate, may participate, or may not participate in a database transaction. Further, containers may be placed in parent containers, and optionally inherit the transaction property of the parent.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the transactional properties of a plurality of steps in a workflow through a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that presents graphical representations of the plurality of steps, comprising:

selecting a plurality of workflow steps;

associating the plurality of workflow steps with a container, wherein at least one property can be defined for the container;

setting the at least one property to indicate whether the container must participate, may participate, or may not participate in an atomic transaction, wherein an atomic transaction requires that workflow steps participating in the transaction either all commit changes to a resource or all roll back any changes to the resource.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one property is set to indicate that the container may participate in an atomic transaction.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising assigning an atomic transaction to the container.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the container is associated with a parent container, and wherein the atomic transaction that is assigned the container is an atomic transaction that is assigned to a parent container.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising verifying that at least one connection object that one or more of the plurality of workflow steps and the container communicate with during execution of the workflow can support an atomic transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one property is set to indicate that the container must participate in an atomic transaction.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising assigning an atomic transaction to the container.

8. A system comprising a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for defining relationships between a plurality of steps in a workflow and a workflow execution engine for executing the workflow, said system comprising:

means for selecting a plurality of workflow steps;

means for associating the plurality of workflow steps with a container, wherein at least one property can be defined for the container;

means for setting the at least one property to indicate whether the container must participate, may participate, or may not participate in an atomic transaction, wherein an atomic transaction requires that outputs from at least two of the plurality of workflow steps either both update a database or both abort.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one property is set to indicate that the container must participate in an atomic transaction.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising assigning an atomic transaction to the container.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the container is associated with a parent container, and wherein the atomic transaction that is assigned the container is an atomic transaction that is assigned to a parent container.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the atomic transaction that is assigned to the container is a newly created atomic transaction.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising means for verifying that at least one connection object that one or more of the plurality of workflow steps and the container communicate with during execution of the workflow can support an atomic transaction.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one property is set to indicate that the container may not participate in an atomic transaction.

15. The system of claim 8, further comprising means for passing an identifier for an atomic transaction to at least one connection object that one or more of the plurality of workflow steps and the container communicate with during execution of the workflow.

16. A computer readable medium bearing instructions for controlling the transactional properties of a plurality of steps in a workflow, comprising:

instructions for selecting a plurality of workflow steps;

instructions for associating the plurality of workflow steps with a container, wherein at least one property can be defined for the container;

instructions for setting the at least one property to indicate whether the container must participate, may participate, or may not participate in an atomic transaction, wherein an atomic transaction requires that outputs from at least two of the plurality of workflow steps either both update a database or both abort.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions for verifying that at least one connection object that one or more of the plurality of workflow steps and the container communicate with during execution of the workflow can support an atomic transaction.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the at least one property is set to indicate that the container must participate in an atomic transaction.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions for assigning an atomic transaction to the container.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the container is associated with a parent container, and wherein the atomic transaction that is assigned the container is an atomic transaction that is assigned to a parent container.