For each item enumerator

• US 20070214029A1
• Filed: 03/08/2006
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burlacu, Ovidiu, Haselden, J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,637 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The subject disclosure pertains to a loop enumerator. The enumerator includes its own collection of items that can be generated manually or loaded from a file. Further, the items themselves can be collections of variable size. These collections of items can be customized to enable enumeration over non-uniform data and/or data that cannot otherwise be logically filtered easily.

Claims

1. An enumerator for a workflow system loop comprising the following computer-implemented components:

a collection management component that manages a custom collection of items associated with the enumerator; and

an iterator component that iterates through the collection of items.

2. The enumerator of claim 1, the items are collections of values that identify an item and metadata that pertains to the item.

3. The enumerator of claim 2, the values are mapped to variables.

4. The enumerator of claim 2, the management component includes an additive component to add items to the collection.

5. The enumerator of claim 2, the management component includes an extraction component that removes an item from the collection.

6. The enumerator of claim 2, the management component includes an import component retrieves the collection from a file.

7. The enumerator of claim 2, the management component includes an export component that saves the collection to a file.

8. The enumerator of claim 1, the iterator component supplies collection items to a workflow loop container upon request until all items have been provided.

9. The enumerator of claim 1, the iterator component supplies the items to a map component that saves the items to variables accessible by container tasks.

10. The enumerator of claim 1, the collection management component receives the collection from a graphical user interface that enables a user to manually specify the collection.

11. An enumerator for a workflow system comprising:

a computer-implemented means for managing a custom collection of items; and

a computer-implemented means for iterating through the collection of items.

12. The system of claim 11, the items are collections of values that identify an enumeration object and metadata associated with the object.

13. An enumeration method comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

persisting a custom collection of items in an enumerator; and

providing the collection items iteratively upon request from a loop container until all items have been provided.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving the custom collection of items.

15. The method of claim 14, receiving the custom collection of items comprises receiving items that are collections.

16. The method of claim 15, receiving the custom collection of items from an enumerator designer graphical user interface.

17. The method of claim 15, receiving the custom collection of items from an XML file.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising importing the custom collection of items from an XML file.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising exporting the custom collection of items to an XML file.

20. The method of claim 13, providing the items to a mapping component that saves item values to variables accessible by loop container tasks.