SEGMENTED BUSINESS PROCESS ENGINE

• US 20150039379A1
• Filed: 07/30/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Brown, Gary Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,773,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work

Abstract

A method and system for providing a segmented business process engine for generating a result in response to an event message. A process instance identification component of the segmented business process engine identifies a process instance associated with the event message and provides the process instance message to a selected process execution component of the segmented business process engine. The selected process execution component identifies a process definition in view of the process instance message and obtains state information associated with the event from a consistent image store component of the segmented business process engine. The selected process execution component generates a result associated with the event in view of the state information and the process definition and provides the result to at least one of the client application or another process instance identification component.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, by a process instance identification component of a segmented business process engine, a process instance associated with an event message received from a client application, the event message identifying an event to be performed by the process instance;

providing, by the process instance identification component, a process instance message to a selected process execution component of the segmented business process engine;

identifying, by the selected process execution component executed by a processing device, a process definition in view of the process instance message;

obtaining, by the selected process execution component, state information associated with the process instance from a consistent image store component of the segmented business process engine;

generating, by the selected process execution component, a result associated with the event in view of the state information and the process definition; and

providing, by the selected process execution component, the result to at least one of the client application or another process instance identification component.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising routing, by a process registry component of the segmented business process engine, the event message from the client application to the process instance identification component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the process instance identification component is selected from a plurality of process instance identification components associated with the segmented business process engine in view of a routing parameter.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a process execution component layer comprising the selected process execution component and a plurality of additional process execution components.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the process instance message is provided to the selected process execution component of the process execution component layer based on a routing parameter.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by the consistent image store component, a first version of the state information in association with identifying information;

receiving, by the consistent image store component, a new state information message comprising modified state information; and

determining, by the consistent image store component, whether the modified state information is based on the first version of the state information by comparing the identifying information associated with the first version of the state information and information comprised in the new state information message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected process execution component selects the consistent image store component for providing the state information request from a plurality of available consistent image store components in a consistent image store component layer.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

identify, by a process instance identification component of a segmented business process engine, a process instance associated with an event message received from a client application, the event message identifying an event to be performed by the process instance;

provide, by the process instance identification component, a process instance message to a selected process execution component of the segmented business process engine;

identify, by the selected process execution component executed by a processing device, a process definition in view of the process instance message;

obtain, by the selected process execution component, state information associated with the process instance from a consistent image store component of the segmented business process engine;

generate, by the selected process execution component, a result associated with the event in view of the state information and the process definition; and

provide, by the selected process execution component, the result to at least one of the client application or another process instance identification component.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the processing device to route, by a process registry component of the segmented business process engine, the event message from the client application to the process instance identification component.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the process instance identification component is selected from a plurality of process instance identification components associated with the segmented business process engine in view of a routing parameter.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the processing device to establish a process execution component layer comprising the selected process execution component and a plurality of additional process execution components.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the process instance message is provided to the selected process execution component of the process execution component layer in view of a routing parameter.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the processing device to:

store, by the consistent image store component, a first version of the state information in association with identifying information;

receive, by the consistent image store component;

a new state information message comprising modified state information; and

determine, by the consistent image store component, whether the modified state information is based on the first version of the state information by comparing the identifying information associated with the first version of the state information and information comprised in the new state information message.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the selected process execution component selects the consistent image store component for providing the state information request from a plurality of available consistent image store components in a consistent image store component layer.

15. A computer system comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processing devices, coupled to the memory, to execute a process instance identification component layer, a process execution component layer, and a consistent image store component layer of a segmented business process engine, the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising;

identifying, by a selected process instance identification component of a segmented business process engine, a process instance associated with an event message received from a client application, the event message identifying an event to be performed by the process instance;

providing, by the selected process instance identification component, a process instance message to a selected process execution component of the segmented business process engine;

identifying, by the selected process execution component executed by a processing device, a process definition in view of the process instance message;

obtaining, by the selected process execution component, state information associated with the process instance from a consistent image store component of the segmented business process engine;

generating, by the selected process execution component, a result associated with the event in view of the state information and the process definition; and

providing, by the selected process execution component, the result to at least one of the client application or another process instance identification component.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a process registry component to provide the event message from the client application to the selected process instance identification component.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected process instance identification component is selected from the process instance identification component layer in view of a routing parameter.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the process instance message is provided to the selected process execution component of the process execution component layer in view of a routing parameter.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

storing, by the selected consistent image store component, a first version of the state information in association with identifying information;

receiving, by the selected consistent image store component;

a new state information message comprising modified state information; and

determining, by the selected consistent image store component, whether the modified state information is based on a first version of the state information by comparing the identifying information associated with the first version of the state information and information comprised in the new state information message.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected process execution component selects the selected consistent image store component for providing the state information request from the consistent image store component layer in view of a routing parameter.