Database driven workflow management system for generating output material based on customer input

• US 7,171,373 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2005
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lahey, Leonard Corning, Swartz, Adam Alvin, Nielsen, Robert Curt, Palmer, Dwight Ross, Nagda, Jagdish Mooljee, Stuart, Anthony Franke
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Boyce; Andre
• Application Number:
  US11/144,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20050228711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work

Abstract

Disclosed is a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material. A customer record is generated to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected output method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record. A job record including a status field is added to a job status table for the customer record and set to a first status. A first worker generates output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job, and sets the status for the selected job to a second status. A second worker determines a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job and transmits the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

Claims

1. A workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, comprising:

computational resources;

at least one system computer readable medium including ajob status table, a database table, and content files; and

code executed by the computational resources and implementing a first and second workers, wherein the code is executed to perform operations, the operations comprising;

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job by

(i) processing a template including queries of records in the database table;

(ii) accessing at least one value in a field in one customer record to include in one query from the template against the database table;

(iii) applying the query against the database table to determine a record associated with one content file and including fields matching the query;

(iv) accessing the content file associated with the determined record; and

(v) generating the content from the at least one accessed content file into the template, which forms the output material;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job; and

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first status is associated with the first worker and the second status is associated with the second worker, wherein the first and second workers further comprise means for querying the job status table to access all jobs having the status associated with the worker.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the executed code further comprise:

determining, with the first and second workers, whether an error occurred while processing the selected job;

setting, with the first and second workers, the status in the job status table for the selected job to an error status;

invoking an error worker if the selected job has the error status;

performing, with the error worker, error recovery operations for the selected job; and

setting, with the error worker, the status of the selected job to one of the first and second statuses after the error recovery operation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the code includes a supervisor program that processes the job status table and polls the job status table at predetermined intervals, wherein the supervisor program performs the operations of invoking the first and second workers, and wherein the supervisor program further processes every record in the job status table when performing the polling operation.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the code further includes an imposition worker and table of contents worker, wherein the supervisor program further performs operations comprising:

setting the job status to an imposition status and table of content status; and

invoking the imposition and table of content workers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one system computer readable medium comprises storage devices distributed in a network and wherein the code is implemented in a database workflow engine coupled to the network and capable of communicating with the storage devices over the network.

7. A workilow management system for creating and delivering output material, comprising:

computational resources;

at least one system computer readable medium including;

ajob status table;

a worker transition table including a plurality of records, each indicating an input worker, a completion state, an output worker, and an output state, wherein the input worker indicates the worker assigned to process the job, the completion state is a status indicated for the job after the input worker processes the job, the output worker is the worker that processes the job after having been processed by the input worker and resulting in the completion state, and the output state is the state to which the job status in the job status table is set, and wherein the job status table further indicates a current worker assigned to process the job;

code executed by the computational resources and implementing a first and second workers, wherein the code is executed to perform operations, the operations comprising;

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding ajob record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking a first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker by determining from the worker transition table one record having an input worker and completion state matching the current worker and the job status, respectively, and setting the status for the selected job to the output state and the current worker to the output worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job; and

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the code further causes operations comprising invoking the output worker after setting the job status to the output status.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein setting the status for the selected job after processing the job with one worker is performed by the worker that completed processing the job setting the completion status to a state indicating an outcome of processing the job.

10. A workilow management system for creating and delivering output material, comprising:

computational resources;

a system computer readable medium including a job status table; and

code executed by the computational resources and implementing a first worker, a second worker, and a data conditioning worker, wherein the code is executed to perform operations, the operations comprising;

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job;

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record;

setting the status to a third status after adding the job in the job status table;

invoking the data conditioning worker if the job status for the selected job is the third status;

processing, with the data conditioning worker, the customer record to determine whether at least one value satisfies at least one condition;

taking corrective actions, with the data conditioning worker, if the data in the customer record does not satisfy each condition; and

setting the status of the selected job to the first status if the data in the customer record satisfies each condition.

11. A workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, comprising:

computational resources;

a system computer readable medium including a job status table; and

code executed by the computational resources and implementing a first worker, a second worker, and an accounting worker, wherein the code is executed to perform operations, the operations comprising;

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job;

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record;

generating information on the output material;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a third status;

invoking an accounting worker if the job has the third status;

processing, with the accounting worker, the generated information on the output material to determine costs of generating the output material; and

generating, with the accounting worker, an invoice including the determined costs of the output material.

12. An article of manufacture for use in a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, the article of manufacture including code implemented in a computer readable medium, wherein the code implements a first worker and second worker, wherein the code is enabled to access ajob status table, a database table, and content files, and wherein the code is executed to perform operations comprising:

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding ajob record including a status field to the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job by;

(i) processing a template including queries of records in the database table;

(ii) accessing at least one value in a field in one customer record to include in one query from the template against the database table;

(iii) applying the query against the database table to determine a record associated with a file including fields matching the query;

(iv) accessing the one content file associated with the determined record; and

(v) generating the content from the at least one accessed content file into the template, which forms the output material;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job; and

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the first status is associated with the first worker and the second status is associated with the second worker, wherein the first and second workers farther cause querying the job status table to access all jobs having the status associated with the worker.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the code further implements an error worker, and wherein the operations farther comprise:

determining, with the first and second workers, whether an error occurred while processing the selected job;

setting, with the first and second workers, the status in the job status table for the selected job to an error status;

invoking the error worker if the selected job has the error status;

performing, with the error worker, error recovery operations for the selected job; and

setting, with the error worker, the status of the selected job to one of the first and second statuses after the error recovery operation.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the code further implements a supervisor program, wherein the job status table is processed by the supervisor program that polls the job status table at predetermined intervals, wherein the supervisor program invokes the first and second workers, and wherein the supervisor program processes every record in the job status table when performing the polling operation.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the code further implements an imposition worker and table of contents worker, wherein the supervisor program sets the job status to an imposition status and table of content status, and wherein the supervisor program invokes the imposition and table of content workers.

17. An article of manufacture for use in a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, the article of manufacture including code implemented in a computer readable medium, wherein the code implements a first worker and second worker, wherein the code is enabled to access ajob status table, and wherein the code is executed to perform operations comprising:

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

providing a worker transition table includes a plurality of records, each indicating an input worker, a completion state, an output worker, and an output state, wherein the input worker indicates the worker assigned to process the job, the completion state is a status indicated for the job after the input worker processes the job, the output worker is the worker that processes the job after having been processed by the input worker and resulting in the completion state, and the output state is the state to which the job status in the job status table is set, and wherein the job status table further indicates a current worker assigned to process the job;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker, wherein setting the status for the selected job in the job status table comprises determining from the worker transition table one record having an input worker and completion state matching the current worker and the job status, respectively, and setting the status for the selected job to the output state and the current worker to the output worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job; and

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise invoking the output worker after setting the job status to the output status.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein setting the status for the selected job after processing the job with one worker comprises the worker that completed processing the job setting the completion status to a state indicating an outcome of processing the job.

20. An article of manufacture for use in a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, the article of manufacture including code implemented in a computer readable medium, wherein the code implements a first worker, a second worker, and a data conditioning worker, wherein the code is enabled to access a job status table, and wherein the code is executed to perform operations comprising:

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to the job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job;

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record;

setting the status to a third status after adding the job in the job status table;

invoking the data conditioning worker if the job status for the selected job is the third status;

processing, with the data conditioning worker, the customer record to determine whether at least one value satisfies at least one condition;

taking corrective actions, with the data conditioning worker, if the data in the customer record does not satisfy each condition; and

setting the status of the selected job to the first status if the data in the customer record satisfies each condition.

21. An article of manufacture for use in a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material, the article of manufacture including code implemented in a computer readable medium, wherein the code implements a first worker, a second worker, and an accounting worker, wherein the code is enabled to access ajob status table, a database table, and content files, and wherein the code is executed to perform operations comprising:

generating a customer record to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record;

adding a job record including a status field to a job status table for the customer record;

setting the added job record status to a first status;

processing a selected job in the job status table;

invoking the first worker if the selected job has the first status;

generating, with the first worker, output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker;

invoking the second worker if the selected job has the second status;

determining, with the second worker, a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job;

transmitting, with the second worker, the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record;

generating information on the output material;

setting the status for the selected job in the job status table to a third status;

invoking the accounting worker if the job has the third status;

processing, with the accounting worker, the generated information on the output material to determine costs of generating the output material; and

generating, with the accounting worker, an invoice including the determined costs of the output material.