Apparatus and method for collecting and displaying information in a workflow system
First Claim
1. A method of displaying information relating to a workflow driven by a computer system comprising:
- executing the workflow made up of a sequence of a plurality of steps that are performed to process a transaction and collecting run-time execution data about the workflow, the workflow implementing business rules;
calculating run-time execution statistics relating to the execution of the workflow on the computer system using the run-time execution data;
displaying a workflow diagram of the workflow as a tree with vertices representing each of the steps in the sequence connected to each other to symbolically depict the business rules and how the rules handle events on a display screen associated with the computer system;
overlaying the execution statistics on the workflow diagram, wherein the execution statistics are for various steps displayed in the workflow diagram.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for extensible real-time workflows are described. The present invention allows a user of a transaction processing system, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool or an automatic call distribution (ACD), for example, to easily add new event sources without recompiling the core workflow server engine of the transaction processing system. The invention also supports features such as the adding of new services, the exchange of events and parameters with other systems, real-time collection and display of workflow statistical information, the use of a centralized configuration database, incremental loading and unloading of workflows and rules, and exception handling.
115 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of displaying information relating to a workflow driven by a computer system comprising:
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executing the workflow made up of a sequence of a plurality of steps that are performed to process a transaction and collecting run-time execution data about the workflow, the workflow implementing business rules; calculating run-time execution statistics relating to the execution of the workflow on the computer system using the run-time execution data; displaying a workflow diagram of the workflow as a tree with vertices representing each of the steps in the sequence connected to each other to symbolically depict the business rules and how the rules handle events on a display screen associated with the computer system; overlaying the execution statistics on the workflow diagram, wherein the execution statistics are for various steps displayed in the workflow diagram. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of collecting information relating to a workflow driven by a computer system comprising:
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executing the workflow made up of a sequence of steps that are performed to process a transaction and collecting run-time execution data about the workflow, the workflow implementing business rules; calculating execution statistics relating to the execution of the workflow on the computer system using the run-time execution data; displaying a workflow diagram of the workflow being executed on a display screen associated with the computer system; and overlaying the execution statistics on the workflow diagram, and wherein the workflow diagram is at least partially represented as a tree having vertices representing each of the steps in the sequence connected to each other with edges to symbolically depict the business rules and how the rules handle events. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of collecting information relating to a workflow driven by a computer system comprising:
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executing the workflow made up of a sequence of steps that are performed to process a transaction in real-time using a workflow engine and selecting independent of the workflow engine run-time execution data about the workflow, the workflow implementing business rules; calculating run-time execution statistics relating to the execution of the workflow on the computer system using the run-time execution data, wherein the run-time execution statistics includes the number of times a step in the workflow is executed; and displaying the execution statistics and a workflow diagram on a display screen associated with the computer system, wherein the workflow diagram is depicted as a plurality of connected vertices representing each of the steps in the sequence connected to each other with edges to symbolically depict the business rules and how the rules should handle events. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system, comprising:
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a workflow engine implementing business rules and executing a workflow made up of a sequence of steps that are performed to process a transaction; an overlay data provider which acquires run-time execution data about the workflow and calculates run-time execution statistics for the executing workflow; a workflow editor which presents a diagram having vertices representing each of the steps in the sequence connected to each other with edges to symbolically depict the business rules and how the rules handle the events on a display in connection with the executing workflow and simultaneously presents the run-time execution statistics in connection with the vertices on the display. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification