Composable action flows

• US 9,851,951 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Ganesan, Ramkumar, Totale, Sachin G., Suliman, Marwan, Paramala, Venugopal
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US14/136,316
• Time in Patent Office: 1,467 Days
• Field of Search: 717106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Composable action flows are disclosed. In various embodiments, a definition of one or more processing steps comprising an action flow is received. A definition of one or more transitions between processing steps comprising the action flow is received. The processing step and transition definitions are used to generate programmatically application code to implement the action flow.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a definition of one or more processing steps comprising an action flow, each of the one or more processing steps includes one or more substeps;

receiving a definition of one or more transitions between processing steps comprising the action flow, wherein the definition of one or more transitions includes for each of the one or more transitions an expression to be evaluated at runtime, wherein the action flow is configured to transition from a substep of a processing step of the one or more processing steps to a first substep of a different processing step of the one or more processing steps before each of the one or more substeps of the processing step is completed; and

using the processing step and transition definitions to generate programmatically application code to implement the action flow, wherein at runtime, the action flow transitions between the one or more processing steps in the event the expression satisfies a condition associated with a current processing step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the definition of the one or more processing steps includes a definition of an input to the action flow.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the definition of an input to the action flow specifies an expression or other logic to be evaluated at runtime to determine a value of the input to the action flow.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the input to the action flow includes one or more of the following:

an application context data, a session parameter, user context data, and other context data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the definition of the one or more processing steps includes a definition of an output of the action flow.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the definition of the output of the action flow specifies how the output of the action flow is to be provided.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the definition of the output of the action flow specifies that the output is to be provided as a payload of an application user interface event specified in the definition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the expression specifies a condition under which a transition is to occur.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the expression specifies a destination step to which the transition should be made.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the expression includes an argument comprising an application or other context data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the expression includes an argument comprising an application user interface event payload.

12. A system, comprising:

a data storage device; and

a processor coupled to the data storage device and configured to;

receive and store in the data storage device a definition of one or more processing steps comprising an action flow, each of the one or more processing steps includes one or more substeps;

receive and store in the data storage device a definition of one or more transitions between processing steps comprising the action flow, wherein the definition of one or more transitions includes for each of the one or more transitions an expression to be evaluated at runtime, wherein the action flow is configured to transition from a substep of a processing step of the one or more processing steps to a first substep of a different processing step of the one or more processing steps before each of the one or more substeps of the processing step is completed; and

use the processing step and transition definitions to generate programmatically application code to implement the action flow, wherein at runtime, the action flow transitions between the one or more processing steps in the event the expression satisfies a condition associated with a current processing step.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the data storage device comprises a memory device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the definition of the one or more processing steps includes a definition of an input to the action flow.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the definition of the input to the action flow specifies an expression or other logic to be evaluated at runtime to determine a value of the input to the action flow.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the expression specifies a condition under which a transition is to occur.

17. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving a definition of one or more processing steps comprising an action flow, each of the one or more processing steps includes one or more substeps;

receiving a definition of one or more transitions between processing steps comprising the action flow, wherein the definition of one or more transitions includes for each of the one or more transitions an expression to be evaluated at runtime, wherein the action flow is configured to transition from a substep of a processing step of the one or more processing steps to a first substep of a different processing step of the one or more processing steps before each of the one or more substeps of the processing step is completed; and

using the processing step and transition definitions to generate programmatically application code to implement the action flow, wherein at runtime, the action flow transitions between the one or more processing steps in the event the expression satisfies a condition associated with a current processing step.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the definition of the one or more processing steps includes a definition of an input to the action flow, wherein the definition of the input to the action flow specifies an expression or other logic to be evaluated at runtime to determine a value of an input to the action flow.