Patent Grant
7784025
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to service processes. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of processlets to model service processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Business analysts, as well as line-of-business managers, are often responsible for designing and developing new business process models, or adapting existing models, to improve how their companies do business. With process models in place, a well-defined interface is established to identify and transform business processes into service-oriented applications.
Business process modeling tools enable business analysts to model, simulate, and analyze complex business processes quickly and effectively. The term “business process” does not necessarily imply that a business practice is performed. A “business process” is a service proves that provides some service for a requesting application, a user or a customer. For example, a business process may perform machine translation, digital certificate authentication, alphabetic or numeric sorting, or any other useful function.
Business process modeling tools:
Many business processes can be very complex and modeling of the business processes is often restricted by the tools that allow the modeling of these processes. Some current visual tools, such as IBM Rational ROSE, WBI Modeler, and Microsoft Visio, go beyond the basic flowchart for a computer program and allow the modeling of processes. Several companies are agreeing on the use of business process execution language (BPEL) as the standard meta-language for modeling business processes. The use of the business process execution language results in executable code being generated.
Processlets are processes components that are used in modeling service process flows. A processlet is to a process as an applet is to an application or a servlet is to a server. A processlet is a process segment that has semi-independent existence. That is, a processlet has well-defined entry and exit points and the processlet's entry point may be exposed using a Web service interface and, the processlet shares these characteristics with the whole process. A process is made up of several processlets. A process accomplishes a business task and it can be instantiated concurrently to run several business tasks. Processlets are not instantiated outside of the process. Also, several other things like status reporting, versioning, and identification with a business task are all done at the process level and not at a processlet level.
However, no library of business processes and business process flows exist as such a library would require the software solution provider to expose the entire business process implementation. In order to provide such a solution, providers currently ship only one executable file or a set of executable files that work only within a given runtime or the providers ship a Software Development Kit (SDK) which provides more details on building solutions.
A drawback to such solutions, are that customization is not easy and can be very brittle, a small change may call for the entire project to be rebuilt, and output for a solution may be an extensive executable or a set of related executable files.
The different aspects of the present invention provide a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable code for using read-only process components to model service processes. A user input is received in an attempt to establish a connection from a selected read-only process component to a previously selected read-only process component. In response to receiving the user input, verification is performed as to whether the connection is a valid connection. A service model is built using the set of read-only process components in response to all connections being valid. Executable code is generated for the service process based on the service model.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention provides for the use of processlets to model service processes. Processlets are processes components that are used in modeling service process flows. A processlet is to a process as an applet is to an application or a servlet is to a server. A processlet is a process segment that has semi-independent existence. That is, a processlet has well-defined entry and exit points and the processlet's entry point may be exposed using a Web service interface and, the processlet shares these characteristics with the whole process. A process is made up of several processlets. A process accomplishes a business task and it can be instantiated concurrently to run several business tasks. Processlets are not instantiated outside of the process. Also, several other things like status reporting, versioning, and identification with a business task are all done at the process level and not at a processlet level.
In the many aspects of the present invention, customers are provided with processlets, however, the detailed steps within the processlet is hidden from the customer to protect intellectual property. Customers may only mix and match processlets to form their processes, and not the individual steps within a processlet. Thus, a processlet is a read-only process component of a process.
With reference now to the figures,
In the depicted example, server 104 and server 106 connect to network 102 along with storage unit 108. In addition, clients 110, 112, and 114 connect to network 102. These clients 110, 112, and 114 may be, for example, personal computers or network computers. In the depicted example, server 104 provides data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to clients 110, 112, and 114. Clients 110, 112, and 114 are clients to server 104 in this example. Network data processing system 100 may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown.
In the depicted example, network data processing system 100 is the Internet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers, consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, network data processing system 100 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN).
With reference now to
In the depicted example, data processing system 200 employs a hub architecture including north bridge and memory controller hub (MCH) 202 and south bridge and input/output (I/O) controller hub (ICH) 204. Processing unit 206, main memory 208, and graphics processor 210 are connected to north bridge and memory controller hub 202. Graphics processor 210 may be connected to north bridge and memory controller hub 202 through an accelerated graphics port (AGP).
In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 connects to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204. Audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem 222, read-only memory (ROM) 224, hard disk drive (HDD) 226, CD-ROM drive 230, universal serial bus (USB) ports and other communications ports 232, and PCI/PCIe devices 234 connect to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 238 and bus 240. PCI/PCIe devices may include, for example, Ethernet adapters, add-in cards and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card bus controller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flash binary input/output system (BIOS).
Hard disk drive 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 connect to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 240. Hard disk drive 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 may use, for example, an integrated drive electronics (IDE) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface. Super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be connected to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204.
An operating system runs on processing unit 206 and coordinates and provides control of various components within data processing system 200 in
As a server, data processing system 200 may be, for example, an IBM eServer™ pSeries® computer system, running the Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX®) operating system or LINUX operating system (eServer, pSeries and AIX are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both while Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both). Data processing system 200 may be a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system including a plurality of processors in processing unit 206. Alternatively, a single processor system may be employed.
Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive 226, and may be loaded into main memory 208 for execution by processing unit 206. The processes for embodiments of the present invention are performed by processing unit 206 using computer usable program code, which may be located in a memory such as, for example, main memory 208, read-only memory 224, or in one or more peripheral devices 226 and 230.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in
In some illustrative examples, data processing system 200 may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is configured with flash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data.
A bus system may be comprised of one or more buses, such as bus 238 or bus 240 as shown in
The different aspects of the present invention provide for using processlets or read-only process components to model business processes. The term “business process” does not necessarily imply that a business practice is performed. A “business process” is a service proves that provides some service for a requesting application, a user or a customer. For example, a business process may perform machine translation, digital certificate authentication, alphabetic or numeric sorting, or any other useful function. User input is received in an attempt to establish a connection from a selected read-only process component to a previously selected read-only process component. In response to receiving the user input, verification is performed as to whether the connection is a valid connection. In response to all connections being valid, a business model is then built using the set of read-only process components and executable code is generated for the business process based on the business model.
Read-only process components 310 are process components that, when properly ordered, are wired together using a late-binding approach. Read-only process components 310 may be supplied without the source code, thus, the intellectual property may be preserved by the builder. A late-binding approach postpones the use of timing assumptions until the last steps of an application's design. Component-based approaches, such as the late-binding approach, may be used to develop software on top of middleware. Therefore, components may be created whose properties may be proved independently of the timing properties of the environment in which they will be plugged. Timeliness requirements have to be considered as late as possible during timing and scheduling analysis.
Read-only process components 310 may be in the form of any type of programming language, such as Web services description language (WSDL) or business process execution language (BPEL). As an exemplary aspect of the present invention, read-only process components 310 are in the form of Web services description language files, which are read-only process components, and process execution language files, which may be modified by a user. Read-only process components 310 also have associated properties and descriptions defining the service description of each read-only process component. The properties and descriptions of read-only process components 310 are provided to the user through application programming interface 304. The properties of read-only process components 310 also define how the read-only process component is wired and how it may be wired to other read-only process components. The properties associated with read-only process components 310 are the basis for wiring read-only process components 310 together and for errors that may be generated in attempting to tie read-only process components to each other.
As each read-only process component is selected and placed in the user's desired order, a connection is made between the previously placed read-only process component and the currently selected read-only process component. As the connection is attempted, verification is made as to whether the attempted connection is a proper connection (step 408). Verification of the connection is performed on the definitions within the properties of the read-only process components. The definitions may be input/output message types in an extensible markup language (XML) schema definition (XSD) and/or Web services description language (WSDL) port types. This type of verification ensures whether two components may be plugged together or not. Verification may be in the form of presenting the user with a visual or audible indication the connection is proper or incorrect. Exemplary visual indications may be a connection line changing colors or a text box popping up and exemplary audible indications may be “beep” or “ding”, although any type of indication may be provided. If the read-only process component is not possible of being connected to the previously placed read-only process component (step 410), then an error is returned to the user (step 412). The error may be presented to the user in the form of any type of text presentation, such as a pop-up text box or a pop-up balloon text.
If the read-only process component is capable of being connected to the previously placed read-only process component (step 410), then the read-only process component is connected to the previously placed read-only process component (step 414). A determination is then made as to whether more read-only process components are to be placed (step 416). As an example, this determination may be through the use of a pop-up text block that prompts the user if the service modeling has been completed or through the user selecting another read-only process component. If another read-only process component is to be placed (step 416), the operation returns to step 406. If no other read-only process component is to be placed (step 416), the operation proceeds to verify the newly created service process model (step 418).
In verifying the newly created service process model, the service process modeler uses standard service practices to ensure that the newly created service process model as modeled will operate. The standard service practices are using the Web services standards. The newly created service process model is compared against the standard services practices by comparing each service component operation. However, verification of a service process model only validates the service process model will operate; it does not ensure that the service process model operates as the user intends. If the newly created service process model operates incorrectly based on the standard service practices (step 420), then an error is returned to the user (step 412). If the newly created service process model operates correctly based on the standard service practices (step 420), then the user is prompted to verify the newly created service process model operates as the user intends (step 422).
If the user does not approve the newly created service process model (step 424), then an error is returned to the user (step 412). If the user approves the newly created service process model (step 424), then executable code is generated based on the newly created service process model (step 426), with the operation ending thereafter.
In order to exemplify a business process,
An order number is created and associated with the customer's order (step 514). The order number is returned to the customer, which acknowledged that the order has been accepted (step 516). Finally, the order is dispatched to be filled (step 518), with the operation ending thereafter. The business process flow described in
Menu area 604 shows that read-only process components 608 that are available for modeling by the user. Exemplary read-only process components 608 of menu area 604 are shown as “Receive”, “Review”, “Validate”, “Accept”, “Create Order #”, “Dispatch”, and “Return Order #”, although any read-only process component may be provided in menu area 604. Modeling area 606 may be any type of area within the graphical user interface, such as a drawing area or whiteboard area. Modeling area 606 is the area where the user is able to place read-only process components selected by the user from menu area 604. Modeling area 606 depicts business process model 610 that is an exemplary model created using read-only process components 608 from menu area 604. Business process model 610 depicts a simple business process flow where the various read-only process components are connected in a direct flow.
As an additional inventive aspect of the present invention, supplemental message 806 is also presented to user. Supplemental message 806 is a help message in which a suggestion is made to the user of possible read-only process components that may be placed after read-only process component “Create”. Supplemental message 806 is an exemplary message and any type of message may be presented to the user. Supplemental message 806 is a message presented to the user based upon standard business practices to ensure that the newly created business process model as modeled will operate.
Thus, the different aspects of the present invention provide a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable code for using read-only process components to model service processes. User input is received in an attempt to establish a connection from a selected read-only process component to a previously selected read-only process component. In response to receiving the user input, verification is performed as to whether the connection is a valid connection. A service model is built using the set of read-only process components in response to all connections being valid and, executable code is generated for the service process based on the service model.
The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In an illustrative embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.
Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any tangible apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The medium can be (1) a computer-readable medium including an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or (2) a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk—read-only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
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