An information processing system for executing a sequence of processes using electronic data, the information processing system including one or more information processing apparatuses for implementing various functions of the information processing system, the information processing system comprising:
- a program storage configured to store, for each predetermined function, a program group including at least one first program for providing the predetermined function and one or more second programs for executing a predetermined process for implementing the predetermined function in response to a process execution request from the at least one first program;
- an application information storage configured to store, for each application for executing the sequence of processes, identification information for identifying the application and sequence-related information relating to the sequence of processes in association with each other, the sequence-related information defining the one or more second programs for executing each of the predetermined processes included in the sequence of processes;
- a processor that is configured to:
- accept a request from a device among one or more devices coupled to the information processing system, the request including the identification information and electronic data-related information relating to the electronic data to be used for executing the sequence of processes;
- and
- execute the sequence of processes using the electronic data based on the electronic data-related information included in the request, the sequence of processes being executed as each of the first programs, which corresponds to one of the one or more second programs defined in the sequence-related information stored in the application information storage in association with the identification information included in the request, makes the process execution request to the corresponding one of the one or more second programs to execute the predetermined process, said at least one first program functioning as a component that is configured to generate an operation and request the operation to execute a process of the operation, and execute for executing one or more processes that are common to the one or more second programs, and said one or more second programs functioning as operations that are generated by the component for executing processes that are unique to each of the one or more second programs,
- wherein the one or more second programs that are defined as one process flow in the sequence-related information include a program for executing a process relating to an external service,
- wherein the program for executing the process relating to the external service includes at least a program for executing a process of uploading the electronic data to the external service and a program for executing a process of downloading the electronic data from the external service,
- wherein the information processing system further comprises an external service cooperating unit including, for each of the external services, a common application programming interface (API) commonly defined for a plurality of the external services, and a unique API uniquely defined for each of the external services, and
- wherein the program for executing the process relating to the external service executes the process relating to the external service by using the common API or the unique API;
- and
- wherein the processor is further configured to:
- generate both the at least one first program and the one or more second programs when executing each process of the sequence of processes.