Method and system for event management in business processes

#The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce information technology. More specifically, the present invention pertains to an electronic commerce information management system for delivering business data and services.

#The use of the Internet for electronic commerce and for information retrieval has rapidly proliferated in today's modern world. Hundreds of Internet sites and Web portals are constantly accessed by millions of users for obtaining information, news, entertainment, and the like, via the World Wide Web. Many aspects of everyday life are becoming electronically information based, and the access, control, and the use of such electronic information, through the use of various types of electronic devices, is never far from hand. For example, a desktop computer allows access to banking functions (e.g., checking, bill paying, etc.), shopping (e.g., groceries, clothing, etc.), the weather, and virtually any other need of an individual.

#As described above, the emergence of the Internet is changing many aspects of modern life. However, no area is undergoing as rapid and significant changes as the manner in which businesses operate. Today, large and small companies are using the Web to communicate with their partners, to connect with their back-end systems, and to perform electronic commerce transactions. Users will soon witness the evolution of today's e-business and e-commerce into e-services. Examples of e-services are stock trading, customized newspapers, real-time traffic report, or itinerary planning.

#The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention:

#FIG. 1 shows a diagram depicting different types of events in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the steps of a process in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the embodiments described below, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of embodiments of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures,. components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention.

#Embodiments of the present invention provide a comprehensive model and architecture that enables the delivery of value-added E-business services by extending traditional composition model with a rich and flexible event model. Embodiments of the present invention provide a solution that supports the specification, deployment, and management of composite e-services, i.e., of e-services that are carried out by invoking several other basic or composite services. Embodiments of the present invention is a solution that provides the service developer with a simple, easy to use, yet powerful mechanism for defining services by composing basic ones.

#For example, in one embodiment, an event management method for a computer implemented business process system is implemented. The method includes the step of providing a plurality of events (and other steps) for representing many aspects of a business process, the business process implemented by progressing through the events sequentially, in parallel, or conditionally. A plurality of event nodes are provided for the business process, the event nodes defining points in the progress of the business process for communicating with an external process to exchange information or to synchronize the execution. The business process is executed by executing its steps, which may include event nodes. Events can be classified into state change events, error events, application events, and temporal events. The event nodes can be request nodes and publish nodes. The computer implemented process and even definition can be XML (extensible markup language) based.