Automated workflow

#This invention relates to automated workflow.

#As computer applications have become more sophisticated, they have evolved from automation of single tasks, such as entry of a new sales order into a database, to automation of entire processes, such as routing of a new sales order through consecutive levels of approvals and then to the various functions necessary to produce, ship, and invoice that order. For example, a user knowledgeable in a business activity describes a process and associated tasks to be accomplished to a systems analyst, architect, or programmer. The user may use various tools, such as a scripting language or a graphical modeling language, to simplify generating this description for the systems analyst. From the description, the systems analyst builds a business application. This often results in application development efforts that are time-and resource-consuming due to, for example, a disconnect between the user who understands the business process but does not understand programming, and the systems analyst who understands programming and not the business process.

#In an aspect, the invention features a workflow method including specifying data sources and participants for a business process, integrating input and output forms for the business process, invoking a decision-tree based map using icons that represent elements of business rules that can be dragged and dropped into a graphical user interface workspace, and linking input from the input and output forms to dynamic variables within the decision-tree based map.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a graphical user interface (GUI).

#FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an automated workflow process.

#Referring to FIG. 1, a network 10 includes a client system 12, a web server 14 and an application server 16. In an example, the client system 12 is a personal computer, such as a desktop computer or laptop computer, capable of running desktop applications, such as those contained in Microsoft Office or Corel WordPerfect Office, in a Microsoft Windows® or Linux operating system (O/S).

#In general, a web server is a system that, using a client/server model and the World Wide Web's (web) Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), serves files that form web pages to web users whose computers, such as client system 12, contain HTTP clients that forward their requests. In general, an application server is a system having a server program and located in a network, such as network 10, which provides business logic for an application program. Communication between the client system 12 and the web server 14 is via HTTP. HTTP is the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on, for example, the web. Relative to the TCP/IP suite of protocols (which are the basis for information exchange on the Internet), HTTP is an application protocol.

#Communication between the web server 14 and the application server 16 is, for example, Remote Method Invocation (RMI). RMI is a way that a programmer, using the Java® programming language and development environment from Sun Microsystems, Inc., writes object-oriented programming in which objects on different computers may interact in a distributed network. RMI is a Java® version of what is generally known as a remote procedure call (RPC), but with an ability to pass one or more objects along with the request. An object may include information that changes a service that is performed in a remote computer.