Distributed workflow framework
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsNelson Sampaio Araujo Junior, Roger S. Barga, Jared J. Jackson, Di Guo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to workflows. In aspects, an activity of a workflow may request data and provide a logical handle. In response, distributed workflow components use the logical handle to determine whether the requested data is available locally or remotely. If the data is available remotely, the components may obtain the data for the requesting entity. In the process of obtaining the data, the data may be serialized and deserialized. After the data is available locally, it is provided to the requesting entity.
Claims20
A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:
- receiving a request for data associated with a workflow, the request received in conjunction with a logical handle;
- using the logical handle to access a registry, the registry including information that indicates a location of the data, the logical handle associated with the information via the registry;
- determining, from the registry, whether the data is available locally or remotely, the data available locally if the data resides on one or more storage media of a node from which the request originates;
- and
- if the data is available remotely, obtaining the data and storing the data locally.
In a computing environment, an apparatus, comprising:
- a store that includes registry information regarding data of a workflow that is potentially distributed across a plurality of nodes, the registry information including location information that identifies one or more of the nodes from which the data is obtainable;
- a registry manager operable to provide access to the registry information;
- a data locator operable to access the registry information to determine a whether requested data is available locally or remotely, the requested data available locally if the data resides on one or more storage media of the apparatus;
- a data importer operable to obtain the data from a remote node if the data resides remotely.
A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising:
- receiving, from a node, a request for data, the data associated with a workflow, the workflow associated with a registry that includes records, the records having a logical handle field usable to locate workflow information about the data, the workflow information indicating whether the data is local or remote, the workflow information also indicating one or more nodes from which the data is obtainable, the workflow information including security information usable to determine whether a requester is allowed to send the request and further usable to provide the data over a secure connection;
- serializing the data into a stream;
- and
- sending the stream to the node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.