Document controlled workflow systems and methods
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsDavid G. Stork, Robert van Glabbeek
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Abstract
The document controlled workflow techniques are provided that can be represented by refinable Petri nets. A document may contain a control code that indicates to the document controlled workflow system to implement specified operations (i.e., functions) at a refinable place. The operations implemented at the refinable place are determined by the control code in the document. An author of the document can customize a document controlled workflow system of the present invention by entering a control code into a document that triggers the implementation of operations customized to that particular document at a refinable place in the document workflow system. The operations specified by a control code in a document can be represented by a refinement network.
Claims26
A method for implementing a document workflow system that can be represented by a Petri net, the method comprising:
- determining if a document contains a control code at a refinable place in the Petri net, the control code including a refinement network;
- replacing the refinable place with the refinement network and processing the document using the refinement network only if the document contains the control code;
- and
- deleting the refinement network after the document has been processed using the refinement network and recreating the replaced refinable place.
A method for processing a document in a document workflow system that can be represented by a Petri network, the method comprising:
- determining if the document contains a control code when the document reaches a refinable place in the Petri net;
- and
- if the document contains the control code:
- replacing the refinable place with a refinement network that is included in the control code,
- deleting the control code in the document,
- processing the document using the refinement network,
- deleting the refinement network, and
- recreating the refinable place that was replaced by the refinement network.
A computer program product embodied on a tangible computer readable storage medium for processing a document in a document workflow system represented by a Petri network, the computer program product comprising:
- code for determining if the document contains a first control code at a first refinable place in the Petri net, the control code including a refinement network;
- code for replacing the first refinable place with the first refinement network if the document contains the first control code;
- code for executing the first refinement network on the document if the document contains the first control code;
- and
- code for deleting the refinement network and for recreating the replaced refinable place.
A system for processing a document in a workflow system represented by a Petri net, the system comprising:
- a first module for determining if the document contains a control code at a refinable place in the Petri network, the control code including a refinement network;
- a second module for replacing the refinable place with a refinement network if the document contains the control code;
- a third module for processing the document using the refinement network if the document contains the control code;
- a fourth module for recreating the arcs in the refinable place and deleting the refinement network after the third module is executed;
- a processor;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store the first, second, third modules, and fourth modules for execution by the processor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.