Policy-driven mobile forms applications

A method for defining and enforcing automatic routing rules to define a business process workflow for enterprise mobile applications, the workflow including routing and integrating form data across multiple client devices across an enterprise including the multiple client devices and an enterprise content source, comprising:

• defining, via a mobile-forms application designer, a mobile-forms application-definition file that defines a mobile forms application by providing, (i) a mobile forms application definition markup language, (ii) an extensible-markup-language-based policy model that applies to one or more data instances created by a first client device that are to be automatically managed via access and routing states and specifies the business process workflow including state attributes for devices and events triggered by a change in state resulting in the routing of the data instance to a second client device, (iii) role information specifying one or more targeted user groups to deploy the mobile-forms application-definition file and the associated data instances based on access and routing states, and (iv) a transport engine to distribute of the forms-based application to the targeted user groups;
• determining the automatic routing rules for the business process workflow by reading, via a business process engine proxy, the mobile-forms application-definition file for the specified routing information and associated extensible-markup-language-based policy model;
• and
• enforcing, via a policy-based content management engine, the routing rules determined based on the mobile-forms application-definition file, wherein the deployment, form interaction, routing, and management of the mobile forms application is automatically performed by the policy-based content management engine based on the policy model defined by the mobile-forms application-definition file;
• and wherein the routing includes using the transport engine to transmit mobile-forms applications and definition files through a transport layer over an intermittent network during periods of intermittent network connections between the first client device and the second client device in accordance with the policy model.

A method for recognizing data superimposed on a paper form comprising:

• scanning a paper based form to create a paper-based form template;
• capturing the location of a form data instance element overlaid on the paper-based form template;
• capturing the size of a form data instance element overlaid on the paper-based form template;
• creating an input field based on the location and size of the form data instance element;
• linking the paper-based form template to an application data model;
• populating the paper-based form template with mobile-forms application data for a specific data instance in the input field;
• associating policies and actions to the paper-based form template to define workflow information;
• and
• automatically routing the paper-based form template to multiple devices in an enterprise in accordance with the policies and actions defined by the workflow information, the routing including using a transport engine to transmit the form template through a transport layer over an intermittent network during periods of intermittent network connections between the multiple devices in accordance with the policies and actions.

A system for capturing data via an extensible markup language form, comprising:

• a data input device for receiving one or more mobile-form application definition files;
• a memory storage device storing the one or more mobile-form application definition files;
• a policy-based mobile content engine operated on a controller adapted to process a plurality of mobile-forms application definitions from one or more mobile-forms application definition files, the policy-based mobile content engine being adapted to translate the plurality of mobile-forms application definitions into policies and actions, the policy-based mobile content engine being adapted to enforce the policies and actions that have been translated;
• a mobile-forms application client residing on a first mobile user device having a plurality of rendering engines each targeted for a different type of mobile user device, the rendering engines utilizing a forms application definition markup language to render form controls and to process the forms-based application based on multi-media hardware of the different types of mobile user device, the mobile-forms application client being operable on the different types of mobile user devices and being adapted to capture the data in multi-media formats using the multi-media hardware on the mobile user devices, as one or more form data instances, both online or offline as an extensible-markup-language document;
• and
• a transport engine adapted to transport mobile-forms applications, and definition files through a transport layer over an intermittent network during periods of intermittent network connections between the policy-based mobile content engine and the mobile-forms application client, wherein the first mobile user device creates a mobile-form data instance with captured data and the transport engine sends the mobile-form data instance to a second device in a routing sequence in accordance with the policies and actions.