Abstract:
A flexible metadata driven and workflow based report generation system is disclosed. According to various embodiments, the system comprises at least one client application on a client terminal and a report manager system. The client application allows a user to run a report from a user interface having the flexibility to choose various parameters that affect the content of the generated report. The report manager system comprises a metadata service and a workflow controller service. The metadata service is for retrieving report metadata (report name, parameter(s) and their parameter values) to be displayed on the user interface to allow the user to choose parameter values and run a report job. The controller is for receiving messages from the client terminal upon submission of a report job and, based on the received messages, sending messages to one or more service components for executing the report job in a sequence of determined discrete steps. A report workflow defines the steps to be invoked in the execution of a report and is stored in tables in a database accessible via the metadata service. The services components may include data accessors, formatting services, language translation services, bundling services, distribution services and/or scheduling services.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The present invention generally concerns information technology systems and, more particularly, systems for generating, formatting, scheduling, packaging, and distributing reports or extracts (data feeds). 
         [0002]    The financial services industry relies heavily on reports and reporting services/systems as an important medium for communicating with clients and potential clients. The reports might communicate time critical information about investments, including a fund/portfolio performance, present market value, a summary of gains/losses, and other information in a user-friendly way. 
         [0003]    The typical challenge faced by designers of large scale enterprise reporting systems in the financial services industry is trying to integrate a mixture of commercial vendor applications with home grown applications so that reporting can be done in flexible and scalable ways. Other challenges relate to licensing and scalability. Such reporting applications can range from ordinary spreadsheet based applications, to exclusive vendor report formatting applications (e.g., Crystal reports), to in-house applications. Such multi-application, multi-vendor approaches can be expensive, inflexible, and difficult to administer and maintain. Accordingly, an improved system is needed. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0004]    In one general aspect, various embodiments of the present invention are directed to an enterprise-level, metadata-driven, workflow-based reporting system for generating and managing reports. A report is an organized collection of data formatted for viewing or printing in a user-friendly way. According to various embodiments, the system includes a report manager system (RMS) in communication with a number of client applications running on user terminals. The client terminals may use a flexible, metadata-driven client (front-end) application (internet based or not) that allows users to choose a set of reports from a menu driven interface. The system entitlements allow different people/groups to view their own view of allowed reports. For one or multiple reports chosen, the interface then shows the various reporting parameters (such as dates, flags for formatting, account lists, product lists, etc.) that can be applied to each of the reports. All the parameters (checkboxes/list boxes/combo boxes/date controls, etc.) and their values displayed are metadata driven. Consequently, practically any report that has parameters that drive its generation can be added to the system without having to change the client application. A report creator/administrator can easily setup a new report and its associated parameter information using a tool which will then update a database which the client application taps into. Hence, the reporting interface may be flexible such that it can be used for any kind of report in any kind of business need. 
         [0005]    The client application may also let a user create and save report jobs. A report job is a collection of one or more reports and all their respective parameter values that might be used on a repeated basis. A job allows a user of the client application to come back in another session and quickly run a previously setup job without having to remember all the prior parameter values. A job can be saved under a user-selected name, and can be scheduled to run at a later time and/or on a repeated, periodic schedule. The job schedules can depend on global regional time zones and/or depend on trigger events. A job can also be used to bundle reports together as a report package in a custom order. In addition, the RMS may deliver the completed reports via a variety of distribution means, including email, fax, ftp, web link, file system drop etc. Also, different file formats, such as PDF, Excel, TXT, CSV, Word, PS, etc. can be used for the output formats. A job&#39;s run history and details may also be viewable from the user interface display. 
         [0006]    The RMS may be implemented as an architecture having a repertoire of flexible and scalable servers that provide services which collaborate together to make a typical reporting life cycle possible. A report workflow (which may define a lifetime of a report from start to end) may conceptually be broken down into one or more optional discrete tasks chained together to achieve a reporting activity. Some of the core reporting components used to execute the workflow steps are one or many data accessors (programs that let the RMS obtain data from databases/other data provider services/files), formatting services (responsible for all the formatting, colors, graphs shown on the reports), bundling/packaging services, distribution services (Fax, Email, FTP, SSL, Internet publishing), scheduling services, etc. The RMS may also provide a metadata service that provides the list of report names and their parameters to show on the client application, and a job manager service that can be instructed to save a job or retrieve and load the user&#39;s report parameters from saved jobs (stored in a database) based on the user&#39;s entitlements. The RMS may also include one or more fault tolerant, metadata-driven workflow controller services to coordinate a report&#39;s execution in order to generate a report in the system. The system also allows additional services like a language translation service of report data using a dictionary based lookup service to any foreign languages or between two different language contexts within the same language. The RMS can be adapted to handle multiple client requests simultaneously in a transport independent (e.g., HTTP/MQ/TCP) way. Also, the RMS can be scaled up and load balanced using a router. 
     
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0007]    Various embodiments of the present invention are described herein by way of example in conjunction with the following figures, wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of a workflow-based and metadata-driven reporting system according to various embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0009]      FIGS. 2-15  display portions of the user interfaces according to various embodiments of the present invention; and 
           [0010]      FIG. 16  is a flowchart illustrating operational details of the system according to various embodiments of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of a workflow-based and metadata-driven reporting system  10  according to various embodiments of the present invention. The system  10  includes a report manager system (RMS)  12  in communication with one or more client terminals  14 . The RMS  12  may be implemented as an architecture of one or a number of distributed networked computing devices, such as PCs, servers, workstations, etc., programmed to run, format and distribute reports requested by users of the system  10 . A user, as described in more detail below, may define a report job for execution by the RMS  12  using the client terminal  14 . The client terminal  14  may be implemented, for example, as a computing device, such as a PC, laptop or workstation, in communication with the RMS  12  via a data network (not shown), such as, for example, a LAN, a WAN, etc. In  FIG. 1 , only one client terminal  14  is shown, although it should be recognized that the RMS  12  may be in communication with numerous client terminals located throughout an enterprise. Further, in certain embodiments, the RMS  12  can simultaneously communicate with the multiple client terminals in a transport independent way. For example, the communications between the RMS  12  and the client terminals may employ the HTTP, MQ and/or TCP communication protocols. The communication could be either synchronous (the client application waits to get responses back) or asynchronous (e.g., the client receives responses that are published by the RMS as and when they get published). 
         [0012]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the RMS  12  may include one or more fault tolerant, metadata-driven workflow controller services  20  (sometimes referred to herein as a “controller”). A workflow control service is a software application executed by a computer for controlling and coordinating execution of a report&#39;s various execution steps to generate a completed report. Only one controller  20  is shown in  FIG. 1  for purposes of simplicity. Also, the RMS  12  may include a job manager service  22  and a job database  24 . Report jobs defined and stored by the user at the client terminal  14 , the process of which is described in more detail below, may result in job definition instructions being stored in the job database  24 . At run time, which may be triggered by either a real-time run request from the user or a scheduler  26  for scheduled reports in a batched mode, the job manager  22  may retrieve the parameters for the report job and communicate them to the controller  20  for execution. Also, the job manager  22  can retrieve the parameters from the job database  24  for a previously saved/created job when a user, via the client terminal  14 , chooses to edit or otherwise view the settings/parameters for the previously created job. 
         [0013]    When a user initiates a report session at the client terminal  14 , the client terminal  14  may make a request to either a metadata service  30  or the job manager  22 , based on the mode of use of the user. The metadata service  30  is a software application executed on a computer that may provision a continuously running process. The metadata service  30  has associated with it a metadata database  32 . The metadata database  32  may include one or multiple tables that together include reports, associated parameters for the reports, default values for the parameters, and the workflow steps (the steps that the must be invoked for execution of the report) for reports. When, for example, a user logs on in a client session, the metadata service  30  may query the metadata database  32  to determine the reports that the user is entitled to based on the user&#39;s entitlements, the parameters that the reports need, and the default values for the parameters, and communicates that data back to the client terminal  14 . This data is used by the client application at the client terminal  14  when the user chooses, via the user interface at the client terminal  14 , to run a report(s) or save a report job. If the user selects to edit or otherwise view the parameters for a previously-defined report job, the job manager  22  may retrieve the relevant parameters (e.g., dates etc.) from the job database  24  and communicate the data back to the client terminal  14 . 
         [0014]    The workflow controller service  20 , the metadata service  30  and the job manager service  22  may be implemented as one or a number of computing devices (e.g., PCs, servers, mainframes, etc.) programmed to provide the services. According to one embodiment, one instance of the combination of the metadata service  30 , the job manager service  22  and the controller  20  may be implemented on a common computer device(s). According to other embodiments, each service may be provided by a separate computer device(s). 
         [0015]    The system  10  may also include one or more computers running an administrative front end application  34  (referred to sometimes as an “administrative application”) for administering a new report setup by communicating with the metadata service  30 . The metadata administrative application  34  may be used to, for example, provision the metadata database  32 . For example, if a new type of report is needed or new parameters are needed for a report, the metadata database  32  may be provisioned to include data for the new reports or parameters. In that way, when a new report type or updated parameters are needed, the metadata database  32  can be provisioned to include this metadata for one or more users of the system  10 . The metadata database  32  may also be provisioned with information about a report&#39;s workflow, i.e., the various steps needed to chain together to successfully execute a report processing job. Thus, the administrative application  34  can be used to create a new report or parameter, or update the metadata for existing reports and parameters of the system  10 . 
         [0016]    For redundancy purposes, the RMS  12  may include multiple controllers  20 , multiple job managers  22 , multiple metadata services  30 , etc., although only one of each is shown in  FIG. 1  for purposes of simplicity. For this reason, the RMS  12  may include a router  36 , which may provide load balancing for the multiple instances of the RMS architecture. For example, if one of the controllers  20  goes down, the router  36  may route job request traffic from the client terminal(s)  14  to available controllers, job managers, metadata service engines, etc. Also, the router  36  may provide a single point of reference for the RMS  12 . That is, for example, the client terminals  14  need only communicate with the RMS  12  using the physical IP address for the router port, rather than establishing separate communication sessions with the job manager  22 , metadata service  30  or the controller  20 . That way, as long as the messages from the client terminals  14  have a tag indicating the address of the destination of the message, such as to the job manager  22 , metadata service  30  or the controller  20 , the router  36  can appropriately route the incoming messages. One advantage of this arrangement is that the client terminal  14  does not need to be made aware of changes in the address for the job manager  22 , metadata services  30  or the controller  20 , for example. 
         [0017]    The controller  20  may be in communication with a number of components/adapters of the RMS  12  that communicate with data sources external to the system and other applications for purposes of running, formatting, bundling and distributing the reports. For example, the RMS  12  may include a data access adapter  40  that communicates with external data services  42  and databases  44 , for example, to obtain the data needed for the requested reports. The data access adapter  40  may also store the job-relevant data in files (such as flat or XML files) or in a staging database  46  for use in other future workflow steps of the report generation process. The data for a particular report job may be stored with an associated, unique job run code. In that way, other report services can locate and use the appropriate data for a particular report job by using the data associated with the job run code for the specific job in a future workflow step. In other words, a unique run code/identifier links together the various workflow steps together for a report run. 
         [0018]    The RMS  12  may also include a language translator adapter  50 . The language translator adapter  50  may interface with a dictionary look-up application  52  to translate the report into various languages, as requested by the user in creating the report. 
         [0019]    The RMS  12  may also include a format adapter  60  for interfacing with one or more report formatting applications  62 . The report formatting applications  62  may format the job relevant data, stored in, for example, files or the staging database  46 , according to an output format specified by the user at the client terminal  14  and communicated to the report formatting applications  62  by the controller  20 . For example, the report formatting applications  62  may use the following output formats: Crystal report files, spreadsheet (e.g., EXCEL) files, PDF files, text (TXT) files, word processing (e.g., Word) files, postscript (PS) files, etc. The RMS  12  allows for scalability in the number of adapters. The type of formatting applications can be augmented. For instance, another type of formatter might be responsible for handling data feed formatting using a different application. 
         [0020]    The RMS  12  may also include a bundling adapter  70  in communication with a bundling application  72 . The bundling application  72  may bundle multiple reports into one bundled report, and in a particular order, pursuant to the report creation parameters input by the user, as discussed in more detail below. 
         [0021]    The RMS  12  may also include a distribution adapter  80  for interfacing with distribution systems  82  that distribute the final report. For example, the reports may be directed to various printers or fax machines for hard-copy print outs of the reports. Also, the reports may be distributed by an email system to various email recipients. Also, the final reports may be transferred as a file to a recipient over a data transfer network using, for example, FTP. 
         [0022]    For purposes of simplicity, only one instance of each component/adapter is shown in  FIG. 1 , although it should be recognized that multiple instances of the components/adapters may be used. A second router  88  may be used for load balancing of multiple instances of the components/adapters. Also, according to various embodiments, the routing functions of the two routers  36 ,  88  may be handled by a single router. 
         [0023]    The client terminal  14  may include a client application  90 . The client application  90  may provide a graphical user display window, e.g., a GUI, for a user of the client terminal  14  to define, save and run report jobs. The application  90  may or may not be based on an internet browser. The client application  90  may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor (not shown) of the client terminal  14  using any suitable computer instruction type such as, for example, Java, C, C++, Visual Basic, Pascal, Fortran, SQL, etc., using, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The client code might reside on the user&#39;s desktop or might be accessible over the network. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer readable medium. In other embodiments, the client application  90  may be stored on a remote server, and the client terminal  14  may execute the application through a browser application. 
         [0024]    After initiating the client application  90 , the user may first log in by entering a user ID and password. A start up menu may provide the user with a number of options, such as creating new report jobs, modifying the parameters of existing report jobs, scheduling report jobs, or running report jobs.  FIG. 2  is a screen shot of a portion of a user-interface display window  100  according to various embodiments of the present invention that allows a user to create a new report job. In the “Available Extracts/Reports” drop-down window field  102 , the user may select the category of report(s) for the new job, such as Advisor reports, Board reports, Pos Extracts reports, Positions reports, Transactions reports, etc, for example. Other categories of reports could be defined by the system administrator. By selecting “All,” the user may select all of the report categories. This selection choice may be useful for administrative purposes. 
         [0025]    The selections available to the user in the job-creation mode may be based on the entitlements of the user. For example, certain users may only be able to generate certain types of reports. Information about the entitlements of the user may be stored by the RMS  12 . When the user logs in, the metadata service may read the entitlements of the user from a database (such as the metadata database  32  or a different database) to determine the available report categories for the particular user, and the drop-down window field  102  may only list those report categories. 
         [0026]    Upon selection of a report category by the user, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the display window  100  may display a field  104  listing reports for that category. In the example of  FIG. 3 , different reports for the “Transactions” category are displayed. The user display, however, is, of course, configurable, as mentioned above, by the metadata in the metadata database  32  as provisioned by the administrative application  34 . The user may select the desired report, which is then displayed in field  106 . Selection of the desired report may be done, for example, through any known and/or conventional user interface technique, such as hitting the “Enter” key when the desired report is highlighted, right-clicking on a mouse when the desired option is highlighted, using the selection arrows  108 , etc. Also, a user may select multiple reports. In that connection, a user may also select reports from different categories, and the field  106  would be populated with these different reports. That is, a user could select one (or more) reports from field  104 , and then change the report category in field  102  to additionally select a different report (or reports) from a different category. The user may also order the selected reports with the arrows  110  or by other conventional user interface means. Again, the reports displayed to the user in field  104  may be dependent upon the entitlements of the user. 
         [0027]    The parameters field  112  allows the user to select parameters for the various chosen reports. The parameters may be different kinds of generic controls such as drop down boxes, checkboxes, and date boxes that can be given a name and setup in the metadata database  32 . Any new report can have one or more of these generic controls associated with it. Using the metadata administration application  34 , an administrator can setup a name and type information. Parameters can also be setup to be associated with other parameters. For example, parameters may have values that change when another parameter value changes. Parameters may contain lists of values (as in the case of drop downs). The source for those values can be specified at report setup time, and those sources can be from database tables or files, etc. For example, in field  114 , the user may select certain entities for the reports. For financial services applications, the entities may be, for example, portfolio IDs, account identifiers, product identities, broker names, etc. The values contained in this entity box could be coming from a table of portfolioID values. The entity selection process is explained in connection with  FIGS. 5-7 . Referring to  FIG. 5 , the user may choose an entity or account by clicking on the “Select Entities” button  130 . This may cause an “Entity Selection” dialog box  132  to open, as shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , which allows the user to search for the appropriate entities. In the “Entity Selection” dialog box  132  the user may specify the entity type from a drop-down window  134 , for example. The entity type may be a further classification of the entities, e.g., sub-classification of entities. Also, the user may select the reporting date at a drop-down window  136 . 
         [0028]    The user may also select the source system in field  138 , for example, shown in  FIG. 7 . This may be a filter condition, such as entities organized by office location within an enterprise. For the chosen entity type and source system, the “Entity Selection” dialog box  132  may then display the available entities in field  140 . The user may then specify the appropriate entities by double-clicking on them or using the arrows  142 . The selected entities may then appear in the “Selected Entities” field  144 . The user may then click an “Apply” button (not shown) to apply the selected entities. This may close the “Entity Selection” dialog box  132 . 
         [0029]    In the example of  FIG. 4 , the selected entity is shown in the “Entities” field  112 . To set the report parameters for the selected reports pertaining to this entity(ies), in the drop-down window field  116  the user may select the report (or reports) for which it desires to specify the parameters. For the selected report, the metadata service  30  of the RMS  12  (see  FIG. 1 ) may read from the metadata database  32  the relevant parameters for that report and show them in the display window  100 , as shown in the example of  FIGS. 3 and 4 . When a new parameter is required for a report, the metadata database  32  can be provisioned to include the new parameter as metadata for the report. When that report is loaded after adding the new parameter, the parameters field  112  will include a field for the new parameter. Where all reports are selected, as in the example of  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the parameters shown may be parameters that pertain to each report selected by the user. 
         [0030]    As shown in the example of  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the parameters may be, for example, effective date (e.g., the date the report is to be run), position status (e.g., monthly audited, real time, etc.), reporting basis (e.g., commitment, settlement date), combined mode (e.g., check if you wish to combine the selected reports), language mode (choose a selected language), output format (e.g., PDF, spreadsheet, word processing document), etc. Each parameter may have an associated drop-down window or check field by which the user may select the desired value for the parameter. The system  10  could be tailored to satisfy any relevant parameter and could easily be modified, by administration of the metadata service  30  and the metadata database  32 , to include new parameters, as described above. According to various embodiments, the parameter values chosen for “All Reports” may be applied to each selected report unless explicitly overridden by the user at the individual report level. For example, under “All Reports,” the user may select “Monthly Audited” for the position status, but when selecting the parameters for an individual report specified in the field  116  (e.g., Report A), the user may select “Real Time” for the position status for that particular report. In that case, all reports except Report A will have “Monthly Audited” for the position status and Report A will have “Real Time” for the position status. 
         [0031]    To complete and run a job, the destination options for the reports should also be specified. This may be accomplished, for example, by clicking the “Delivery and Notification” button  150  of the display window  100 , shown in the example of  FIG. 8 . This may cause a “Distribution” dialog box  152  to open, as shown in  FIGS. 9 and 10 . In the “Distribution” dialog box  152 , the user may specify the destination of the report(s) by clicking any of the destination buttons, such as an “Internet Email” destination button  154 , an “Internal Printer” button  156 , an “External Fax” button  158 , an “Internal File Transfer” button  160 , an “External Email” button  162 , an “External File Transfer” button  164 , etc. The user may then specify the recipient&#39;s address for the chosen distribution means by typing the address in the corresponding address fields  166 . The number of destinations that a user gets to pick from may also be driven by entitlements. Some users might see an option to send reports outside the firm and some might not. 
         [0032]    The “Distribution” dialog box  152  may also allow the user to specify the file format of the report in field  170 . The file format may be, as shown in the example of  FIG. 10 , PDF, Postscript, Word, Crystal, or Text. Other formats may also be permitted and/or used, including XML, HTML, etc. 
         [0033]    When multiple reports are selected, the user may specify how the reports are to be packaged in the “File Packaging” field  172 . For example, the user may be permitted to sort the reports in field  172  such that the selected reports appear in a specified order. The sorting may be done in the “Package Order” field  177  by specifying the package number. Also, where, for example, either Postscript or Text file formats were selected, the user may specify how the reports are to be merged in the “Merge By” field  176 . According to various embodiments, if “None” is selected, the reports will arrive as separate files. If “Sort Priority” is selected, the reports may be merged according to the selected sort priority in field  172 . If “All” is selected, the reports are merged into one comprehensive file. 
         [0034]    The reports may be scheduled by clicking the “Scheduling” button  180  of the display window  100 , shown in  FIG. 8 . This may cause a “Scheduler Form” dialog box  182  to open, as shown in  FIG. 11 , which allows the user to schedule the run time of the report job. In the “Repeat Schedule” checkbox field  183 , the user may indicate that the report job is to be run on a repeated schedule by checking (selecting) the repeated schedule option. If it is just a one-time report job, the checkbox field  183  would be unchecked (i.e., not selected). In field  184 , the user may select the geographical time zone and, in field  186 , the user may select the start time for running the report job. Also, the user may even specify whether the report job is to be run on holidays, for example, in checkbox field  187 . In drop-down window  188 , the user may select the periodicity of the report, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. To unschedule a report job, the user could uncheck (or deselect) the “Schedule Job” checkbox  190 . In addition, in the “Job Condition” drop-down window  192 , the user may specify a trigger condition from a list of possible trigger conditions that cause the report job to be run. The trigger conditions may be, for example, completion of a prior report which is used in creating the current report. The “Job Stream Locale” field  193  is a trigger condition field that permits the user to specify the locale of a trigger condition. The user may then click the “Apply” button (not shown) for the scheduler Form dialog box  182  to input the schedule information. The schedule information may then appear in the display window  100 , as shown in the example of  FIG. 12 . 
         [0035]    The user may save a report job, for example, by clicking on the “Save Job As . . . ” button  196  of the display window  100 , shown in  FIG. 8 . This may cause a “Save Job” dialog box (not shown) to appear, which allows the user to name and save the report job. The saved job may then appear under the “Job Manager” tab  200  of the display window  100 , as shown in  FIG. 13  (also see  FIG. 3 ). All of the saved jobs of the user may appear under the “Job Manager” tab  200 . Information about each of the saved jobs may also be displayed for the user in tabular form, as shown in the example of  FIG. 13 . The table may include information on, for example, the next schedule run time for the job, the date the job was created, the frequency of the job, etc. 
         [0036]    The user may check some or all of the jobs for running (i.e., generation of the report) by checking the checkbox next to the job and then clicking the “Run Checked Job(s)” button  202 . When this is done, a message box (not shown) may appear to inform the user that the report has been submitted. When a job is completed, a message box  210  will be displayed for the user, such as shown in  FIG. 14 , indicating the status of the job. For example, the message box  210  may inform the user that the job was successfully run, as in the example of  FIG. 14 , or it may inform the user that an error occurred in executing the job request. In such circumstances, the message may also include an error code. Another way to run a report job is to click the “Run” button  211  in the display window  100  (see  FIG. 8 ). 
         [0037]    Note that clicking the “New Job 1” tab  212  in the display window  100  of  FIG. 13  will cause the fields associated with creating a new report job, described previously in connection with  FIGS. 2-12 , to appear for the user. 
         [0038]    To check the status of a repeated report job, such as the run schedule of the report job over a period of time (e.g., thirty days), the user may click the “+” sign next to the report job. As shown in the example of  FIG. 15 , this may cause the previous run times and status of those run operations over the specified period of time to appear for the user. 
         [0039]    Also, as shown in the example of  FIG. 15 , the display window  100  may include tabs  220  for previously saved jobs of the user. Clicking on one of these tabs may cause the display window  100  to display the fields associated with creating the job, described previously in connection with  FIG. 2-12 . The values of the various parameter fields for the job may be populated with the values entered by the user in creating or editing the report job. 
         [0040]      FIG. 16  is a flowchart of the operation of the system  10  according to various embodiments. At step  300 , the user may log into the system from a client terminal  14 . At step  302 , the user&#39;s credentials and entitlements are verified by the system at the back-end (e.g. RMS  12 ). At step  304 , the client application asks the metadata service and/or the job manager  22  for a list of reports available to the user and/or the user&#39;s prior saved report jobs. For example, as discussed above, if the user selects the job creation/definition mode (such as by selecting the “New Job 1” tab  212  in  FIG. 13 ), the metadata service may retrieve from the metadata database  32  the metadata for the reports (e.g., the parameters, the parameter values, etc.) to be displayed for the user based on the user&#39;s entitlements. If the user selects to view or edit a previously created report job (such as by selecting the “Job Manager” tab  200  in  FIG. 13 ), the job manager  22  may retrieve the data for the user&#39;s previously created/saved jobs from the job database  24 . 
         [0041]    If the user wants to define and run a report job during the session (as opposed to edit a saved report job or define a report job for later, scheduled use), the process advances to block  306 , where the user chooses the report(s) and parameter values for the job using the client application  90 , the process for which is described above, and submits the job request to the controller  20 . The message request may be, for example, a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) XML message. The message might have all the report names and their parameter value information. Upon receipt of the request, at block  308 , the controller  20  may make a call to the metadata service  32  to ask for the workflow definition of the report, i.e., the components that this report has to invoke in order to finish the report&#39;s execution. At block  310 , the controller  20  may then split the incoming message into a number of smaller messages for sending to the components/adapters, e.g., components  40 ,  50 ,  60 ,  70 ,  80 . These smaller sub-messages may also be SOAP XML messages. At block  310 , the controller  20  may also assign a unique run identifier for the report and persist the message for recovery purposes. 
         [0042]    At block  312 , the controller  20  may send the various message components to the appropriate components/adapters for performance of the functions required for execution of the report job. Each component in turn might send back responses to the controller  20  with some indication of a success/failure and any other information that it generated which is useful for a subsequent workflow step. The controller  20  takes such information invokes the next workflow step until all of the steps have been completed. The workflow steps/components can be chained in any fashion, and it is not necessary for every available report in its workflow definition to invoke every component of the system  10 . At block  314 , the controller sends a report job update to the client (e.g., the job was successful or an error was created (with a corresponding error code)). 
         [0043]    If, returning to step  304 , the user desired to save a report job for later execution, the process advances to step  316 , wherein the user chooses the desired reports and the associated parameters, including the run schedule. Upon submission by the user, the scheduled job is saved to the job manager  22 . At step  318 , at the appropriate time, the scheduler  26  initiates execution of the scheduled job by sending a message to the controller  22 . The message to the controller  20  may identify the job by the job name. At step  320 , the controller  20  retrieves the report and parameter value information from the job manager  22  and constructs a report run request based on the retrieved information. The process then advances to step  310 , described above. 
         [0044]    While several embodiments of the invention have been described, it should be apparent, however, that various modifications, alterations and adaptations to those embodiments may occur to persons skilled in the art with the attainment of some or all of the advantages of the present invention. For example, various steps of the processes described herein may be performed in different orders. Also, while the description above generally concerned report in the financial services industry, it should be recognized that the system could be used for other types of reports in other industries. It is therefore intended to cover all such modifications, alterations and adaptations without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.