Abstract:
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for generating a dynamic, live thumbnail representation of the underlying process. Using the methods and apparatus herein, users can easily understand the functions of a sub-process.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims benefit to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/867,344, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING WORK FLOW, filed on Nov. 27, 2006; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/939,284, METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION THUMBNAILS, filed on May 21, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     A business process is a combination of operational steps or activities that a business undertakes. A business may conduct a high number of business processes throughout the course of a day or year, in order to accomplish the business&#39;s goals. An operational step or activity may be any action from the mundane to the complex. 
     Through the use of technology, businesses can now model their business processes in a graphical nature. What used to be a loosely defined set of procedures can now be formalized into complex business process workflows. The formalized business processes allow managers to understand the bottlenecks of a process, and to redesign the business processes for efficiency. 
     Business can now also incorporate business process design into their existing technology systems. Instead of providing a simple map of a business process, integration with computer systems allows business process designers to design interactive business processes that drive business workflow. Business process designers can receive data from various sources and perform a wide range of actions on the data directly, and create business processes in an easy to understand visual manner. 
     Businesses create workflows as a part of business process design to assist in managing their internal operations. Business processes allow users to represent the current state of their business operations in a graphical manner. Users can also simulate new business operations through the use of business processes. 
     Some business process designers use graphical business process design software to create graphical workflows. The graphical software may use graphical objects to represent business processes and workflow activities. The combining of multiple process into a single executable process allows the business process designer to create processes of greater complexity. However, complicated sub-processes within processes are difficult to understand, and business process designers have difficulty remembering the what functions the sub-process is performing. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for generating a dynamic, live thumbnail representation of the underlying process. Using the methods and apparatus herein, users can easily understand the functions of a sub-process. 
     Additional features and advantages are described herein, and will be apparent from, the following Detailed Description and the figures. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  is a high level block diagram of an example business process design system. 
         FIG. 2  is a more detailed block diagram showing one example of a client device. 
         FIG. 3  is a more detailed block diagram showing one example of a server. 
         FIG. 4  is an example screenshot of a thumbnail of a sub-process screen. 
         FIG. 5  is an example screenshot of an interprocess-communication process information screen. 
         FIG. 6  is an example screenshot of an interprocess-communication connection information screen. 
         FIG. 7  is an example screenshot of an interprocess-communication data communication screen. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present system is most readily realized in a network communications system. A high level block diagram of an exemplary network communications system  100  is illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The illustrated system  100  includes one or more business process designer terminals  102 , one or more business process servers  104 , and one or more business process databases  106 . Each of these devices may communicate with each other via a connection to one or more communications channels  108  such as the Internet or some other data network, including, but not limited to, any suitable wide area network or local area network. It will be appreciated that any of the devices described herein may be directly connected to each other instead of over a network. 
     The business process server  104  stores a plurality of files, programs, and/or web pages in one or more business process databases  106  for use by the business process designer terminals  102 . The business process database  106  may be connected directly to the business process server  104  or via one or more network connections. The business process database  106  preferably stores business process data. 
     One business process server  104  may interact with a large number of business process designer terminals  102 . Accordingly, each business process server  104  is typically a high end computer with a large storage capacity, one or more fast microprocessors, and one or more high speed network connections. Conversely, relative to a typical business process server  104 , each business process designer terminal  102  typically includes less storage capacity, a single microprocessor, and a single network connection. 
     A more detailed block diagram of a business process designer terminal  102  is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . The business process designer terminal  102  may include a personal computer (PC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a cellular telephone, or any other suitable communication device. The business process designer terminal  102  preferably includes a main unit  202  which preferably includes one or more processors  204  electrically coupled by an address/data bus  206  to one or more memory devices  208 , other computer circuitry  210 , and one or more interface circuits  212 . The processor  204  may be any suitable processor, such as a microprocessor from the INTEL PENTIUM® family of microprocessors. The memory  208  preferably includes volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Preferably, the memory  208  stores a software program that interacts with one or more of the other devices in the system  100  as described below. This program may be executed by the processor  204  in any suitable manner. The memory  208  may also store digital data indicative of documents, files, programs, web pages, etc. retrieved from one or more of the other devices in the system  100  and/or loaded via an input device  214 . Preferably, the memory  208  stores a software program that implements all or part of the method described below. 
     In particular, the memory  208  preferably stores an interprocess-communication link creator  224  and a thumbnail display module  226 . The interprocess-communication link creator module  224  creates a link to a sub-process. For example, the business process designer may utilize an interprocess-communication wizard to create a link to a sub-process as shown in  FIGS. 5-9 . The interprocess-communication link creator module  224  may link to a sub-process using interprocess communications and allow the business process designer to utilize sub-processes in process design. 
     The thumbnail display module  226  may be used to create the visual representation of the sub-process on the business process design terminal  102 . For example, the thumbnail display module  226  may use vector graphics to create the dynamic thumbnail. The dynamic thumbnail may represent all of the functionality of the full sub-process. The thumbnail may be presented as read-only and not allow changes on the thumbnail directly. However, changes to the underlying sub-process may be reflected in the thumbnail. The thumbnail display module  226  may also receive a request from the business process designer to display the full sub-process. For example, the thumbnail display module  226  may receive an input from the  214 , such as a mouse click on the thumbnail, indicating that the business process designer wishes to display a full version of the sub-process. The thumbnail display module  226  will retrieve the full sub-process for display. Any chances made to the sub-process may be represented in the thumbnail dynamically. 
     These software modules  224  and  226  may be executed by the processor  204  in a conventional manner. However, some of the acts described in the method below may be performed manually or without the use of the business process designer terminal  102 . Additionally, the software modules  224  and  226  may be stored in the memory  308  and executed by the processor  304 . 
     The interface circuit  212  may be implemented using any suitable interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface and/or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. One or more input devices  214  may be connected to the interface circuit  212  for entering data and commands into the main unit  202 . For example, the input device  214  may be a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, track pad, track ball, isopoint, and/or a voice recognition system. 
     One or more displays, printers, speakers, and/or other output devices  216  may also be connected to the main unit  202  via the interface circuit  212 . The display  216  may be a cathode ray tube (CRTs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or any other type of display. The display  216  generates visual displays of data generated during operation of the business process designer terminal  102 . For example, the display  216  may be used to display web pages received from the business process server  104 . The visual displays may include prompts for human input, run time statistics, calculated values, data, etc. 
     One or more storage devices  218  may also be connected to the main unit  202  via the interface circuit  212 . For example, a hard drive, CD drive, DVD drive, and/or other storage devices may be connected to the main unit  202 . The storage devices  218  may store any type of data used by the business process designer terminal  102 . 
     The business process designer terminal  102  may also exchange data with other network devices  220  via a connection to the network  112 . The network connection may be any type of network connection, such as an Ethernet connection, digital subscriber line (DSL), telephone line, coaxial cable, etc. Users of a business process designer terminal  102  may be required to register with the business process server  104 . In such an instance, each user of a business process designer terminal  102 , may choose a user identifier (e.g., e-mail address) and a password which may be required for the activation of services. The user identifier and password may be passed across the network  108  using encryption built into the business process designer terminal  102  browser. Alternatively, the user identifier and/or password may be assigned by the business process server  104 . 
     A more detailed block diagram of a business process server  104  is illustrated in  FIG. 3 . Like the business process designer terminal  102 , the main unit  302  in the business process server  104  preferably includes one or more processors  304  electrically coupled by an address/data bus  306  to a memory device  308  and a network interface circuit  310 . The network interface circuit  310  may be implemented using any suitable data transceiver, such as an Ethernet transceiver. The processor  304  may be any type of suitable processor, and the memory device  308  preferably includes volatile memory and non-volatile memory. 
     A screenshot of an example thumbnail of a sub-process  400  is presented in  FIG. 4 . Although the example thumbnail of a sub-process  400  is described in reference  FIG. 4 , it will be appreciated that many other configurations are possible. For example, elements could be in different locations, elements could have different names, and elements could have different graphical representations. 
     A thumbnail of a sub-process screen  400  may have a canvas  402  where the business process designer places process elements. For example, a “Start” point may be present on the canvas. The thumbnail of a sub-process screen  400  may have a sub-process  404 . The sub-process  404  may be the result of creating an interprocess-communication link using the interprocess-communication link creator  224 . A business process designer that wishes to view the thumbnail of a sub-process may use an input device to indicate the appropriate activity. For example, the business process designer may use a mouse to place a cursor over the sub-process  404 . The thumbnail display module  226  may then display a thumbnail  406  of the sub-process  404 . The thumbnail  406  may include a representation of the processes and activities that comprise the sub-process  404 . 
     A business process designer may wish to create a link to a sub-process. For example, the business process designer may open an interprocess-communication wizard to create a new link to a sub-process. 
     The business process designer terminal  102  may then display an interprocess-communication process information screen  500 , an example is provided in  FIG. 5 . The interprocess-communication process information screen  500  may contain inputs for entering information about the process. For example, the interprocess-communication process information screen may include a text box for sever information  502 , and a text box for a process name or location  504 . 
     The business process designer terminal  102  may then display an interprocess-communication connection information screen  600 , an example is provided in  FIG. 6 . The interprocess-communication connection information screen  600  may contain entries to enter information regarding the connection to the server. For example, the interprocess-communication connection information screen  602  may contain entries for authentication status, security information, etc. 
     The business process designer terminal  102  may then display an interprocess-communication data communication  700 , an example is provided in  FIG. 7 . The interprocess-communication data communication  700  may allow the business process designer to enter information regarding the data configuration. 
     It should be understood that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present subject matter and without diminishing its intended advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claims.