Patent Abstract:
The disclosed system empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects, author intelligent business forms, and create automated workflows. The logical business objects include data definitions and methods from existing and new data sources. An object broker interprets the business object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources. The intelligent business forms are created by an information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment. Each form is intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. The automated workflow tools include process discovery features that assist users during the process identification phase. The tools assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization.

Full Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM  
       [0001]     This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/733,330 filed on Nov. 2, 2005, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/733,329 filed on Nov. 2, 2005, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/733,328 filed on Nov. 2, 2005, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     The present disclosure relates in general to automated workflows, and, in particular, to methods and apparatus for displaying a setup sequence.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     As the number of information sources in organizations are growing, it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers of the information to access it in a logical and structured way that relates to the traditional business objects they find familiar within their organizations (e.g., customers, assets, vendors, staff, etc). Data from existing systems is typically made available in a very technical way that requires significant technical and development skills to surface it to non technical users in the organization. No workable mechanism exists for non technical users to add information within a logical business object definition without involving technical or development skills. Similar, no workable solution exists today that allows both technical and non technical users of data to access their information from multiple data/information sources in a structured business object like way, while still maintaining the flexibility to add additional information definitions to the existing business objects or to create new business objects from existing or new data sources without the need for complex solution development.  
         [0004]     Existing Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) systems combined with development tools can be used to custom develop solutions which make data and information more accessible, but these solutions are typically hard-coded and require significant technical and development skill to maintain and change over time. There is no workable way for non technical users to change the definition of the structured data (business objects) or to add additional information sources or fields within existing business object definitions that might already exist within their organizations. As an example, customer information might exist in a CRM system, ERP system and a custom issue tracking system. Existing EAI solutions assist in integrating data between these systems, but do not provide a mechanism to see a single definition of a customer as a logical business object regardless of where the information is being sourced from.  
         [0005]     In addition, information workers are limited by the static business forms and information presented to them by the solution applications or custom developed applications they use on a day to day basis. Regardless of whether these forms are thin client (web or browser) based or thick/smart client (windows forms) based, the information worker&#39;s ability to add additional information on-demand to existing forms based on its current state and context, is extremely limited. Existing form technologies depend on a developer&#39;s involvement to bind the form to a data source (web service, database, etc) which populates the form with information based on a user event (click of a button, etc). Should the end user require additional information to be displayed on the form, he needs to rely on application specific pre-developed functionality that might allow him to see additional information or data fields on the forms. This implementation however depends on the logic encapsulated in the application or custom developed solution. The challenge remains to empower knowledge users to add additional information to a specific form, on demand, regardless of data source, without the need for technical or development involvement. Once these forms have been customized the underlying platform needs to store each users settings in a personalization system which will allow it to recognize the user the next time he access the form. The result being that each user has the ability to see his personalized view of a form.  
         [0006]     Still further, existing process automation tools do not provide the necessary level of modeling tools and concepts to allow both technical and non technical users to author a completed business process solution in a single modeling/automation tooling environment. It is extremely difficult for business analysts, business/process owner&#39;s technical people to use a single solution which allows for all roles to work seamlessly together to rapidly discover, model and automate business processes within organizations. Existing workflow and business process automation tools are disconnected and do not allow for a single environment which brings technical and non technical business users together with a set of tools that deeply integrate the necessary building blocks.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0007]     The disclosed system uses Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) sources (e.g., EAI software, Web Services, Application API) to provide a higher level framework (e.g., runtime broker and adapter services) with relating solution components (e.g., user interfaces and tooling) which empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects which includes data definitions (e.g., customer name, surname, etc) and actions or methods (e.g., save, load, delete) from existing or new data sources. Existing data sources include ERP, CRM, and/or custom developed systems in an organization while new data sources are created and maintained by the disclosed system. The disclosed system allows users to combine data from multiple sources into one single business object definition, including data and method/actions definitions. The new logical business object exposes a single logical data structure and view of the object as well as a single set of logical methods that are associated with the object.  
         [0008]     The object broker (runtime engine) interprets the new object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources (or existing systems). Additional fields can be added to the new object definition. These additional fields are associated with the unique identifiers from the other data sources included in the new object definition. The actual data is preferably stored in a new data store where all data structure and action (e.g., create, load, update, delete as examples) are managed by the runtime broker. The result being a dynamic business object whose definition can be changed by either adding or removing data or actions without the need to involve technical or development resources to reconfigure or recompile the actual objects.  
         [0009]     Existing systems are accessed through a service object component. The service object for a specific back-end system implements the base interface expected by the object broker. This enables the object broker to use a consistent communication mechanism to exchange data and function calls with the applications it is integrating. The object Broker together with the service object interface provides the underlying infrastructure to exchange data, method calls and participation in supporting services such as transactions, compensations models, exception handling and role/security management. The object broker also includes a lightweight single-sign on implementation which allows it to use a single credential set to access multiple systems (each with their own authentication model).  
         [0010]     Creating a new global form (changes reflected on all user&#39;s form instances) or personal form (changes and customizations saved on a per user basis) can be completed by the information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment, listing the potential data sources and user interface components. The underlying framework is also responsible for managing global and personal versions of forms seamlessly. In addition, the framework allows for the dynamic binding between business forms that has a logical relationship between each other. The forms are intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. Logical relationships between forms can be the result of the relationship between the data being used on the page and/or it can be relationships defined by the user by means of simply linking events from one form to actions on another. For example, an order list form might have a relationship with a customer form which will allow it to automatically load a list of orders for a specific customer when the two forms are displayed on a single page. The order form is “aware” of its relationship with the customer form based on prior configuration information and can automatically display potential relationship configuration scenarios to the user when the form is placed on the same page as the customer form. In this case the relationship would stipulate that the order list form load itself whenever a customer number is entered into the customer number field on the customer form and the “find” button is clicked.  
         [0011]     As a result, the information worker is empowered to change the layout of these pages on demand (e.g., add or remove forms on a page and define new relationships), which then in turn uses a personalization engine to store user specific changes and defined relationships between forms. The forms are not hard coded and can be changed on the fly. The disclosed system uses a model for dynamic form construction during runtime and design time, including data binding, event definitions and binding framework between events, controls and forms on a page.  
         [0012]     The disclosed system also facilitates the creation of automated processes by both technical and non technical users. Process discovery features assist users during the process identification phase. The tools provided assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine the defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization.  
         [0013]     Additional features and advantages are described herein, and will be apparent from, the following Detailed Description and the figures. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES  
       [0014]      FIG. 1  is a high level block diagram of a communications system.  
         [0015]      FIG. 2  is a more detailed block diagram showing one example of a computing device.  
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing example connections between a plurality of data sources and an electronic form via an object broker.  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing example connections between data sources and business objects.  
         [0018]      FIG. 5  is a more detailed view of an example customer orders page and the associated connections to a customer business object and an order business object.  
         [0019]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart of an example object broker process.  
         [0020]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart of an example form process.  
         [0021]      FIG. 8  is a screenshot of an example workflow design tool that allows a user to define a resource map.  
         [0022]      FIG. 9  is a screenshot of an example workflow design tool that allows a user to define a process map.  
         [0023]      FIG. 10  is an example process map with a localized region of the process map highlighted.  
         [0024]      FIG. 11  is a screenshot of an example activity strip.  
         [0025]      FIG. 12  is a screenshot of an example setup wizard in a partially rotated state.  
         [0026]      FIG. 13  is a screenshot of the example setup wizard in a fully rotated state.  
         [0027]      FIG. 14  is a screenshot of the example setup wizard with a popup window.  
         [0028]      FIG. 15  is a flowchart of an example setup wizard process. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0029]     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 client devices  102 , one or more routers  106 , and a plurality of different data sources  108  including database servers  110  and/or databases  112 . Data transferred to/from the client devices  102  from/to the data sources  108  is managed by one or more object broker servers  114 . Each of these devices may communicate with each other via a connection to one or more communications channels  116  such as the Internet and/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.  
         [0030]     The data sources  108  store a plurality of files, programs, and/or web pages in one or more databases  112  for use by the client devices  102 . For example, a data source may store customer information. The data sources  108  may be connected directly to a database server  110  and/or via one or more network connections.  
         [0031]     One data source  108  and/or one object broker server  114  may interact with a large number of other devices. Accordingly, each data source  108  and/or one object broker server  114  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 server, each client device  102  typically includes less storage capacity, a single microprocessor, and a single network connection.  
         [0032]     A more detailed block diagram of the electrical systems of a computing device (e.g., handheld client device  102 , personal computer client device  102 , router  106 , database server  110 , and/or object broker server  114 ) is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . Although the electrical systems of these computing devices may be similar, the structural differences between these devices are well known. For example, a typical handheld client device  102  is small and lightweight compared to a typical database server  110 .  
         [0033]     The example computing device  102 ,  106 ,  110 ,  114  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 PENTIUMS® 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 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 another computing device and/or loaded via an input device  214 .  
         [0034]     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.  
         [0035]     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 computing device  102 ,  106 ,  110 ,  114 . For example, the display  216  may be used to display web pages received from the object broker server  114  including data from multiple data sources  108 . The visual displays may include prompts for human input, run time statistics, calculated values, data, etc.  
         [0036]     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 suitable data.  
         [0037]     The computing device  102 ,  104  may also exchange data with other network devices  220  via a connection to the network  116 . 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 the system  100  may be required to register with one or more of the computing devices  102 ,  106 ,  110 ,  114 . In such an instance, each user 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  116  using encryption built into the user&#39;s web browser. Alternatively, the user identifier and/or password may be assigned by the computing device  102 ,  106 ,  110 ,  114 .  
         [0038]     In one embodiment, a user at a client device  102  views and/or modifies data from a plurality of different data sources  108  via an interactive electronic form. An example block diagram showing connections between a plurality of data sources  108  and an electronic form  302  via an object broker process  304  is illustrated in  FIG. 3 . In general, the object broker process  304  (described in detail below with reference to  FIG. 6 ) compiles data in a variety of different native formats from the different data sources  108  (e.g., different legacy database systems) into standardized business objects  306 ,  308  (e.g., in a declarative format such as XML). A user may then view the data using one or more electronic forms  302 ,  310 ,  312 . In addition, the user may manipulate the data and/or add data via the electronic forms  302 ,  310 ,  312 . In such instance, the object broker process  304  accepts the data via the business objects  306 ,  308  and stores the data back to the data sources  108  in the correct native format.  
         [0039]     In this example, the data sources  108  include an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data source  314 , a customer relationship management (CRM) data source  316 , a custom data source  318 , an add-on data source  320 , and a function data source  322 . In addition, a role service  323  and an object data store  325  are included in the system. Typically, an ERP data source  314  stores data related to accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, etc. Typically, a CRM data source  316  stores data related to leads, quotes, orders, etc. A custom data source  318  is a data source  108  that is not considered a standard commercial product. For example, a business may have a custom data source that stores real-time manufacturing information. Some data sources  108  may use and intermediary server for communications. For example, the ERP data source  314  uses a BizTalk server  324 .  
         [0040]     The add-on data source  320  stores data associated with form fields added by the user that are not supported by one of the other data sources  108 . For example, a business may start up a frequent shopper card program and need to store a card number for each participant. Accordingly, a user may add a frequent buyer number field to an existing form containing legacy data. Because the existing data sources  108  in this example do not include a frequent buyer number field, the frequent buyer number field and associated data are stored by the add-on data source  320 .  
         [0041]     In order to manipulate data in a particular data source  108 , the object broker process  304  preferably calls methods built into the associated data source  108 . For example, each data source  108  typically includes methods to store/retrieve data to/from the data source  108  (e.g., the CRM data source may support a “LoadContact” method as described in detail below). In addition, the system  300  allows a user to author their own functions. For example, a user may need to apply a discount to certain customers. However, the existing data sources  108  may not include a method to calculate the discount. Accordingly, the user may author a “CalcDiscount” function as described below. User defined functions may use data from more than one data source  108 . The definitions for these user defined functions is then stored in the function data source  322 .  
         [0042]     User defined functions may be created using a graphical user interface tool. For example, parameters for a user defined function may be defined by selecting a graphical representation of the parameter associated with a business object. Preferably, user defined functions are stored as snippets. Snippets include a structure portion that defines the function and a user interface portion that provides the user a way to test the function. For example, the structure portion may be stored as XML, and the user interface portion may be stored as HTML in the same file.  
         [0043]     Some user defined functions may be executed by the client devices  102  thereby reducing communication with the server  110 ,  114 . Other user defined functions may require server side execution. Preferably, a determination is made if a particular function is to be executes on the client side or the server side, and an indicator of this determination is stored with the function snippet. For example, user defined functions built from certain predefined primitives (e.g., add, multiply, loop, less than, etc.) may be determined to be executable by the client device  200 , while other user defined functions that include database lookups (e.g., SQL statements) may be determined to be executable by a server  110 ,  114 .  
         [0044]     From a user&#39;s perspective, the data from the data sources  108  (as well as data calculated from data in the data sources  108  e.g., a discount) is viewed using one or more electronic forms  302 ,  310 ,  312 . In addition, the user may manipulate the data and/or add data via the electronic forms  302 ,  310 ,  312 . Forms  302 ,  310 ,  312  may be combined into pages  302  and one form may use data from more than one data source  108 . For example, the customer orders page  302  combines the customer contact form  310  and the order list form  312  (as described in detail below with reference to  FIG. 5 ). In addition, portions of forms and/or entire forms that are part of a larger page, may be locked so that only certain users can modify that portion of the form or page.  
         [0045]     In order to facilitate forms  302 ,  310 ,  312  that combine data from different data sources  108 , the system  300  employs an object broker process  304  (described in detail below with reference to  FIG. 6 ) and a form process  326  (described in detail below with reference to  FIG. 7 ). In one embodiment, the object broker process  304  is ASP code running on the object broker server  114  and the form process  326  is JavaScript running on a client device  102 . The object broker process  304  compiles data in a variety of different native formats from the different data sources  108  into standardized business objects  306 ,  308  (e.g., XML files). In addition, the object broker process  304  accepts the data via the business objects  306 ,  308  and stores the data back to the data sources  108  in the correct native format.  
         [0046]     More specifically, the object broker process  304  uses a plurality of broker services to communicate with the data sources  108 . Preferably, one broker service is used for each data source  108 . In this example, the object broker process  304  includes an ERP broker service  328 , a CRM broker service  330 , a custom broker service  332 , an add-on broker service  334 , and a function broker service  336 . Each broker service  328 ,  330 ,  332 ,  334 ,  336  is designed to communicate with the associated data source  108  using the data source&#39;s native formats and protocols.  
         [0047]     Each broker service  328 ,  330 ,  332 ,  334 ,  336  then automatically exposes the properties and methods of the associated data source  108  as standardized properties and methods  338  for use by the business objects  306 ,  308 . For example, the ERP broker service  328  communicates with the ERP data source  314  via the BizTalk server  324  and exposes the ERP data source  314  properties and methods to the customer business object  306  and the order business object  308  as XML files. If new properties and/or methods become available from a data source  108 , the associated broker service preferably detects these new properties and/or methods and automatically exposes the new properties and/or methods for use by the business objects  306 ,  308 . The business objects  306 ,  308  may include some or all of the exposed properties and methods  338 . Each business object  306 ,  308  then exposes its included properties and methods  340  to the form process  326 .  
         [0048]     The form process  326  calls business object methods  340  in response to form events and populates the forms  302 ,  310 ,  312  with data from the business object properties  340 . For example, a user may press a “Load” button on the customer orders page  302 , which causes the form process  326  to call one or more methods  340  exposed by the business objects  306 ,  308 . This, in turn, causes the object broker process  304  to retrieve the appropriate data from one or more data sources  108 . The data is then returned as properties of the business objects  306 ,  308 , and the form process  326  uses the data to populate the forms  310 ,  312 .  
         [0049]     In addition, the form process  326  may store values to the business object properties  340 , and call methods to have the new/modified data stored back to the appropriate data source  108  via the object broker process  304 . For example, a from may accept a new value for a customer&#39;s address and call an UpdateContact method to have the new address stored to the appropriate data source  108 .  
         [0050]     A more detailed block diagram showing these connections between the example data sources  108  and the example business objects  306 ,  308  is illustrated in  FIG. 4 . In this example, the customer business object  306  is connected to the ERP data source  314  and the CRM data source  316 . The order business object  308  is connected to the ERP data source  314 , the add-on data source  320 , and the fimction data source  322 . These logical connections may be defined in any suitable manner. For example, a graphical user interface may be used to allow a user to draw connection lines between graphical representations of the data sources  108  and graphical representations of the business objects  306 ,  308 .  
         [0051]     These logical connections are maintained by the object broker process  304 . For example, data to populate the customer contact form  310  and the order list form  312  is brought into the customer business object  306  and the order business object  308  from the data sources  108  by the object broker process  304 . Similarly, new and modified data from the customer contact form  310  and the order list form  312  is sent from the customer business object  306  and the order business object  308  to the data sources  108  by the object broker process  304 . In addition, the role service  323  may generate a reduced object definition based on these full object definitions. For example, the role service  323  may retrieve a role associated with a particular user and a plurality of authorized properties and/or methods associated with that role. Unauthorized properties and/or methods are then removed from the business object definition (e.g., a user is not allowed to write to the customer business object, therefore the UpdateBalance and UpdateContact methods are removed).  
         [0052]     The example customer business object  306  includes a customer ID property, a name property, an address property, an outstanding balance property, a load balance method, an update balance method, a load contact method, and an update contact method. The customer ID property in the customer business object  306  is connected to the customer ID property in the ERP data source  314  and/or the customer ID property in the CRM data source  316 . The name property and the address property in the customer business object  306  are connected to the name property and the address property in the CRM data source  316 . The outstanding balance property in the customer business object  306  is connected to the outstanding balance property in the ERP data source  314 . The load balance method and the update balance method in the customer business object  306  are connected to the load balance method and the update balance method in the ERP data source  314 . The load contact method and the update contact method in the customer business object  306  are connected to the load contact method and the update contact method in the CRM data source  316 .  
         [0053]     The example order business object  308  includes an order number property, a customer ID property, a delivery date property, a tax property, a total property, a status property, a create order method, a load orders method, an update order method, a delete order method, a calc discount method, and a calc tax method. The order number property and the status property in the order business object  308  are connected to the order number property and the status property in the ERP data source  314 . The customer ID property in the order business object  308  is connected to the customer ID property in the ERP data source  314  and/or the customer ID property in the add-on data source  320 . The delivery date property, tax property, and total property in the order business object  308  are connected to the delivery date property, tax property, and total property in the add-on data source  320 . The create order method, load orders method, update orders method, and delete order method in the order business object  308  are connected to the create order method, load orders method, update orders method, and delete order method in the ERP data source  314 . The calc discount method and the calc tax method in the order business object  308  are connected to the calc discount method and the calc tax method in the function data source  322 . It will be appreciated that the names of the properties and/or methods in the data sources  108  need not be the same as the corresponding names of the properties and/or methods in the business objects  306 ,  308 .  
         [0054]     A more detailed view of the customer orders page  302  and the associated connections to the customer business object  306  and the order business object  308  are illustrated in  FIG. 5 . In this example, if the user presses a load button  502 , binder software associated with the form process  326  calls the load contact method of the customer business object  306  and the load orders method of the order business object  308 . For both method calls, the form process  326  supplies the value of the customer number field  504  from the customer contact form  310 . Alternatively, the form process  326  may obtain the value of the customer number field  504  from the customer ID property of the customer business object  306  and/or the order business object  308 . These logical connections may be defined in any suitable manner. For example, a graphical user interface may be used to allow a user to draw connection lines between the forms  302 ,  310 ,  312  and graphical representations of the business objects  306 ,  308 . Preferably, the user may design forms using only a web browser. For example, an asynchronous Java and XML (AJAX) interface may be used.  
         [0055]     When the form process  326  calls the load contact method of the customer business object  306  with the value of the customer number field  504  as a parameter (e.g., using AJAX), the object broker process  304  translates the method call into the native language of the associated data source  108  and retrieves the associated data from the data source  108  in its native format. Specifically, the CRM broker service  330  invokes the native load contact method of the CRM data source  316  and receives the contact&#39;s name and address back from the CRM data source  316 . The CRM broker service  330  then stores the name and contact data to the customer business object  306 . For example, the CRM broker service  330  may be ASP code running on the object broker server  114  that sends an XML file (or another standardized file) to the form process  326 , which is JavaScript code running on the client device  102  that is displaying the customer contact form  310 . Once the customer business object  306  is updated with the new name and address data, the form process  326  populates the name field  506  and the address field  508  of the customer contact form  310 . Using this method, an HTML form may be updated without posting the entire form to a server and re-rendering the entire HTML form.  
         [0056]     Similarly, when the form process  326  calls the load orders method of the order business object  308  with the value of the customer number field  504  as a parameter, the object broker process  304  translates the method call into the native language of the associated data source  108  and retrieves the associated data from the data source  108  in its native format. Specifically, the ERP broker service  328  invokes the native load orders method of the ERP data source  314  and receives a list of order numbers, an associated list of totals, and an associated list of statuses back from the ERP data source  314 . For example, the data may be returned as a database table. These values will eventually be used to fill out the order number column  510 , the amount column  512 , and the status column  514  of the order table  516  in the order list form  312 . However, in this example, the delivery date column  518  cannot be supplied by the ERP data source  314 , because the ERP data source  314  does not have this information.  
         [0057]     The delivery date data is stored in the add-on data source  320  (i.e., the delivery date field was added later by the user). Accordingly, when the form process  326  calls the load orders method of the order business object  308  with the value of the customer number field  504  as a parameter, the add-on broker service  334  invokes the load delivery date method of the add-on data source  320  and receives a list of delivery dates and associated order numbers back from the add-on data source  320 . The object broker process  304  and/or the form process  326  correlate the delivery dates with the amount data and status data received from the ERP data source  314  using the order number data that is common to both lists.  
         [0058]     The object broker process  304  then stores the list of order numbers, the associated list of delivery dates, the associated list of totals, and the associated list of statuses to the order business object  308 . For example, the ERP broker service  328 , the add-on broker service  334 , and/or other software (e.g., ASP code running on the object broker server  114 ) may send an XML file (or another standardized file) to the form process  326  (e.g., JavaScript running on the client device  102 ). Once the order business object  308  is updated with the new data, the form process  326  populates the order table  516  in the order list form  312 .  
         [0059]     A flowchart of an example object broker process  304  is illustrated in  FIG. 6 . Preferably, the object broker process  304  is embodied in one or more software programs which is stored in one or more memories and executed by one or more processors. For example, the object broker process  304  may be ASP code (or any other type of software) running on the object broker server  114 . Although the object broker process  304  is described with reference to the flowchart illustrated in  FIG. 6 , it will be appreciated that many other methods of performing the acts associated with object broker process  304  may be used. For example, the order of many of the steps may be changed, and some of the steps described may be optional.  
         [0060]     Generally, the object broker process  304  receives standardized method calls from the form process  326  and converts the standardized method calls into native method calls. The object broker process  304  then sends the native method calls to the associated data source(s)  108  and receives one or more native responses from the data source(s)  108 . The object broker process  304  then converts the native response(s) to standardized response(s) and sends the standardized response(s) to the calling form process  326 .  
         [0061]     More specifically, the object broker process  304  receives a method call from the form process  326  using a standardized protocol (block  602 ). The standardized method call is associated with a business object and includes any property values (i.e., parameters) needed for this method. For example, a client device  102  may be displaying the customer orders page  302  as an HTML document. Using an onBlur event trigger, the client device  102  may run JavaScript code that sends an XML file  604  representing “LoadContact(1234567)” over the Internet  116  via an HTTP request to an ASP script running on the object broker server  114 . It will be appreciated that any suitable protocols may be used instead of HTML, JavaScript, XML, HTTP, and/or ASP. For example, VBScript may be used instead of JavaScript, and Perl may used instead of ASP.  
         [0062]     The example XML request  604  includes the “LoadContact” method call  606  delimited by an opening “Method” tag  608  and a closing “Method” tag  610 . In addition, the example XML request  604  includes the “CustomerID” property value  612  delimited by an opening “CustomerID” tag  614  and a closing “CustomerID” tag  616 .  
         [0063]     The object broker process  304  then passes the standardized method call to the broker service associated with the method call (block  618 ). For example, the object broker process  304  may send the XML file  604  containing the LoadContact method  606  call to the CRM broker service  330 .  
         [0064]     The broker service associated with the method call then translates the method call from the standardized protocol to the native protocol for the associated data source  108  (block  620 ). For example, the CRM broker service  330  may form a native request  622  for the CRM data source  316  from the received XML file  604 . The native request  622  may use any protocol. For example, the native request  622  may be a SQL query that knows the CRM data source  316  holds the customer contact data in a “FullName” field  624  and a “HomeAddress” field  626  of a “ContactsTable”  628  indexed by a “CustNum” field  630 .  
         [0065]     The broker service associated with the method call then sends the native query to the associated data source  108  and receives a native response from the data source  108  (block  632 ). For example, the CRM broker service  330  may be an ASP script running on the object broker server  114  that sends the native request  622  to the CRM data source  316  as a SQL query and receives a native response  634  in the form of a comma-delimited list. In this example, the native response  634  includes the name value  634  and the address value  636  of the contact associated with the “CustomerID” property value  612 .  
         [0066]     The broker service then converts the native response back to the standardized protocol (block  638 ). For example, the CRM broker service  330  may wait for a SQL response from the CRM data source  316  and generate an associated XML response  640 . In this example, the XML response  640  includes all of the information from the original XML request  604  (i.e., the “LoadContact” method call  606  delimited by an opening “Method” tag  608  and a closing “Method” tag  610  and the “CustomerID” property value  612  delimited by an opening “CustomerID” tag  614  and a closing “CustomerID” tag  616 ). In addition, the XML response  640  includes the name value  634  delimited by an opening “Name” tag  642  and a closing “Name” tag  644 , as well as the address value  640  delimited by an opening “Address” tag  646  and a closing “Address” tag  648 .  
         [0067]     The broker service then sends the standardized response to the calling function in the form process  326  (block  646 ). For example, the CRM broker service  330  may send the XML response  640  to a JavaScript associated with the customer orders page  302  on a client device  102 . As described below, the form process  326  may then use the XML response  640  to populate the HTML based customer orders page  302 .  
         [0068]     A flowchart of an example form process  326  is illustrated in  FIG. 7 . Preferably, the form process  326  is embodied in one or more software programs which is stored in one or more memories and executed by one or more processors. For example, the form process  326  may be JavaScript code (or any other type of software) running on a client device  102 . Although the form process  326  is described with reference to the flowchart illustrated in  FIG. 7 , it will be appreciated that many other methods of performing the acts associated with form process  326  may be used. For example, the order of many of the steps may be changed, and some of the steps described may be optional.  
         [0069]     Generally, the form process  326  detects events associated with a form (e.g., the HTML customer orders page  302 ) and sends standardized method calls (e.g., XML request  604 ) to the object broker process  304 . When the form process  326  receives the standardized response(s) (e.g., XML response  640 ) back from the object broker process  304 , the form process  326  may then use the standardized response(s) to populate the form (e.g., the HTML customer orders page  302 ).  
         [0070]     More specifically, the form process  326  detects an event that requires a form and/or page to be updated (block  702 ). For example, the form process  326  may be JavaScript code running on a client device  102  in association with the customer orders page  302 . When a user presses the load button  502  on the customer contact form  310 , the form process  326  detects the onClick event associated with the load button  502  and executes a portion of the JavaScript code associated with this onClick event (i.e., the event handler).  
         [0071]     When the event handler is executed, the form process  326  generates a suitable method call in the standard protocol (block  704 ). For example, the client device  102  may run JavaScript code that generates the XML file  604  representing “LoadContact(1234567)”. As described above, the example XML request  604  includes the “LoadContact” method call  606  delimited by an opening “Method” tag  608  and a closing “Method” tag  610 . In addition, the example XML request  604  includes the “CustomerID” property value  612  delimited by an opening “CustomerID” tag  614  and a closing “CustomerID” tag  616 .  
         [0072]     The form process  326  then sends the standardized method call to the object broker process  304  (block  706 ). For example, the client device  102  may send the XML request  604  over the Internet  116  via an HTTP request to an ASP script running on the object broker server  114 . The object broker process  304  then communicates with the associated data sources  108  using the native protocols and sends the form process  326  a standardized response (block  708 ). For example, the client side JavaScript associated with the form process  326  may receive the XML response  640  from the server side ASP script associated with the object broker process  304 .  
         [0073]     As described above, the example XML response  640  includes all of the information from the original XML request  604  (i.e., the “LoadContact” method call  606  delimited by an opening “Method” tag  608  and a closing “Method” tag  610  and the “CustomerID” property value  612  delimited by an opening “CustomerID” tag  614  and a closing “CustomerID” tag  616 ). In addition, the XML response  640  includes the name value  634  delimited by an opening “Name” tag  642  and a closing “Name” tag  644 , as well as the address value  640  delimited by an opening “Address” tag  646  and a closing “Address” tag  648 . The form process  326  may then use the standardized response to populate the client&#39;s form (block  710 ). For example, the client side JavaScript may populate the name field  506  and the address field  508  of the HTML based customer contact form  310 .  
         [0074]     A workflow design tool  800  that allows a user to define a resource map  802  is illustrated in  FIG. 8 . In this example, the workflow design tool  800  includes a file explorer section  804  and a design canvas  806 . The file explorer section  804  allows the user to find and organize a plurality of files associated with the work flow. The design canvas  806  allows the user to draw a graphical representation of the resource map  802 . In this example, a resource map  802  is shown that includes a staff object  808  and a customer object  810 . The staff object  808  and the customer object  810  each include one or more input nodes  812  and one or more output nodes  814 . Input nodes  812  are connected to output nodes  814  by process arrows  816 . In this example, a support process  816   a  and a sales process  816   b  each come out of the staff object  808  and into the customer object  810 . Similarly, an order process  816   c  comes out of the customer object  810  and into the staff object  808 .  
         [0075]     By defining workflows in terms of known resources (e.g., the staff object  808  and the customer object  810 ) and the interactions between those resources (e.g., the customer object  810  needs support from the staff object  808 ), the workflow designer can discover and design each process by starting at a high level and drilling down to underlying processes and automated workflows.  
         [0076]     The resource maps  802  also allow for business object inheritance to show classes of a business object and that business object&#39;s child objects. Child objects may be associated with parent objects by modifying properties associated with the parent object and/or adding properties to the parent object. A single parent/child object combination might have a unique link definition within another resource on the canvas. For example, the parent customer object  810  may include a government customer child object and a commercial customer child object. The sales process  816   b  between the staff object  808  and the customer object  810  may be different depending on the type of customer object  810  (i.e., one sales process  816   b  for government customer&#39;s  810  and another sales process for commercial customers  810 ). Similarly, the staff object  808  may be a parent object with sales staff and support staff as two child resources.  
         [0077]     Another view of the workflow design tool  800  is illustrated in  FIG. 9 . In this view, the workflow design tool  800  is used to create a process map  902 . In this example, the support process  816   a  is being defined. The example support process  816   a  includes a start step  904 , a rejected step  906 , and an approved step  908 . In this example, only one of these steps  904 ,  906 ,  908  is to be performed. Accordingly, a new step  910  is being placed to select one of the three steps  904 ,  906 ,  908 . The new step  910  includes a plurality of actions  912  and a plurality of corresponding output nodes  814 . In this example, the new step  910  includes an approve action  914 , a reject action  916 , and a redirect action  918 . The user connects the rejected output node  814   a  to the input node  812   a  of the rejected step  906  by dragging the process connector  816   d . The associated line logic is automatically configured for the user.  
         [0078]     Another process map  1000  is illustrated in  FIG. 10 . In this example process map  1000 , a portion  1002  of the process map  1000  is highlighted. Specifically, an approved step  1004  and a notification step  1006  are included in a highlighted portion  1002 . This portion  1002  may define a localized region of the process map  1000  while other portions of the process map  1000  (e.g., the rest of the process map  1000  in this example) are considered global regions. Using process inheritance, this localization of certain process regions allows a process owner to stay in control of the global process and still allow other users to customize certain portions  1002 . For example, the global process may determine when something is approved and where the notification is routed, but one office in an organization may perform one set of actions in response to the approval and another office in the organization may perform another set of actions in response to the approval. Local processes may even include additional process steps that are specific to the localized region. The process  1000  is maintained under a single process definition such that changes to the global portion are automatically applied to all instances of the process  1000  and changes to the local portion  1002  are only applied to the associated localities.  
         [0079]     In addition, individual process steps and/or portions  1002  may be locked. In this example, an approval step  1008  is individually locked, and the local portion  1002  is also locked. Each locked step and each locked portion includes a lock icon  1010  to indicate a locked status. By locking a process step  1008  and/or a process portion  1002 , process designers can limit another user&#39;s ability to change certain configuration settings, add or remove dependencies, etc. from the defined and locked logic. The locking attributes can also be manipulated by wizards and templates in a programmatic way, allowing lower level building blocks to hide or lock their implementation logic.  
         [0080]     A collaborative framework allows any process designer working within the workflow design tool  800  to visually share his design canvas  806  with another user across the network  116 . A process designer can also initiate a voice or text conversation with the other parties to discuss the process currently being designed. In this manner, the process designer may involve other users in the process design using collaboration and application sharing tools. For example, by right clicking on the design canvas  806 , the process designer may contact a particular person in the accounting department to ask that person who should be notified when a purchase is approved. Text messages and/or voice recordings between collaborators may also be saved to a database for later review. For example, when a process is being evaluated for redesign, the process designer may listen to a collaboration conversation to determine why a particular step was implemented the current way.  
         [0081]     Each step in the graphical representation of process preferably includes an activity strip. An example activity strip  1100  is illustrated in  FIG. 11 . In this example, the activity strip  1100  includes one or more event icons  1102  that represent the events associated with the process step. For example, the user may drag a send e-mail event into a process step. In such an instance, an e-mail event icon  1104  is added to the activity strip  1100 . If the number of event icons  1102  exceeds the width of the activity strip  1100 , the user may scroll through event icons using arrow buttons  1106 .  
         [0082]     When a particular event icon  1102  is selected, the user is shown a setup wizard to configure that portion of the process. Preferably, each step in a process is presented as a cube to the user, and the setup wizard is swiveled into view to create an effect of a single entity that the user is working on. For example, when a user presses the e-mail event icon  1104 , the activity strip  1100  rotates into an e-mail event setup wizard  1200 . A partially rotated view of an example e-mail event setup wizard  1200  is illustrated in  FIG. 12 . A fully rotated view of the same setup wizard  1200  is illustrated in  FIG. 13 . The e-mail setup wizard  1200  may be used to design dynamically constructed e-mails used by one or more workflow processes. For example, the notification step  1006  of the approval process  1000  illustrated in  FIG. 10  includes an output  814  that may be an automatic e-mail message. The e-mail setup wizard  1200  may be used to design how that e-mail message is constructed.  
         [0083]     Preferably, the setup wizard  1200  includes a main display portion  1202  and a next button  1204 . The main display portion  1202  displays one page of the setup wizard  1200 . The next button  1204  advances the main display portion  1202  to the next page of the setup wizard  1200 . A previous button (not shown) changes the main display portion  1202  to display the previous page of the setup wizard  1200 .  
         [0084]     The setup wizard  1200  also includes a page palette  1206 . The page palette  1206  includes a plurality of thumbnails  1208  to  1220 . Each of the thumbnails  1208  to  1220  represents one of the pages in the setup wizard  1200 . The user may quickly jump to any page in the setup wizard  1200  by clicking the associated thumbnail. When a user jumps to a particular page in the setup wizard  1200 , the main display portion  1202  is redrawn to reflect that page.  
         [0085]     In addition, the user may quickly view a popup of any page in the setup wizard  1200  without jumping to that page (i.e., without drawing the page contents in the main display portion  1202 ) by hovering a cursor over the associated thumbnail. For example, the third page  1212  of the example e-mail setup wizard  1200  is displayed as a popup in  FIG. 14 . In this example, the third page  1212  of the setup wizard  1200  includes a subject input box  1402  and a body input box  1404 . The subject input box  1402  of the e-mail setup wizard  1200  is used to define the subject line of the automatic e-mail. The body input box  1404  of the e-mail setup wizard  1200  is used to define the body of the automatic e-mail. Any values entered into a page of the process setup wizard  1200  are visible in the popup view. For example, if the user had entered “Approval Report” in the subject input box  1402  of the third page  1212  of the e-mail setup wizard  1200 , “Approval Report” would be visible in the subject input box  1402  of the popup window. In this manner, the user can enter values on different pages of the setup wizard  1200  that are consistent with other entries without the need to remember those other entries and/or leave the current page.  
         [0086]     A flowchart of an example setup wizard process  1500  is illustrated in  FIG. 15 . Preferably, the setup wizard process  1500  is embodied in one or more software programs which is stored in one or more memories and executed by one or more processors. Although the setup wizard process  1500  is described with reference to the flowchart illustrated in  FIG. 15 , it will be appreciated that many other methods of performing the acts associated with setup wizard process  1500  may be used. For example, the order of many of the steps may be changed, and some of the steps described may be optional.  
         [0087]     The process  1500  begins when a client device  102  detects an event associated with a graphical representation of a process step  1008  (block  1502 ). For example, the user may click on a setup button in the activity strip  1100 . In response, the client device  102  causes an animated sequence to be displayed (block  1504 ). For example, the client device may display the activity strip rotating in three dimensions to show an e-mail setup wizard “side” of a cube. In this manner, the user is given visual feedback that the two objects (e.g., the activity strip  1100  and the e-mail setup wizard  1200 ) are related.  
         [0088]     The setup wizard includes a plurality of setup pages in a thumbnail palette  1206  and a current setup page in a main display portion  1202  (block  1506 ). For example, the first page of an e-mail setup wizard may ask the user to enter the e-mail address of the recipient and the subject of the e-mail message. While the client device  102  is displaying setup wizard pages and receiving setup information from the user, the client device  102  is also looking for a plurality of events such as mouse movements and mouse clicks.  
         [0089]     If a first type of event associated with one of the thumbnail images  1208 - 1220  is detected (block  1508 ), the client device  102  preferably displays a larger version of the associated thumbnail image (block  1510 ). For example, if the user moves the mouse cursor over a particular thumbnail image  1208 - 1220 , a popup window  1212  showing a larger version of that thumbnail image may be displayed. Preferably, the larger version of the thumbnail image is a separate window  1212  that is smaller than the main display portion  1202  (see  FIG. 14 ). However, any type of suitable image may be used. For example, the larger version of the thumbnail image may “temporarily” replace the main display portion  1202 .  
         [0090]     If a second type of event associated with one of the thumbnail images  1208 - 1220  is detected (block  1512 ), the client device  102  preferably removes the larger version of the associated thumbnail image (block  1514 ). For example, if the user moves the mouse cursor out of a particular thumbnail image, the popup window showing the larger version of that thumbnail image may be removed. If the larger version of the thumbnail image is a separate window, that window is removed from the display the content “beneath” the removed window is redraw. If the larger version of the thumbnail image replaced the main display portion  1202 , then the previous contents of the main display portion  1202  (e.g., the current setup page) is redraw in the main display portion  1202 .  
         [0091]     The larger version of the thumbnail image also shows any setup information previously entered by the user. For example, if the user entered the recipients e-mail address on the first page of the setup wizard, moved to another page of the setup wizard, and then wanted to recall the entered e-mail address without scrolling all the way back to the first page, the user may simply roll the mouse over the first thumbnail to recall the entered information.  
         [0092]     If a third type of event associated with one of the thumbnail images  1208 - 1220  is detected (block  1516 ), the client device  102  preferably replaces the main display image with a full size version of the associated thumbnail image (block  1518 ). For example, if the user clicks the mouse on a particular thumbnail image, the main display portion  1202  preferably jumps to that page in the setup wizard. Unlike the mouse over example, removing the mouse from the thumbnail does not revert the main display portion  1202  to the previous page (i.e., the user has moved to that setup page as opposed to just temporally reviewing that setup page).  
         [0093]     At any time, the user may enter one or more setup options (block  1520 ), and the setup options are stored (block  1522 ). If the user exits the setup wizard (block  1524 ), the process  1508 - 1520  of checking for user actions and setup options repeats.  
         [0094]     In summary, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that inventive methods and apparatus related to automated workflows and forms have been disclosed. The foregoing description has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the exemplary embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description of examples, but rather by the claims appended hereto.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6