Patent ID: 8689131

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for creating and executing a custom action in a workflow generated by an application program executing on a computer system, comprising: receiving, in a user interface generated by the application program, a selection of the custom action to execute in the workflow by receiving at least one preference for defining the custom action in the user interface; translating, utilizing a translation module, the custom action into a button for executing the custom action in the workflow, the translation module utilizing a form schema and a dynamically generated mapping between data types and one or more user interface controls for each of the data types, the custom action comprising one or more of the following: conditional approval and abstain, wherein translating the custom action into a button for executing the custom action in the workflow comprises passing the at least one preference defining the custom action to a translation module in the application program to create the button corresponding to the custom action, wherein creating the button comprises consulting mapping data to identify a user interface control for a data type field specified by the form schema, the mapping data comprising the data type field and a user interface control field, the translation module being configured as a form generator to programmatically generate a layout for an electronic business process form, the translation module being utilized to add the button to the electronic business process form; and displaying, in the workflow generated by the application program, the button for executing the custom action in the workflow, the workflow comprising one or more user interface buttons representing predefined tasks which are automatically populated in an internal action list when the workflow is generated by the application program.