Patent Document ID: 7627581
Application ID: 11668669

Base Claim:
1. A process control system comprising: a server that includes a processor that has access to a database system, the processor executing program code for the process control system; a table of process records in the database system, each process record indicating a current status of a process being controlled by the system; a table of administrative query records in the database system, each administrative query record specifying an administrative query that is associated with a query on the table of process records and with a plurality of administrative activities; and the processor executing a portion of the program code which selects one of the administrative queries for execution, executes the query associated therewith, and performs an associated administrative activity of the plurality thereof with regard to a result set of the process records returned by the associated query; and a log table in the database system that has records logging executions of the query and process records returned thereby and from whose records the portion of the code can, when executed, determine whether a record belonging to the result set is in one of a plurality of states with regard to the current execution of the administrative query; wherein: which of the plurality of administrative activities is performed with regard to a record belonging to the result set depends on the state of the record.

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Claim 3:
3. The process control system set forth in claim 1 further comprising: a program sequence table in the database system that contains a set of program sequence records that are associated with the administrative query, each of the associated records specifying at least an administrative activity and a way of determining a next record in the set; and wherein the records logging the executions of the query and process records returned thereby further include a next sequence pointer for a given execution of the administrative query and a given process record, the next sequence pointer specifying a next record of the set of program sequence records, the portion of code, when executed, responding when a process record is again returned by a future execution of the administrative query by performing the administrative activity specified in the program sequence record specified by the next record pointer and setting the next sequence pointer as specified in the program sequence record.