This invention relates generally to computerized methods of workflow management, and in particular to systems and methods for transmitting and receiving (transreceiving) workflow management specifications using an electronic messaging system MIME standard that is interoperable with Internet electronic messaging system standards, and where the workflow management specifications are optionally written in XML.
A great variety of mechanisms have been used in the past to automate the routine aspects of tasks as they occur in military, industrial, and administrative entities such as government, as well as educational institutions. These previous efforts to automate routine tasks included various efforts on the part of a variety of technicians and professionals, including mathematicians, statisticians, computer programmers, and industrial engineers in a process often referred to as workflow management. Early efforts in workflow management date at least as early as World War II, and used such technologies as computer punch card and computer machinery for processing the same. Applications for workflow management, at the onset, include maintaining employee and inventory data. More modern efforts at workflow management include electronic mail systems. As workflow management became more comprehensive and technically oriented, electronic data exchange could provide a system in which business transactions could be undertaken and completed using interconnected data processing equipment. These systems were directed toward achieving a xe2x80x9cpaperlessxe2x80x9d office in which documents of a great variety could be initiated, completed, transmitted, and stored in a computer.
Workflow is defined as a series of tasks within an organization or organizations to produce a final outcome. In general, workflow is the way that work moves around an organization. Specifically, the work follows a path, and the path is called xe2x80x9cworkflowxe2x80x9d. Technically speaking, workflow is defined as the automation of standard procedures (e.g. records management in personnel operations) by imposing a set of sequential rules on the procedure. Each task, when finished, automatically initiates the next logical step in the process until the entire procedure is completed. In a more technical sense, workflow includes parallel processing of multiple tasks which continue, individually and collectively, until the procedure comprising all the tasks is completed.
A typical example of an automated workflow is seen in FIG. 2, where the workflow executes in a communications network having networked server and client computers. In the depicted system, an individual uses a client computer to connect to a server computer so as to begin a workflow request. The server initiates a workflow application. In the case of document processing, the server computer would return a document to the client computer so that the requestor can fill out the computerized document. Upon completion, the requestor then transmits back to the server the completed document in electronic form. The workflow application executing on the server computer accesses workflow archive files for adding additional information to the computerized document. Upon completion of this phase, the server computer transmits an electronic message to an agent who is authorized to perform the requested function. By way of example, this may be an editorial review of the computerized document that is performed by an editor at a second client computer that is the recipient of the computerized document from the server computer. Once the agent has performed the authorized request, the server computer is updated as to the status of that editorial review within the workflow. Next, the server computer executes the workflow specification to perform the next task in the workflow which may be, in the case of a computerized document, a publisher""s review of the edited computerized document. The publisher""s review may include review and approval of various items contained in the computerized document.
In its simplest form, workflow management can be considered to be a form of document routing. Document routing is a feature of some document image processing systems which are aimed at controlling the route that a document follows through its various stages of processing. In an insurance office, for example, a system might route incoming mail to the appropriate clerk for data entry. Next, the document image processing system may refer queries or sensitive transactions to a supervisor, as well suspend processing of a document if further information was needed, as well as various and sundry tasks of or relating to the image processing of the document.
Because of the initial emphasis in workflow management upon processing of documents, workflow management has often been considered the mere routing of documents. Contemporary workflow management, however, is more than mere document routing, but also includes the passing of messages and reminders to task performers as well as a monitoring of the status of the same, to the end that a major and comprehensive project can be accomplished with as little personnel as possible by using a workflow management software system.
The science of the management of workflow is contemporarily an electronic management of work processes. These processes include forms processing or project management using computer networks and electronic messaging as the foundation. In the case of forms processing, workflow management system may control the procedure for accepting insurance policies, or college admissions. In the case of a technical assistance center for the public, workflow management may involve the art and science of having the right number of people or acting agents at the right times, in their seats, to answer and accurately forecast the volume of incoming calls at the service level that is desired.
Computer software that is used for process automation can be found in systems which are categorized and disciplined by the combination of policies and procedures. An underlining foundation of workflow software is that the computer code for such software has been designed with a set of rules and processes for the type of activity that a company finds itself in. These rules and procedures are selected, for instance, such that the company realizes a desirable degree of return on the company""s investment. As such, the software can be proved for its worthiness to serve a business interest.
Within workflow management, and particularly the software that implements workflow management, the basic unit is known as a workflow loop. The workflow loop connects a customer, such as a person making a request or accepting an offer, and a performer, which is a person making a performance, in a four-phase cycle. The workflow loop moves toward completion as participants make speech acts or the equivalent thereof. For example, the customer says the equivalent of xe2x80x9cI request.xe2x80x9d Second, a performer says xe2x80x9cI promise to do the request.xe2x80x9d Third, the performer performs the act and then replies to the customer xe2x80x9cI am done with your request.xe2x80x9d Fourth, the customer reviews the work that was promised by the performer, and then responds to the performer xe2x80x9cI am satisfied.xe2x80x9d As such, the workflow loop is closed.
Workflow management is a fast evolving technology within management science that is increasingly exploited by businesses in a variety of industries. Its primary characteristic is the automation of processes involving combinations of human and machine-based activities, particularly those involving interaction with information technology applications and tools. Although it""s most prevalent use is within the office environment in staff intensive operations such as insurance, banking, legal, and in general administration, etc., it is also applicable to some classes of industrial and manufacturing applications.
Myriad inventors have proposed ideas for workflow management computer software, including the concepts of document preparation and routing, and workflow management as automated within the construct of an electronic messaging system in and among a geographically disbursed group of computer networks and users networked thereby. What has been lacking among these ideas in the ability of the proposed workflow management systems to be compatible in their use of electronic messaging of workflow specifications.
With the increasing use of electronic mail or e-mail messaging on the Internet, compatibility of telecommunication systems becomes increasingly important as different users in different countries using different computers and different software have a need communicate. When e-mail messaging compatibility is achieved, then each user can use his respective e-mail system to enable a computer network to send messages to other users with compatibility so that the recipient user can understand the message. This concept of compatibility is often called software interoperability.
Interoperability is the ability to operate software and exchange information in a network that is made up of several different local area networks. When software has the ability to interoperate, it has the ability to function with multi-vendor computers so as to work together using a common set of protocols. By way of example, with interoperability, PCs, Macs, Suns, DECs, VAXs, IBM mainframes, etc. all work together allowing one host computer to communicate with and take advantage of the resources of another.
A software or hardware module is said to be an xe2x80x9cinteroperator,xe2x80x9d when it implements part of an OSI model (Open Systems Interconnection Model) and can work with components implementing the other parts of the model. The OSI is the only internationally accepted framework of standards for communications between different systems made by different vendors. As such, a high value is placed on interoperator hardware or software due to the inherent compatibility in the diverse universe of the Internet. Due to the emphasis upon the goal of compatibility or interoperability, interoperability testing is regularly performed in the information technology industry. Within the information technology industry there are several levels of testing of new products and services towards the end of interoperability.
With an increasing emphasis in military, industrial, and governmental organizations"" emphasis upon workflow management, there has also been a need for a coordination of such efforts especially as the main vehicle for implementation of the same has been electronic messaging. Electric messaging today is increasingly found in the Internet. Workflow in Internet applications provide, respectively, the information communication capability of the Internet with strategic business processes automation integration capabilities of computer programs that implement workflow management.
Most software vendors have workflow management products available today which involve workflow management technology and there is a continual introduction of more products into the market. One such product, for example, is the xe2x80x9cFlow Markxe2x80x9d brand software produced by IBM. The availability of a wide range of products within the market has allowed individual product vendors to focus on particular functional capabilities, while users have adopted particular products to meet specific application needs. The increased development of such workflow management software products have underscored the need for various vendor""s products to be able to work together and cooperate in a coordination of workflow management tools. While the prior efforts of software vendors in workflow management products disclose both simple and elaborate workflow management workflow concepts as implemented by workflow management software (workflow engines), a common problem among each of these references is the inability of the same to interoperate.
With the increasing use of the Internet for workflow management, a need for standardization in workflow management has been realized in an organization known as the Workflow Management Coalition. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) was established in August 1993 as a non-profit international body for the development and promotion of workflow standards. Its membership consists of numerous parties interested or involved in the creation, analysis or deployment of workflow management systems. It has been recognized by the WfMC, and those companies joining the organization, that workflow management products require and need some common characteristics, enabling them potentially to achieve a level of interoperability through the use of common standards of common functions.
The WfMC has been established to identify these common functions and develop appropriate specifications for implementation in workflow products. It is intended that such specifications will enable interoperability between heterogenous workflow products and improved integration of workflow applications with other information technology services such as electronic mail and document management, thereby improving the opportunities for effective use of workflow technology within the information technology market, to the benefit of both vendors and users of such technology.
Toward the end of interoperability, the WfMC had advocated the use of the Internet and the electronic messaging aspects thereof for the purpose of achieving interoperability. Specifically, the WfMC has prescribed a standard for providing the communication of workflow management messages among computer systems running workflow management computer programs. As such, the WfMC has given concrete definitions of messages that flow between two computers executing workflow management programs in order to affect interoperability throughout the WfMC standard.
The WfMC emphasizes that workflow brings a distinctive feature to the Internet and encourages use of workflow management through the Internet. The WfMC, from the on set, settled on the use of Multi-Purpose Internet Mailing Extension (MIME) with e-mail as a means for standardizing the interoperation of computer programs executing workflow management software.
It is the goal of the WfMC that workflow management interchange specifications will offer simple mechanisms for providing the means to operate overall process control and synchronization across heterogeneous workflow computer processing mechanisms over the Internet. The WfMC has provided industry with an abstract specification which defines the functionality required to support interoperability between computers processing workflow management software. It is intended that the WfMC standard for interoperability would provide the basis for experimentation by workflow management software vendors to work toward the adoption on a wide-based scale of such standard. Once implemented, the WfMC standard will control the order that one computer makes a request of another computer in the operation of workflow management software. The requesting computer should (optionally) also be able to receive back status information and the request of the enactment of the process definition. As far as possible, this is to be done in a way that is transparent to and unseen by the user.
The WfMC has enunciated the standard for interoperability in a publication known as Interface4 (IF4) which has been published as an abstract specification. IF4 defines operations to instantiate and control a remote sub-process executed by a first computer making a request upon a second computer that executes a workflow management process. In IF4, the requesting computer can inquire the status of the other computer and receive notifications of process events initiated by the first computer. IF4, according to the WfMC proposed standard, the use of Internet e-mail with the MIME protocol.
Interoperability of workflow management software over the Internet in electronic messaging services is needful in view of rapidly challenging automating process that cross departmental boundaries. The WfMC sees that continuous deployment of workflow applications in large enterprises will be made possible only through the support of interoperability of different computer software vendors and their software packages for workflow management. In turn, there will be promoted through such standardization, extra enterprise networks of business processes linking multiple enterprises inside virtual enterprises. For this reason, WfMC has proceeded in the direction of interoperability via enunciating the IF4 standard. The fundamental focus of IF4 and its goal of interoperability is the transmission of data across the network as well as a focus of process invocation, status control, and synchronization of the tasks that make up the accomplishment of a workflow management project. IF4 supports the management execution of business processes, which is the innovation to which workflow technology is directed, and further is the goal of cooperating processes.
The IF4 standard for interoperability of workflow management software that the WfMC has focused upon gives concrete definition of the messages that flow between computers. In the abstract, these messages are mapped into a simple text interface that uses Internet e-mail as the transport method between the two computers. Specifically, the WfMC uses an e-mail xe2x80x9cMIMExe2x80x9d header to define interoperability messages to both request a task and respond to a task. MIME is discussed further below. Additionally, the WfMC poses use of the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) style of formatting or encoding requests for tasks and responses to that task in the body of an e-mail message. CGI is discussed further below.
The MIME header standard calls for including material other than ASCII text in e-mail messages. The concept and specification of MIME was developed and adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard map for including non-text information in an Internet mail, thereby supporting the transmission of mixed-media messages across Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. The MIME protocol, which is actually an extension of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, covers binary, audio, and video data. MIME also is the standard for transmitting foreign language text (e.g., Russian or Chinese) which cannot be represented in plain ASCII code. With MIME, other files, including binary files such as pictures, video, sound, and executable files can also be attached to e-mail messages. Since the initial Internet isn""t able to directly handle binary files in e-mail, the file must first be encoded in a variety of encoding schemes. The receiver of the attached binary files (called an attachment) must decode the file with the same scheme that was used to encode the file. Many e-mail software packages do this automatically. For example, when sending files which aren""t plain US-ASCII across a network-dial-up, at least on the Internet, there are two options. First, one can attach the files as a binary (i.e., non-ASCII file) or one can encode them into ASCII characters and send the file as part of the e-mail message. The first option is preferable, but one can typically only send binary files from one account to another on the same network or between two networks that have agreed between themselves to a method of transferring files. However, the latter is a rarity, and rarely is satisfactorily functional on the Internet. Therefore, MIME was created, employing a xe2x80x9cbasic64xe2x80x9d encoding scheme, which involves relatively simple encoding and decoding algorithms.
CGI, as proposed by the WfMC, is a style for formatting an e-mail message having an encoded workflow management task request and task response in the body of the e-mail message. CGI is the standard way of interfacing computer programs with Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) where World Wide Web service so that a World WideWeb Page can display material computed when needed, rather than just being limited to text and graphics. CGI programs normally output HyperText Markup Language (HTML) text produced by a MIME xe2x80x9cContent Typexe2x80x9d header.
The body of a message in the MIME protocol contains one or more operation requests/responses with appropriate parameters, encoded using concepts defined by the CGI and the Universal Resource Locator (URL) encoding scheme. The codes for designating various MIME formats are standardized at and published by the IETF via various publications known as Requests for Comments (RFC). These standards for MIME designations specify the content types and content subtypes for MIME and are more particularly designated in the following:
(i) Request For Comments No. 2046 titled xe2x80x9cMultipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Typesxe2x80x9d, November, 1996, Standards Track, authored by N. Freed and N. Borenstein, which is incorporated herein by reference (RFC 2046); and
(ii) Request For Comments No. 2048 titled xe2x80x9cMultipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Four: Registration Proceduresxe2x80x9d, November, 1996, Standards Track, authored by N. Freed, J. Klensin and J. Postel, which is incorporated herein by reference (RFC 2048).
MIME protocol defines the content type and media types that are used on the Internet. There are various MIME content types. Each content type is used on the Internet to define the content type of media that is transmitted with an e-mail. Various specifications, promulgated by the IETF, specify the content type and content sub-type for MIME. The various content types of MIME are several and expand at the discretion of the IETF. By way of example, MIME content types include text, multipart, message, application, image, audio, and video. A user of the Internet World Wide Web uses these MIME content types to interpret data retrieved from worldwide web servers. Each MIME content type has a plurality of content sub-types that further distinguish the type of data transmitted with e-mail messages.
In the xe2x80x9capplicationxe2x80x9d MIME content type, various content sub-types can be registered or unregistered with the WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C) or the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). Various software vendors have registered content sub-types as applications with the W3C. As such, a word processing document produced by a particular software vendor""s word processing software, if associated with a content sub-type that is registered with the W3C, will have its own content sub-type for the type application. For example, a MIME header containing the xe2x80x9capplication/ms-wordxe2x80x9d would indicate that the e-mail message is transmitting data for a software application and that the application is the Microsoft Word brand software application. New content sub-types under the application content type are registered with the W3C for the benefit of ease of use by an e-mail transmitter and receiver on the Internet.
Examples of a request and respective response thereto within workflow electronic messages with a MIME encoding scheme using IF4 interoperability standard as proposed by the WfMC are seen in FIGS. 3A and 3B. As seen in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the WfMC has selected the xe2x80x9capplicationxe2x80x9d MIME content type upon which to standardize the IF4 interoperatibility e-mail MIME standard. Additionally, a language that communicates workflow management commands has also been proposed in IF4. To use the workflow management language proposed by WfMC, a e-mail sets forth the content type xe2x80x9capplicationxe2x80x9d, the content sub-type xe2x80x9cx-WfMC-if4-xe2x80x9d, and additional text therewith depending on whether there is a response or a request involved. This is followed by the process definition language for workflow management as set forth by the4 IF4 standard of the WfMC.
In the IF4 standard proposed by the WfMC, the MIME header is used for requests as xe2x80x9cContent-type: application/x-WfMC-if4-requestxe2x80x9d. IF4 defines the format of the MIME header for response as xe2x80x9cContent-type: application/x-WfMC-if4-responsexe2x80x9d. The xe2x80x9capplicationxe2x80x9d is the content type, the xe2x80x9cx-WfMC-if4-requestxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9cx-WfMC-if4-responsexe2x80x9d are content sub-types. The xe2x80x9c/xe2x80x9d divides the content type from the content sub-type. The xe2x80x9cx-xe2x80x9d prefix is for a content sub-type indication that the extension is not considered as a standard content sub-type and may change or be defined otherwise by other users.
The process definition language set forth by the WfMC give the list of rules, which are the actions or lists or steps also known as the road map, plan, template, or schema, for executing a particular workflow management plan. Specifically, the workflow process definition language defines the tasks to be performed and the order thereof. Each task is given an identification code and a stated due date.
The process definition language set forth by the WfMC is argued to be extensible depending on the implementation in various workflow management computer software. A difficulty with the IF4 standard of the WfMC is that there are limitations to its flexibility. One such limitation is that a programmer must strictly use the MIME application content type and workflow management content sub-type with the process definition language set forth by IF4. As such, there is no flexibility outside of the standard. Should the programmer wish diversity not found within the IF4 standard, and should write a workflow management specification that is in a process definition language that is not understood by other computer programs receiving the MIME, then a syntax error, system crash, or other non-functionality diagnostic may appear to the user and cause the ultimate goal of workflow management to fail in the computerized process.
It would be an advantage in the art to develop a workflow management programming language which was transportable by an electronic mail messaging server through the MIME standard that would interoperate with other electronic messaging services without causing syntax errors, system crashes, or otherwise failure of a hardware device or software operation due to the inability to recognize, decode, or otherwise process an electronic message containing a workflow process definition language. This type of interoperability is desirable in that errors will not be caused by incorrect programming statements because rules of the various languages being used by computers receiving electronic messages are complied with.
It would further be desirable to define a MIME header used in conjunction with the transport of an e-mail that is within recognized Internet standards of workflow management processes and that could be processed by all Internet e-mail users cognizant of the Internet standard without causing a failure or system crash. In this way, different systems can communicate at best in intimate detail, and at worst at displaying workflow management tasks without causing a system crash or syntactic error.
The inventors propose transreceiving workflow specifications using electronic messaging with messages having a content type xe2x80x9cmultipartxe2x80x9d in a MIME header and a content sub-type representative of a workflow specification. One benefit of using the MIME xe2x80x9cmultipartxe2x80x9d content type is that there can be an encapsulation of several entities within the entity-body of a single message, which is a feature inherent to the multipart content type. The content sub-type code designating a workflow is important in that it will not have any special meaning for HTTP. The workflow specifications are proposed to be written in eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML), which provide a robust tool for specifying workflows. As such, the MIME multipart content type and workflow content sub-type as proposed by the invention represent an accepted MIME protocol that is interoperable with electronic messaging systems in compliance with W3C and IETF standards. By using Internet community protocols for electronic messaging, the invention provides to a large and diverse group of networked entities engaged in workflow management a worldwide interoperable system.
These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.