Activity Browser Unifying Disparate Service Interfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Business applications have low ease of use due to disparate interfaces for various services, making it difficult for users to gather relevant information for tasks or business situations within an enterprise.
Innovation Solution
An activity browser system that operates on a common work context layer, providing unified views of ongoing activities, resources, participants, and actions across different contexts, allowing users to browse and manage activities through a centralized interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple services are implemented with specific interfaces for different data, then each service can provide specialized functionality, but the ease of use deteriorates due to difficulty in gathering related information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple service interfaces into a unified activity browser that presents integrated views of business processes. Instead of requiring users to navigate separate interfaces for different services, the system combines them into a single coherent presentation that shows related information from multiple services in context, thereby improving ease of use while maintaining service versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The activity browser serves as a universal interface that can access and present data from multiple different services through a common framework. It provides multi-functional capabilities by allowing users to view activities, resources, participants, and actions across different business processes through a single standardized interface, eliminating the need to learn multiple service-specific interfaces.
2Adaptability or versatility
If data is provided through multiple service interfaces, then comprehensive functionality is achieved, but the complexity of gathering related information increases
Solution Approach 1:
The activity browser acts as an intermediary layer between users and multiple service interfaces. It mediates the complexity by providing a standardized, unified presentation framework that abstracts away the underlying complexity of multiple service interfaces. Users interact with a single simplified interface while the system handles the complexity of gathering and integrating data from multiple services in the background.
3Adaptability or versatility
If users must navigate multiple service interfaces, then access to all services is possible, but the time required to gather information increases
Solution Approach 1:
The activity browser performs preliminary action by pre-gathering and pre-organizing information from multiple services before the user needs it. It proactively retrieves related data from different services and presents it in an integrated view, eliminating the need for users to manually navigate through multiple interfaces and reducing information gathering time while maintaining comprehensive service access.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for an activity browser. A computer system includes a user interface linked to a processor arranged to perform instructions in accordance with a business application stored in a memory, the business application including context code portions representing at least one context, the context representing a business situation, service interface code portions defining at least two interfaces between services and the context, each of the interfaces arranged for exchanging data from a parameter of the context and the service associated with the context, and user-interface code portions for outputting at the user interface data representing information about the context.