Business Process Engine Data Adapter for Proprietary Structure Exchange
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Solution Overview
Problem
Business process engines struggle to exchange data with proprietary data structures, limiting portability and compatibility of service descriptions across different technical platforms, as they often require proprietary languages and specific runtime environments.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize a context data object annotated with mapping information to split into utility data objects conforming to standard data definitions, allowing pre-processing and post-processing tasks to read and write data between a standard business process engine and a proprietary data structure instance, enabling data exchange without adapting the engine or language.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If a proprietary process language and runtime environment are used to exchange data with proprietary data structures, then data exchange capability is improved, but portability and adaptability to different platforms deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a proprietary data structure adapter as an intermediary component that sits between the standard business process engine and proprietary data structures. This adapter translates proprietary data structure formats into standard formats that the business process engine can handle, enabling data exchange without requiring the engine to understand proprietary formats. The adapter acts as a mediator that preserves both the proprietary data structure's unique capabilities and the business process engine's standard interface requirements, thus maintaining portability while enabling specialized data exchange.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data exchange functionality by separating the proprietary data structure handling logic from the business process engine. The adapter is divided into distinct components including a data structure parser, a mapping engine, and an integration layer. This segmentation allows the business process engine to remain platform-independent while the adapter handles proprietary format-specific operations, resolving the contradiction between specialized data exchange capability and general portability.
2Manufacturing precision
If business process plans are encoded with platform-specific details to exchange data with services, then data exchange precision is improved, but adaptability to different technical platforms deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter serves as an intermediary that handles platform-specific encoding and decoding operations. It translates platform-specific data formats into a universal intermediate format that the business process plan can work with, maintaining data exchange precision without embedding platform-specific details in the business process plan itself. This allows the same business process plan to be deployed across different technical platforms while the adapter handles the platform-specific transformations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a copying mechanism where the adapter creates and manages copies of data structures in different formats. It maintains copies of proprietary data structures in their native format while creating standardized copies for the business process engine to consume. This copying approach allows precise data exchange with proprietary structures while the business process plan operates on standardized copies, preserving platform independence.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a standard business process engine is used without proprietary adapters, then portability is improved, but capability to exchange data with proprietary data structures deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The proprietary data structure adapter acts as an intermediary layer that enables the standard business process engine to exchange data with proprietary data structures. The adapter translates proprietary data structure formats into standard formats that the engine natively supports, thereby extending the engine's data exchange capability without compromising its portability. The engine remains platform-independent while the adapter handles proprietary format translations.
Solution Approach 2:
The adapter is designed with universal functionality to work with multiple different proprietary data structure formats while maintaining a single standard interface to the business process engine. It implements a universal translation mechanism that can handle various proprietary formats through configuration rather than code changes, enabling the standard engine to access diverse proprietary data structures without losing portability or requiring engine modifications.
Data Source
AI summary
Executing a business process can include providing a context data object including a payload data structure for storing a payload data and automatically splitting an annotated context data object into one or more utility data objects. Responsive to creating a second utility data object, a pre-processing task can be injected into the business process, the pre-processing task using a copy of a first mapping to read data from the predefined data structure instance and to store the read data as payload data in the payload data structure of the first utility data object. Responsive to creating a third utility object, a post-processing task can be injected into the business process. The post-processing task can use a copy of the second mapping to write the payload data of the first utility data object to elements of a predefined data structure instance.