Transaction Logging System with Standard Header for Workflow Diagnostics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current diagnostic tools fail to provide transaction-level insights across interconnected applications, making it difficult to identify and diagnose errors in transaction workflows, especially in complex systems like securities trading where multiple applications are involved.
Innovation Solution
A transaction logging system that receives and consolidates application log files from multiple applications, using a standard header with a transaction ID, outcome, and timestamp to provide an end-to-end view of transactions, allowing users to pinpoint error locations within the workflow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple interconnected applications are used to execute transactions, then transaction processing capability is improved, but diagnostic capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the transaction workflow into discrete steps, each executed by a specific application. Each application log file is divided into a header portion (containing transaction ID, outcome, timestamp) and a body portion. This segmentation allows independent analysis of each application's contribution to the overall transaction, making it easier to identify where errors occur in complex multi-application workflows.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a standardized header format as an intermediary structure that mediates between different applications. The header contains common transaction identification fields (transaction ID, outcome, timestamp) that are recognized across all applications in the workflow. This intermediary structure enables correlation of logs from multiple applications without requiring integration of their entire log formats, simplifying diagnostic processes.
2Adaptability or versatility
If application-specific log formats are used, then application logging flexibility is improved, but log integration capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal header format that serves multiple applications simultaneously. The header structure with fields for transaction ID, outcome, and timestamp is designed to be application-agnostic, allowing logs from different applications (securities processing, payment processing, delivery scheduling) to be integrated into a single diagnostic view while each application maintains its own logging flexibility in the body portion.
Solution Approach 2:
The log file is segmented into a standardized header portion and an application-specific body portion. The header contains universal transaction identification data that enables integration across applications, while the body can contain application-specific details. This segmentation allows each application to log in its own flexible format without compromising the ability to integrate and correlate logs from multiple sources.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented system and method to track a transaction that is executed by a series of applications in a workflow. Each application in the workflow generates an application log file that includes a standard header, which in turn includes a transaction ID associated with the transaction, an outcome associated with a step of the transaction executed by each of the applications, and a timestamp associated with the step of the transaction. The application log file with the header is received and stored by the computer system. The computer system can thereafter retrieve and display the entire transaction history for the transaction across all of the applications in response to a user query. The standard header is appended to the application log file and agnostic to the underlying technology used to implement the application system so that any transaction can be reconstructed end-to-end regardless of the form of the application system.