Workflow Management Engine for Microservice Customization
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Solution Overview
Problem
In microservice-based architectures, managing custom workflows across different microservices is inefficient due to inconsistencies in configurations and performance, requiring significant resources for designing and implementing custom workflows, user interfaces, and endpoints.
Innovation Solution
A novel library and workflow management engine are introduced to provide standardized core components, attributes, and endpoints for generating and managing custom workflows, ensuring consistency and reducing resource expenditure across microservices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If custom workflows are implemented independently in each microservice, then each microservice can have customized functionality, but the complexity of managing and maintaining workflows increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a universal workflow management engine that provides standardized core components and attributes that can be used across all microservices. This engine handles workflow definition, execution, and management centrally, allowing each microservice to benefit from custom workflows without independently implementing the complex management infrastructure. The standardized attributes and core components serve multiple microservices simultaneously, reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The workflow management engine acts as an intermediary between microservices and the workflow execution infrastructure. It provides a standardized interface for defining workflows with core components and attributes, while handling the complexity of execution, monitoring, and management internally. This mediator approach allows microservices to use custom workflows without directly managing the underlying complexity.
2Device complexity
If standardized workflow components are introduced across microservices, then consistency and maintainability improve, but the flexibility to implement service-specific custom workflows may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments workflow functionality into two distinct layers: standardized core components/attributes that provide consistency and management capabilities, and service-specific custom workflow definitions that provide flexibility. The core components include standardized elements like workflow identifiers, status tracking, and execution control, while allowing each microservice to define custom workflow steps, transitions, and business logic specific to their needs. This segmentation enables both consistency in management and flexibility in implementation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If independent custom logic and user interfaces are integrated into each microservice, then each service can be highly customized, but resource expenditure for development and maintenance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the workflow management functionality, core components, and user interfaces into a shared infrastructure that serves all microservices. Instead of each microservice having independent workflow management code and interfaces, the system combines these into a unified workflow management engine that provides standardized capabilities across services. This consolidation reduces duplicate development effort and maintenance resources while preserving service-specific workflow customization through the configurable core components and attributes.
Data Source
AI summary
In general, various aspects of the present invention provide methods, apparatuses, systems, computing devices, computing entities, and/or the like for generating and managing custom workflows for domain objects defined within microservices. In accordance with various aspects, a method is that comprises: receiving an attribute value for a custom workflow to include in a microservice that corresponds to an attribute defined for a workflow component; accessing mapping data for an attribute; identifying, based on the mapping data, a corresponding field of a workflows table mapped to the attribute; storing a record in the workflows table for the custom workflow with the attribute value stored in the corresponding field for the record to persist the custom workflow in the microservice.