JP3926306B2 - Workflow interworking apparatus, program thereof, and workflow processing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is interposed between the first and second systems when, for example, a process related to a commercial transaction is executed between the first and second systems that execute workflow processing using sessions independent of each other. The present invention relates to an inter-workflow cooperation apparatus, its program, and a workflow processing method using this apparatus.

  Currently, in the field of web services and the like, digitization of commercial transactions for the purpose of automating routine operations in transactions between companies is progressing. For example, when company A is an ordering side and company B is an order receiving side and performs an ordering process, company A first requests an estimate, then company B sends an estimate in response, and then company A sends The purchase order is sent, and the company B receiving it sends the order confirmation, and finally the delivery is performed together with the delivery.

The above process is a document exchange procedure between the companies A and B. From the viewpoint of the company A, there is generally an internal decision regarding purchase before requesting a quotation. In-house approval generally involves a so-called workflow, such as a drafter → an authorizer 1 → an authorizer 2. Similarly, from the viewpoint of the company B, when an estimate request is received, in-house approval may be required for determining a discount rate, etc., and processing and approval for securing inventory may be required.
Thus, it can be said that the business-to-business transaction achieves a series of processes while the workflow in the company A, the workflow in the company B, and the workflow between the companies AB are mutually linked.

  Here, the workflow is characterized in that a certain work is achieved by a plurality of times of communication, and usually a plurality of persons are successively involved in the same work. For this reason, the workflow processing system has a function of holding information related to a certain job in the system and sharing information related to the same job in each process in a series of communications. A unit for bundling a plurality of communications is called a session, and information accompanying a certain job is called session information. The session information includes a session identifier, a server identifier, business-specific information, and the like.

  Hereinafter, in document exchange, a document sending side is called a transmitting side, and a receiving side is called a receiving side. In the case of the quote request mentioned above, company A is the sender and company B is the receiver. In the case of the quote, company A is the receiver and company B is the sender. . When a process in which a series of work is achieved by a plurality of communications as described above is performed, conventionally, prior to communication, the transmission side requests the reception side to issue a session and acquires an identifier called a session identifier. In the communication after the next time, the transmission side identifies the communication related to a specific session by inserting the session identifier in the header area of the communication protocol.

  That is, the transmission side system explicitly controls the generation and deletion of the session of the reception side system. In other words, it is necessary for the sending system to be aware of the design of the receiving system and to explicitly manage the life cycle of the session. For example, the transmission side system requests the server on the reception side to generate an object (session), and receives the resulting object reference (session identifier). In the subsequent communication, the received object reference is passed to the receiving side to identify that the series of communication is related to each other (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1).

"Common Object Request Broker Architecture: Core Specification Version 3.0.2", OMG, [online], published on December 2, 2002, [searched on May 6, 2003], Internet <URL: http: //www.omg. org / cgi-bin / doc? formal / 02-12-02.pdf>

However, such a conventional system has the following problems.
(1) Since a pre-process called session generation is required prior to the process, there is a communication overhead.
(2) In a conventional system, a client issues a session issuance request, and a server issues a session. In other words, there is a master-slave relationship in the session, and it is necessary to create a client-side program in consideration of the session life cycle of the partner system.

For example, the examples shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 show a case where the order-receiving system is a single module and a case where the order-receiving system is composed of two modules. It also indicates that it is necessary to make a session issuance request. In the case of FIG. 11, the ordering side system executes a session establishment process called new OrderService. In the case of FIG. 12, the ordering side system needs to be aware of two sessions, new EstimateService and new OrderService, in accordance with the ordering side system. There is.
Originally, in transactions between companies in an equal position, it is necessary to be aware of the design of the partner system for session management, so even if the document exchange procedure is the same, even if the document exchange procedure is the same, each company system It is necessary to change the design.

(3) Session management mechanisms such as session identifier issuance and session-related processing requests depend on middleware (for example, CORBA) that is generally used. For this reason, there was a limit in selecting middleware used by each company.
The present invention has been made paying attention to the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to be able to set up a session independently among a plurality of workflow systems by eliminating the dependency of each other's systems. An object is to provide an inter-workflow cooperation apparatus, a program thereof, and a workflow processing method.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention interposes an inter-workflow cooperation device between the first and second systems that execute workflow processing using mutually independent sessions. Providing a plurality of receiving units that are set in advance to determine whether or not to generate a session and correspond to a plurality of processes executed by the second system, and a session management table shared by the plurality of receiving units .
Each receiving unit receives the first file transmitted from the first system, and corresponds to a session with the first system according to a predetermined rule from the received first file. Information to be extracted. Further, when it is necessary to generate a session, the second system is requested to generate a session, and information indicating the session used by the second system is acquired from the second system. Information indicating a session used by the two systems and information corresponding to the session with the extracted first system are associated with each other and stored in the session management table. On the other hand, when session generation is unnecessary , the session management table is searched based on the information corresponding to the session with the extracted first system, and generation of the session is necessary. The information indicating the session used by the second system stored in advance in the operation of the case is read out, and the session execution request and the received information are read according to the read information indicating the session used by the second system. The first file is transmitted to the second system.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, in the interworkflow cooperation apparatus, information corresponding to the session used by the first system is extracted from the first file such as a document transmitted from the first system by a predetermined session extraction rule. The extracted information is associated with the session used by the second system. Then, based on this correspondence, file transfer from the first system to the second system is performed while maintaining session cooperation. Therefore, the first system need only agree on the format of the file to be transmitted and received, and does not need to be aware of the session identifier explicitly. As a result, it is not necessary for the first system to be aware of the configuration of the second system, and the independence of the systems can be maintained.

In addition, according to the present invention, the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus further includes a plurality of transmission units provided to be paired with the plurality of reception units and share a session management table. And in these transmission parts, the 2nd file transmitted from the 2nd system is received, and it corresponds to the session between the 1st system according to a predetermined rule from the received 2nd file. Information to be extracted. The extracted information corresponding to the session with the first system and the information indicating the session used by the second system are stored in the session management table in association with each other. It is also characterized in that a file transfer between the first system and the second system is performed based on the information obtained.
Thus, by providing each transmitter with a session equivalent information extraction function, even when the second system executes a plurality of types of processing using a common session, the first system is conscious of that. It is possible to send and receive files without doing so.

In addition, when the second system includes a plurality of computers, the present invention further includes a computer selection unit having a function of selecting these computers according to a predetermined load distribution algorithm. Then, when it is necessary to generate a session in each receiving unit, the computer selection unit is requested to select a computer, information indicating the selected computer is received, and the selection is performed based on the received information. It is also characterized in that it requests the generated computer to generate a session and receives information indicating the session used by the second system from the computer.
In this way, by further providing the computer selection unit, processing requests from the first system are evenly distributed to a plurality of computers, whereby processing requests are concentrated on a specific computer in the second system. The problem can be solved and the processing efficiency of the workflow can be improved.

  In short, according to the present invention, when one work is achieved by performing communication a plurality of times between a plurality of workflow processing systems, sessions having different life cycles set independently by each system can be freely linked. Accordingly, it is possible to provide an inter-workflow cooperation apparatus, a program thereof, and a workflow processing method that can maintain the independence of the systems by eliminating the dependency between the systems.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an inter-company order processing system which is an embodiment of a workflow processing system according to the present invention.
This system connects an ordering side system AS and a plurality of ordering side systems BS1 to BSn to each other via a communication network NW, and associates them with the ordering side system AS and ordering side systems BS1 to BSn. Cooperation devices WRa and WRb are provided.

  The ordering side system AS has a plurality of client terminals CL1 to CLk used by an orderer or a finalizer in the company, and these client terminals CL1 to CLk are connected to the communication network NW via a LAN, for example. The order-receiving systems BS1 to BSn execute different applications such as estimate management and order management, and each includes a plurality of server devices SV1 to SVi, SV1 to SVj.

  The ordering side cooperation device WRa and the ordering side cooperation device WRb each take a session linkage between the ordering side systems BS1 to BSn and the ordering side system AS which are communication counterparts. For example, the following functions are provided. I have. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration. Since the ordering side cooperation device WRa and the order receiving side cooperation device WRb have the same configuration, the order side cooperation device WRb will be described as an example here.

  The order receiving side cooperation device WRb is shared by the plurality of reception ports RX1 to RXm, the plurality of transmission ports TX1 to TXm paired with the reception ports RX1 to RXm, and the reception ports RX1 to RXm and the transmission ports TX1 to TXm. A session management table DB and a server selection unit SS.

  The receiving ports RX1 to RXm receive a document sent from the ordering side system AS and transfer it to the order receiving side systems BS to BSn. Each receiving port RX1 to RXm has a specific position in the received document. A session extraction rule for extracting a character string from each is associated. In addition, the reception ports RX1 to RXm are also associated with a session generation flag indicating whether or not session generation is necessary and application identifiers indicating a plurality of applications executed by the order receiving systems BS1 to BSn.

  The transmission ports TX1 to TXm receive a document sent from the order receiving side system AS and transmit it to the ordering side system. Each transmission port TX1 to TXm has a specific content in the document received from the order receiving side system AS. A session extraction rule for extracting a character string from a position is associated.

  The association of the session extraction rule, the session generation flag, and the application identifier for the reception ports RX1 to RXm and the transmission ports TX1 to TXm is set in advance by the system administrator. Also, an address assigned to the receiving ports RX1 to RXm and the transmitting ports TX1 to TXm by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), etc., and a document transmitted by the ordering system to the receiving ports RX1 to RXm and the transmitting ports TX1 to TXm The type, format, exchange procedure, etc. are also set in advance between the system managers of both the ordering side system.

  For example, in an XML document, the session extraction rule is expressed by XPath having a grammar for extracting a specific position of the XML document. For example, in the case of binary data exchanged by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or the like, a rule indicating the extraction end position from the extraction start position is used. When the document to be exchanged is a text document, a regular expression or the like is used as an extraction rule.

  The server selection unit SS responds to a server selection request from the receiving ports RX1 to RXm and follows a load distribution algorithm such as round robin, and loads between the server devices SV1 to SVi and SV1 to SVj for each order receiving system BS1 to BSn. One of the server devices is selected so that is equal. Then, the identification information of the selected server device is returned to the requesting reception ports RX1 to RXm.

  In the session management table DB, as shown in FIG. 2, for each session, the session identifier of the ordering system AS, the application identifier, the session identifier of the order receiving system, and the identification information of the connection destination server of the order receiving system are mutually stored. Are stored in association with each other.

  The session identifier of the ordering system AS is extracted from the document by the session extraction rule at the reception ports RX1 to RXm and the transmission ports TX1 to TXm. The application identifier is associated with the reception ports RX1 to RXm in advance. The session identifier of the order receiving system is generated in the server devices of the order receiving systems BS1 to BSn. Information indicating the connection destination server of the order-receiving system is selected and notified by the server selection unit SS.

  Further, the ordering side cooperation device WRa and the order receiving side cooperation device WRb are specifically realized by a server, and the configuration thereof is as follows. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration. That is, the cooperation apparatuses WRa and WRb include a central processing unit (CPU) 11. A program memory 13, a data memory 14, a receiving port unit 15, and a transmitting port unit 16 are connected to the CPU 11 via a bus 12.

  The data memory 14 uses, for example, a hard disk or RAM as a storage medium, and includes a control data storage area and a storage area for the session management table DB described above. The control data storage area stores the session extraction rule, the session generation flag, and the application identifier preset by the system administrator in association with the reception ports RX1 to RXm and the transmission ports TX1 to TXm.

  The reception port unit 15 includes a plurality of reception interfaces 151 to 15m corresponding to the reception ports RX1 to RXm. Each of these receiving interfaces 151 to 15m receives a document received from the ordering / ordering system under the control of the CPU 11. The transmission port unit 16 includes a plurality of transmission interfaces 161 to 16m corresponding to the transmission ports TX1 to TXm. Each of these transmission interfaces 161 to 16m transmits the document to be transmitted to the ordering / order receiving system under the control of the CPU 11.

The program memory 13 stores a reception control program 13a, a transmission control program 13b, a session establishment control program 13c, and a session management control program 13d.
The reception control program 13a receives the document sent from the communication partner system for each of the reception ports RX1 to RXm by controlling the reception interfaces 151 to 15m. At this time, a session extraction rule preset in association with the receiving ports RX1 to RXm is read from the control data storage area of the data memory 14, and the other party system is read from the received document according to the read session extraction rule. Extract information corresponding to the session used by.

  The reception control program 13a reads the session generation flag corresponding to the reception ports RX1 to RXm from the control data storage area of the data memory 14, and determines that the session generation is “unnecessary” if the session generation flag is “off”. Then, from the session management table DB of the data memory 12 using the extracted information as a key, the local system session identifier and connection destination identification information are read out, and based on the read session identifier and connection destination information. The received document is transmitted to the self system.

  The transmission control program 13b controls the transmission interfaces 161 to 16m to receive the document transmitted from the self-side system for each of the transmission ports TX1 to TXm. At this time, if session identifier extraction is set in advance by the system administrator, the session extraction rules set in advance in association with the transmission ports TX1 to TXm are read from the control data storage area of the data memory 14, In accordance with the read session extraction rule, information corresponding to the session used by the counterpart system is extracted from the transmission target document. Then, the session identifier of the counterpart system is read from the session management table DB of the data memory 12 using the extracted information as a key, and the received document is read from the counterpart system based on the read session identifier. Send to.

  The session establishment control program 13c reads, from the control data storage area of the data memory 14, a session generation flag set in advance in association with the receiving ports RX1 to RXm when a document is received at the receiving ports RX1 to RXm. The necessity of session generation is determined. If the session generation flag is “ON”, that is, if the session generation is “necessary”, the selection processing of the server device to be connected is executed. This server device selection process is performed using a load distribution algorithm such as round robin so that the load between the server devices is equalized. Subsequently, a session generation request is sent to the selected server device, and an identifier of a newly generated session is received from the server device.

  When a document is transmitted / received by a new session at the reception ports RX1 to RXm and the transmission ports TX1 to TXm, the session management control program 13d displays information corresponding to the other party's session as an application identifier and a session on the own side. The identifier is stored in the session management table DB in association with the connection destination information on the self side. Further, when the session is canceled, the corresponding information is deleted from the session management table DB.

Next, the operation of the workflow processing system configured as described above will be described by taking the order receiving side system and the order receiving side cooperation apparatus WRb as examples.
(1) When the order-receiving system is composed of two systems BS1 and BS2, and each system BS1 and BS2 uses a session independently.
FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing an operation procedure of the order-receiving cooperation device WRb at this time, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control procedure and control contents of the receiving ports RX1 to RXm of the order-receiving cooperation device WRb.

As shown in FIG. 5, a session generation flag, a session extraction rule, and an application identifier are set in advance by the system administrator in each of the receiving ports RX1 to RX4 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb.
The ordering system AS sets and transmits the address of the receiving port RX1 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb as a destination address when transmitting the request for quotation (new quotation) to the order receiving side system BS1.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the receiving port RX1 of the order receiving side cooperation apparatus WRb monitors the arrival of the document in step 3a. When the document is received, the application identifier associated with the receiving port RX1 is received in step 4 as data. Read from the memory 14. Subsequently, the receiving port RX1 of the order receiving side cooperation apparatus WRb reads the session extraction rule associated with the receiving port RX1 from the control data storage area of the data memory 14, and evaluates the received document by this session extraction rule. The information corresponding to the session of the ordering system is extracted from the received document. For example, if a document as shown in FIG. 6A is received, “A12345678” is extracted as the information corresponding to the session of the ordering system according to the extraction rule “/ quote request form / our quotation number / @ no”. Extract.

  Next, the reception port RX1 of the order receiving side cooperation apparatus WRb reads the session generation flag associated with the reception port RX1 from the data memory 14, and determines whether or not the session generation is necessary based on the session generation flag in Step 4d. . In this example, the session generation flag of the receiving port RX1 is set to “ON” as shown in FIG. For this reason, the receiving port RX1 determines that session generation is “necessary” and executes session establishment processing as follows. The session establishment process includes a server selection process and a session generation process.

  That is, first, in step 4e, the server selection unit SS is requested to select a server. At this time, the server selection unit SS is notified of the read application identifier. The server selection unit SS selects a corresponding order receiving system based on the notified application identifier. Then, an appropriate server device (for example, SV1) is selected as a connection destination from the plurality of server devices constituting the selected order-receiving system. For example, in this example, since the application identifier is “EstimateService”, the order-receiving system BS1 is selected. If the load on the server SV1 is small among the two server devices SV1 and SV2, the server device SV1 is selected. The server device is selected according to a load distribution algorithm such as round robin.

  Next, the reception port RX1 transmits a session generation request for the application “EstimateService” to the server device SV1 selected by the server selection unit SS in step 4f. In response to the session generation request, the server SV1 sets a new storage area for the application “EstimateService”, issues a session identifier, and returns it to the receiving port RX1. Here, for example, “E00000001” is issued as the session identifier.

  In step 4g, the receiving port RX1 receives the information “A12345678” corresponding to the ordering system session extracted in step 4c, the application identifier “EstimateService”, and the issued session identifier “1” of the order receiving system BS1. E00000001 ”and server identification information“ E1 ”indicating the connection destination server apparatus SV1 are associated with each other and stored in the session management table DB. FIG. 9 (1) shows a state in which these pieces of information are stored.

  When the storage of the information in the session management table DB is finished, the receiving port RX1 transfers the previously received document to the connection destination server device SV1 in step 4h, and requests execution of the session “E00000001”. The server apparatus SV1 performs estimation processing in response to the request. This estimation process includes an approval process by a superior or the like in addition to an issuance process of an estimate by a person in charge. The issued estimate is returned from the server device SV1 to the transmission port TX1. The transmission port TX1 transmits the quotation returned from the server device SV1 to the ordering side system AS of the quotation request source.

On the other hand, it is assumed that processing for requesting a re-estimation is performed on the ordering side without making a trade-off with the price presented in the estimate. In this case, the ordering system AS transmits a request for quotation (re-estimation) shown in FIG. 6B with the receiving port RX2 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb as the destination.
When receiving the request for quotation (re-estimation), the receiving port RX2 obtains the application identifier “EstimateService” corresponding to the receiving port RX2 in step 4b as shown in FIG. 4, and further receives the received document according to the session extraction rule in step 4c. After the information “A12345678” corresponding to the session of the ordering system is extracted from the inside, it is determined in step 4d whether session generation is necessary based on the session generation flag.

  At this time, the session identifier “OFF” is set in the reception port RX2 as shown in FIG. For this reason, the receiving port RX2 determines that session generation is “unnecessary”, and proceeds to step 4i. In step 4i, the information “A12345678” corresponding to the extracted session of the ordering system and the session identifier “E00000001” of the order-receiving system BS1 using the acquired application identifier “EstimateService” as a key, The server identification information “E1” indicating the connection destination server apparatus SV1 is read from the session management table DB. In step 4h, the received document is transferred to the server device SV1 of the receiving system BS1 based on the server identification information “E1”, and the execution of the session “E00000001” is requested according to the read session identifier “E00000001”. To do.

  In the server device SV1, a re-estimation process is performed in response to the request, and an estimate is created again. The issued estimate is returned from the server device SV1 to the transmission port TX2. The transmission port TX2 transmits the quotation returned from the server device SV1 to the ordering side system AS as the quotation request source.

As a result of the re-estimation, it is assumed that the price is balanced and the ordering process is performed on the ordering side. In this case, the ordering system AS transmits the purchase order shown in FIG. 6C with the receiving port RX3 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb as the destination.
When receiving the purchase order, the receiving port RX3 acquires the application identifier “orderService” corresponding to the receiving port RX3 in step 4b, as in the case of receiving the estimate (new quotation) described above, and further, in step 4c. According to the session extraction rule, information “A23456789” corresponding to the session of the ordering system is extracted from the received document. In step 4d, the necessity of session generation is determined based on the session generation flag.

  At this time, the session identifier “ON” is set in the reception port RX3 as shown in FIG. For this reason, the receiving port RX3 judges that session generation is “necessary” and moves to step 4e. Then, the session establishment process is executed as follows by the steps 4e and 4f.

  That is, first, in step 4e, a server selection request is sent to the server selection unit SS together with an application identifier. The server selection unit SS selects a corresponding order receiving system based on the notified application identifier. Then, an appropriate server device (for example, SV2) is selected as a connection destination from among the plurality of server devices constituting the selected order-receiving system. For example, in this example, since the application identifier is “OrderService”, the order-receiving system BS2 is selected. If the load on the server SV2 is small among the two server devices SV1 and SV2, the server device SV2 is selected.

  Next, the receiving port RX3 transmits a session generation request for the application “OrderService” to the server device SV2 of the order-receiving system BS2 selected by the server selection unit SS in step 4f. In response to the session generation request, the server device SV2 of the order-receiving system BS2 sets a new storage area for the application “OrderService”, issues a session identifier, and returns it to the receiving port RX3. Here, for example, “O00000005” is issued as the session identifier.

  In step 4g, the receiving port RX3 receives information “A23456789” corresponding to the session of the ordering system extracted in step 4c, the application identifier “OrderService”, and the issued session identifier “Order Service” of the order receiving system BS2. “O00000005” and server identification information “O2” indicating the connection destination server apparatus SV1 are associated with each other and stored in the session management table DB. FIG. 9 (2) shows a state in which these pieces of information are stored.

  When the storage of the information in the session management table DB is finished, the receiving port RX3 transfers the previously received document to the server device SV2 of the order receiving system BS2 in step 4h, and requests execution of the session “O00000005”. . The server apparatus SV2 performs an order confirmation issuance process in response to the request. The issued order confirmation is returned from the server SV2 of the order receiving system BS2 to the transmission port TX3, and transmitted from the transmission port TX3 to the ordering system AS of the ordering source.

Thereafter, in the same manner, in the server device SV2 of the order receiving system BS2, a delivery note is issued together with the delivery, and this delivery note is sent from the server device SV2 of the order receiving system BS2 to the transmission port TX4, and from this transmission port TX4 To the ordering side system AS.
Upon receipt of the delivery note, the ordering system AS transmits an acceptance notice shown in FIG. 6D with the receiving port RX4 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb as the destination. In the reception port RX4, as shown in FIG. 4, the application identifier “OrderService” corresponding to the reception port RX4 is acquired in step 4b, and further, in step 4c, information corresponding to the session of the ordering system from the received document according to the session extraction rule. After extracting “A23456789”, in step 4d, the necessity of session generation is determined based on the session generation flag.

  At this time, since the session identifier “OFF” is set in the reception port RX4 as shown in FIG. 5, the reception port RX4 determines that the session generation is “unnecessary” and proceeds to Step 4i. In step 4i, the information “A23456789” corresponding to the extracted session of the ordering side system AS and the session identifier “O00000005” of the ordering side system BS2 are obtained using the acquired application identifier “OrderService” as a key. Then, the server identification information “O2” indicating the connection destination server apparatus SV2 is read from the session management table DB. In step 4h, based on the server identification information “O2”, the received document is transferred to the server device SV2 of the receiving system BS2, and the execution of the session “O00000005” is requested according to the read session identifier “O00000005”. To do.

  As described above, by providing the order receiving side cooperation device WRb, the order receiving side system is configured by the two systems BS1 and BS2, and a different session is generated for each of the systems BS1 and BS2, and the workflow processing is executed. Even in such a case, the ordering system AS can execute transmission / reception of a document without being aware of the operating state of the order receiving system.

  Further, in the order receiving side cooperation device WRb, the session used by the calling side system AS is specified from the information extracted by the session extraction rule, and the session identifiers of the order receiving side systems BS1 and BS2 from the session management table DB using this information as a key. Is read out and a session execution is requested to the connection destination server apparatus. For this reason, although the session identifier is not explicitly propagated on the transmission protocol, it is possible to cause the order receiving side systems BS1 and BS2 to execute the session.

  Furthermore, when establishing a new session in the order receiving side cooperation device WRb, the server selection unit SS is configured to evenly distribute the loads of the server devices SV1 to SVi and SV1 to SVj for each of the order receiving side systems BS1 and BS2. Since the connection destination server device is selected, it is possible to avoid the problem that the processing requested from the ordering system concentrates on a specific server device, thereby realizing efficient workflow processing.

(2) When the order-receiving system is constituted by one system BS1, and this system BS1 executes a series of document exchange processes using one session.
FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing an operation procedure of the order-receiving cooperation device WRb at this time, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a control procedure and control contents of the receiving ports RX1 to RXm of the order-receiving cooperation device WRb.

  As shown in FIG. 8, a session generation flag, a session extraction rule, and an application identifier are set in advance by the system administrator in each of the receiving ports RX1 to RX4 of the order receiving side cooperation device WRb. And for various documents coming from the ordering side system AS, each set information, the session of the ordering side system generated by the server devices SV1 and SV2 of the ordering side system, and the session management table DB are stored. Based on the information thus obtained, the same operation as the reception control operation described in (1) above is executed.

  On the other hand, among the transmission ports TX1 to TX4, session extraction rules are set in advance by the system administrator in the transmission ports TX1 and TX2, as shown in FIG. When the order receiving system BS1 transmits a document, the following transmission control is executed by the transmission ports TX1 and TX2.

  In other words, suppose that the order receiving system BS1 sends a request for sending an estimate shown in FIG. 6B to the transmission port TX1 of the order receiving cooperation device WRb. Then, the transmission port TX1 of the order receiving side cooperation apparatus WRb shifts from step 7a to step 7b as shown in FIG. 7, where the session extraction rule associated with the transmission port TX1 is first stored in the control data storage of the data memory 14. Read from area. Then, the sent estimate is evaluated according to the read session extraction rule “/ estimate / our company estimate number / @ no”, and “E00000001” is extracted.

  Next, in preparation for the next reception, in step 7c, the extracted “E00000001” is set as information corresponding to the session of the ordering system, this information “E00000001”, the application identifier (OrderService), and the internal system The session identifier “E00000001” and the internal system identifier “O1” are associated with each other and written to the session management table DB. (2) in FIG. 10 shows the information stored at this time. After the writing is completed, the estimate is transmitted to the ordering system AS in step 7d.

  On the other hand, it is assumed that an order form is sent from the ordering system AS to the receiving port RX3 in this state. Then, similarly to the case described in (1) above, the receiving port RX3 acquires the application identifier “OrderService” corresponding to the receiving port RX3 in step 4b as shown in FIG. The information “E00000001” corresponding to the session of the ordering system is extracted from the received document. In step 4d, the necessity of session generation is determined based on the session generation flag.

  At this time, the session identifier “OFF” is set in the reception port RX3 as shown in FIG. For this reason, the receiving port RX3 determines that the session generation is “unnecessary” and proceeds to step 4i. Then, by this step 4i, the information “E00000001” corresponding to the extracted session of the ordering side system and the session identifier “E00000001” of the ordering side system BS1 using the acquired application identifier “OrderService” as a key, The server identification information “O1” indicating the connection destination server apparatus SV1 is read from the session management table DB. In step 4h, based on the server identification information “O1”, the received document is transferred to the server device SV1 of the receiving system BS1, and the execution of the session “E00000001” is requested according to the read session identifier “E00000001”. To do.

  The server apparatus SV1 performs an order confirmation issuance process in response to the request. The issued order confirmation is returned from the server SV1 of the order receiving system BS1 to the transmission port TX3, and transmitted from the transmission port TX3 to the ordering system AS of the ordering source. Thereafter, the delivery process of the delivery note and the reception process of the training center are the same as in the case of (1) described above.

  As described above, even when the order-receiving system is configured by one system BS1 and this system BS1 executes a series of document exchange processing using one session, the order-receiving system AS is such an order-receiving system. Documents can be sent and received without being aware of the operational status of the document.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, each cooperative device WRa, WRb is connected to the ordering side and order receiving side systems AS, BS1 to BSn via the communication network NW, but the cooperative devices WRa, WRb are not connected via the communication network NW. In addition, it may be configured to be connected to the ordering side and order receiving side systems AS, BS1 to BSn via an in-company communication path.

  In the embodiment, the cooperation devices WRa and WRb are provided corresponding to the ordering side system AS and the ordering side systems BS1 to BSn, respectively. However, for example, the function of the ordering side cooperation device WRa and the order receiving side are provided in one server device. You may comprise so that the function of cooperation apparatus WRb may be provided, respectively.

In addition, the configuration of the inter-workflow cooperation device, the control procedure and contents thereof, the type of transaction, the type of document to be exchanged and the configuration thereof can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention.
In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an inter-company ordering and processing system that is an embodiment of a workflow processing system according to the present invention. The block diagram which shows the function structure of the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the specific structure of the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the control procedure and control content of the receiving port of the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3. The figure for demonstrating the 1st operation | movement of the ordering / order receiving process in the system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the document transmitted between an order side system and an order receiving system. The flowchart which shows the control procedure and control content of the transmission port of the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3. The figure for demonstrating the 2nd operation | movement of the ordering / order receiving process in the system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the session management table provided in the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3. The figure which shows the other example of the information memorize | stored in the session management table provided in the cooperation apparatus between workflows shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3. The figure which shows an example of the operation | movement sequence in a conventional system. The figure which shows the other example of the operation | movement sequence in a conventional system.

Explanation of symbols

  AS ... Ordering side system, BS1, BS2 ... Ordering side system, NW ... Communication network, WRa ... Ordering side cooperation device, WRb ... Ordering side cooperation device, CL1-CLk ... Client terminal, SV1-SVi, SV1-SVj ... Server device , RX1 to RXm: reception port, TX1 to TXm ... transmission port, DB ... session management table, SS ... server selection unit, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... bus, 13 ... program memory, 13a ... reception control program, 13b ... transmission control Program, 13c ... Session establishment control program, 13d ... Session management control program, 14 ... Data memory, 15 ... Reception port unit, 151-15m ... Reception interface, 16 ... Transmission port unit, 161-16m ... Transmission interface.

Claims (9)

An inter-workflow cooperation apparatus disposed between a first system and a second system that executes a workflow process using sessions independent of each other,
A plurality of receiving units provided in advance corresponding to a plurality of processes executed by the second system, the necessity of session generation being set in advance,
A session management table shared by the plurality of receiving units,
The plurality of receiving units are
Means for receiving a first file transmitted from a first system;
Means for extracting information corresponding to a session with the first system according to a predetermined rule from the received first file;
An acquisition means for requesting the second system to generate a session when it is necessary to generate a session, and acquiring information indicating the session used by the second system from the second system;
The acquired information indicating the session used by the second system and the information corresponding to the extracted session with the first system are associated with each other and stored in the session management table. Storage means ;
When session generation is not required, from the session management table, the second is pre-stored in association with the corresponding information to the session between the first system which is the extracted by said storage means the system Means for reading out information indicating the session used by
A workflow comprising: a session execution request and means for transmitting the received first file to the second system according to the read information indicating the session used by the second system. Interlink device. A plurality of transmission units provided to be paired with the plurality of reception units and share the session management table;
The plurality of transmitters are
Means for receiving a second file transmitted from the second system;
Means for extracting information corresponding to a session with the first system in accordance with a predetermined rule from the received second file;
Means for associating information corresponding to the extracted session with the first system and information indicating a session used by the second system in the session management table in association with each other;
The interworkflow cooperation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit that transmits the received second file to the first system. When the second system includes a plurality of computers,
A computer selection unit having a function of selecting the plurality of computers according to a predetermined load distribution algorithm;
The acquisition means for the plurality of receiving units includes:
Means for requesting the computer selection unit to select a computer and generating information indicating the selected computer when a session needs to be generated;
And a means for requesting the selected computer to generate a session based on the received information and receiving information indicating a session used by the second system from the computer. Item 3. The interworkflow cooperation device according to item 1 or 2. The system is interposed between the first and second systems that execute workflow processes using sessions that are independent from each other. A program used in an inter-workflow cooperation apparatus comprising a plurality of receiving units provided and a session management table shared by these receiving units,
Receiving a first file transmitted from the first system;
A process of extracting information corresponding to a session with the first system according to a predetermined rule from the received first file;
A process of requesting the second system to generate a session when it is necessary to generate a session, and obtaining information indicating a session used by the second system from the second system;
The acquired information indicating the session used by the second system and the information corresponding to the extracted session with the first system are associated with each other and stored in the session management table. Amnestics ,
When session generation is not required, from the session management table, the storing process by the second of the pre-stored in association with the corresponding information to the session between the first system which is the extraction system Processing to read information indicating the session used by
In accordance with the read information indicating the session used by the second system, a session execution request and a process of transmitting the received first file to the second system are sent to each receiving unit. The program to be executed. In the case where the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus further includes a plurality of transmission units that are paired with a plurality of reception units and share a session management table,
Receiving a second file transmitted from the second system;
A process of extracting information corresponding to a session with the first system according to a predetermined rule from the received second file;
A process in which information corresponding to the extracted session with the first system and information indicating a session used by the second system are associated with each other and stored in the session management table;
5. The program according to claim 4, wherein the transmitting unit executes the process of transmitting the received second file from the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus to the first system. When the second system includes a plurality of computers, and the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus further includes a computer selection unit that selects the plurality of computers according to a predetermined load distribution algorithm.
The process of acquiring information indicating a session used by the second system is as follows:
When it is necessary to generate a session, a process for requesting the computer selection unit to select a computer and receiving information indicating the selected computer;
Based on the received information, a process of requesting the selected computer to generate a session and receiving information indicating a session used by the second system from the computer is executed by each receiving unit. The program according to claim 4 or 5 to be executed. A workflow processing method for executing a process related to a transaction via an inter-workflow cooperation device between a first system and a second system that execute a workflow process using mutually independent sessions,
Receiving the first file transmitted from the first system by the inter-workflow cooperation device;
A process in which the inter-workflow cooperation device extracts information corresponding to a session with the first system in accordance with a predetermined rule from the received first file;
When the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus needs to generate a session, the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus requests the second system to generate a session, and acquires information indicating the session used by the second system from the second system. Process,
The inter-workflow cooperation apparatus associates information indicating a session used by the acquired second system with information corresponding to a session between the extracted first system and a session. A storage process to be stored in the management table;
When the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus does not need to generate a session, it is previously associated with information corresponding to the session with the first system extracted from the session management table in the storage process. a step of reading out the information indicating the session stored second system uses,
A process of transmitting a session execution request and the received first file from the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus to the second system according to the read information indicating the session used by the second system. A workflow processing method characterized by comprising: Receiving the second file transmitted from the second system by the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus;
A process in which the inter-workflow cooperation device extracts information corresponding to a session used by the first system in accordance with a predetermined rule from the received second file;
Storing the information corresponding to the extracted session with the first system and the information indicating the session used by the second system in the session management table in association with each other;
The workflow processing method according to claim 7, further comprising: transmitting the received second file from the inter-workflow cooperation apparatus to the first system. When the second system includes a plurality of computers,
The process of acquiring information indicating a session used by the second system is as follows:
A process of selecting one of the plurality of computers according to a predetermined load balancing algorithm when session generation is required;
9. The workflow processing method according to claim 7, further comprising: a process of requesting the selected computer to generate a session and receiving information indicating a session used by the second system from the computer. .

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