JP3061000B2 - Workflow system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a workflow system for automating the flow of a form in a routine business involving a plurality of persons, and more particularly to a business in which a plurality of forms are used in a single workflow definition to make a transfer between the forms. The present invention relates to a workflow system that enables data transfer between form agents.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of workflow system is used for defining, operating, and managing a series of routine tasks involving a plurality of workers. In order to automate a task by a workflow system, a task to be executed is defined in advance as a workflow. A workflow is usually defined by one or a plurality of work processes, which are units of work execution, and a flow of digitized circular documents (hereinafter, referred to as forms).

As a work flow system, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-123744, there is a method in which a form is stored in a server that manages a work flow, and a client of a node is controlled in accordance with a work process.

On the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-324850, there is also a method in which a work flow is not collectively managed by a server, but a form is circulated using an electronic mail.

[0005] When an e-mail based workflow system is operated, an e-mail address that can be uniquely identified by a user of the workflow system is assigned to each user, and a form is transmitted to the e-mail address, thereby reducing the work process. move on. JP-A-6-3248 mentioned above
In Japanese Patent No. 50, the form itself transmitted and received by e-mail is provided with program code information on the work process in which the form flows and information on the content of processing performed in each work process, and the software object (hereinafter referred to as a form agent). A method of realizing groupware and thus a workflow by moving between work processes and performing work is disclosed.

[0006]

In the above-described conventional workflow system, a form is realized as a mobile agent, a plurality of form agents are handled in one workflow, and data is transferred from one form agent to another specific form agent. In the case of transcribing a form agent, it is necessary to program a key or a protocol for distinguishing a form agent for transferring or receiving data from other similar form agents in the form agent.

However, in the case of a business in which a plurality of forms are used to transfer data between forms based on the definition of one workflow, that is, a template of a form agent of a workflow is defined in advance, and individual workings actually performed from there are defined. In the case of a system that generates an instance of a form agent, there is a problem that data cannot be transferred from a form agent, which is a certain work process being executed, to another specific form agent. The reason is that if the same workflow is executed multiple times, there will be multiple form agents with the same program generated from the same workflow definition, and the form agent that passes or receives data will be replaced by other similar form agents. This is because it cannot be distinguished from the form agent.

An object of the present invention is to automate a business by a workflow system by enabling data transfer between form agents in a business in which a plurality of business forms are defined in one workflow and the business forms are transferred between the business forms. An object of the present invention is to provide a workflow system in which a form that improves operability and productivity at the time is used as a mobile agent.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a workflow system for transmitting and receiving a form agent between a plurality of clients that generate a form agent based on a workflow definition. Inter-agent communication means for transferring data between agents, and generating identification information for generating and holding identification information for distinguishing each workflow instance in the form agent serving as a data provider in the data transfer between the form agents Means, and data providing means for assigning the identification information as a key to data to be passed to another form agent as a key and registering the data in the inter-agent communication means, wherein the form as a data receiving destination in data transfer between the form agents The Jento, identification information takeover means taking over the identification information during generation, characterized in that it comprises a data receiving means receiving said data from said agent communication means the identification information as a key.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the workflow system, the identification information includes a generation date and time of the form agent and information for uniquely identifying a user.

In the workflow system according to the third aspect of the present invention, the agent-to-agent communication means may be configured to match the identification information on the registered data with the identification information from the form agent that has requested the data reception. And transferring the registered data to the form agent which has requested the data reception.

In the workflow system according to the present invention, the inter-agent communication means includes a data receiving means for receiving data from a data providing means of the form agent, and a data receiving means for receiving data from the form agent for receiving the data. Data receiving request receiving means for receiving a request, data notifying means for passing the registered data to the form agent, and data matching means for determining whether or not the identification information matches each other in data transfer between form agents And characterized in that:

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of a workflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the workflow system according to the present embodiment has a configuration in which a definition information storage server 10 and a plurality of clients 20 are connected via a local area network.

The definition information storage server 10 stores workflow definition information (form agent data).

Each client 20 generates a form agent from the definition information (defined workflow) stored in the definition information storage server 10. These form agents are transmitted and received between the clients 20 without passing through the definition information storage server 10. That is,
The definition information storage server 10 is used only for generating a form agent in the client 20.

Each client 20 has a function of generating a form agent and a function of transmitting / receiving a form agent to / from another client. Further, an agent-to-agent communication for exchanging transcription data between form agents is provided. Means 30 are provided.

Among the form agents generated by the client 20, the first form agent 50 included in the workflow is, as shown in FIG. 2, a thread I for uniquely identifying each workflow instance.
A thread ID generating means 51 for generating a D, and a data providing means for assigning a thread ID to data as a key and registering the data in the inter-agent communication means 30 when the form agent is a data providing source in data transfer between form agents 52, the form agent 60 other than the first form agent included in the workflow is a thread ID takeover means 61 for taking over the thread ID of the form agent 50 of the generation source, and a data receiving destination in the data transfer between the form agents. A data receiving means 62 for receiving the transfer data from the inter-agent communication means 30 using the thread ID as a key when the form agent is a form agent is provided.

Referring to FIG. 3, the inter-agent communication means 30 of the present invention comprises a data receiving means 31 for receiving transcript data from a data providing means 51 of a form agent.
And a data reception request receiving means 32 for receiving a request for receiving posting data from a form agent receiving the posting data, a data notifying means 33 for passing the registered posting data to a form agent, and a transfer of the posting data between the form agents. At each other's thread I
It has a data matching means 34 for collating D.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. When generating an instance of an individual workflow that actually operates from a predefined workflow, first of the form agents included in the workflow, the first form agent 5
Generate 0. First generated form agent 5
0 uses the thread ID generation means 51 to generate a thread ID 40 for distinguishing between instances of each workflow, and holds it as an attribute of the form agent.

As shown in FIG. 4, the thread ID 40 is
It is composed of a character string obtained by adding an electronic mail address 42 that can uniquely identify each user of the workflow system to a generation time 41 of the form agent in units of year, month, day, hour, minute, and sand. In the present invention, it is assumed that a request for generating instances of a plurality of workflows from the same user in the same second is not accepted.

In the operation of a workflow system based on e-mail, an e-mail address capable of uniquely identifying each user of the workflow system is assigned to each user. The instance of the workflow can be uniquely identified by the thread ID 40 based on the combination of the e-mail address and the e-mail address.

As shown in FIG. 5, the generated form agent 50 generates another form agent 60 included in the workflow when there is another form agent to be generated in the corresponding work process (step 501). (Step 502).

Using the thread ID handover means 61, the generated form agent 60 uses the thread ID 40 (the form agent generation time 41 and the electronic mail generation time 41) held in the thread ID generation means 51 of the form agent 50 that has generated the form agent. The mail address 42) is taken over and held as an attribute.

As shown in FIG. 6, when the transfer data is transferred between the agents, the form agent 50, which is the data provider, provides the transfer data in the corresponding work process (step 601). , The thread ID 40 is assigned to the transfer data as a key, and the transfer data is registered in the inter-agent communication means 30 through the data receiving means 31 (step 60).
2).

When the transfer data is received between the agents, as shown in FIG. 7, the form agent 60, which is the data receiving destination, uses the data receiving means 62 when receiving the transfer data in the corresponding work process (step 701). Then, a request is issued to the inter-agent communication means 30 through the data reception request receiving means 32 using the thread ID 40 as a key (step 702).

As shown in FIG. 8, the inter-agent communication means 30 acquires a request from the data receiving means 62 through the data receiving request receiving means 32 (step 8).
01). The data matching unit 34 checks whether or not the transfer data corresponding to the thread ID 40 requested from the data receiving unit 62 has been registered (step 802). If not registered, check the registered data periodically until the data is registered.

If the corresponding data is registered, the transfer data is transferred to the form agent 60 at the data receiving destination through the data notifying means 33 (step 803). Thus, the form agent 60 at the data receiving destination receives the transcribed data via the data receiving means 62.
As described above, the data transfer between the form agents is completed.

[0029]

Next, an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the workflow shown in FIG. 9 as an example. In this workflow, two forms, an application form 91 and a confirmation form 92, are handled. The application form 91 flows from the work process 93 of the applicant to the work process 94 of the supervisor, and the confirmation form 92 is assigned to the budget work from the work process 93 of the applicant. Boss work process 94 through work process 95
Is defined to flow to Further, in the work process 94 of the supervisor 94, as shown in FIG. 10, the amount data is transferred from the amount column 96 of the confirmation note 92 to the amount column 97 of the application 91.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. At the time of workflow execution, application form 9
It is assumed that a form agent 91a displayed as 1 is generated first. E-mail address "TaroSu
When the user of "zuki" starts the workflow at "12: 00: 00: 00 on January 01, 1997", the work process 93 of the applicant first generates a form agent 91a displayed as an application form 91. At that time, the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91 uses the thread ID generation means 51 to “19997010112”.
0000TaroSuzuki "thread ID4
0 is generated and held as an attribute.

Next, the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91 generates a form agent 92a displayed as the confirmation form 92. The form agent 92a displayed as the confirmation note 92 uses the thread ID handover means 61 to execute the thread ID "199" of the form agent 91a displayed as the application 91 as the generation source.
70101120,000 Taro Suzuki "and retains it as its own attribute.

When the work process in the workflow advances and the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91 moves to the work step 94 of the supervisor, the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91 In response to this, the data receiving means 62 is used to set the thread ID "197970101120,000 TaroSu".
If there is data of "zuki", a data reception request 99 is issued so that the data can be received.

When the form agent 92a displayed as the confirmation note 92 moves to the work process 94 of the boss, the form agent 92a uses the data providing means 51 to execute the thread ID "19997010".
110000 TaroSuzuki ”as a key in the data of the designated amount column 96 (“ 1500 in FIG. 11
0 ") as registration data 98 in the inter-agent communication means 30.

The agent communication means 30 transmits the confirmation 9
When the data from the form agent 92a displayed as 2 is registered, the amount data 100 (= “150
00 ") is notified to the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91, whereby the data" 15000 "is transferred to the designated amount column 97 of the form agent 91a displayed as the application form 91.

In this embodiment, an example of a workflow for handling two forms has been described. However, as with the second form agent, two or more arbitrary form agents can be handled by the thread ID takeover means. In this example, the second form agent is generated in the work process of the workflow initiator, but the work process in which the other form agent is generated is determined by the definition information storage server 1.
0 is determined by the workflow definition. That is, according to the workflow definition information programmed in the form agent, another form agent can be generated in any work process other than the work process of the workflow initiator.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments and examples, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the contents of the above embodiments and examples. For example,
In the above embodiment, the e-mail address that can uniquely identify each user of the workflow system is set to the thread ID.
However, as long as the information can uniquely identify the user, information other than the e-mail address can be used.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a workflow system using a form as a mobile agent, identification information for uniquely identifying an instance of a workflow generated at the start of the workflow is held, and the same workflow definition is used. Even if there is more than one form agent with the same program generated from the same, other form agents included in the same workflow instance can be identified, so transfer the posting data using the identification information as a key. Thus, data transfer between form agents becomes possible. As a result, the operability and productivity when the work is automated by the workflow system are improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a workflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a form agent to be generated.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an inter-agent communication unit provided in a client.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a character string constituting a thread ID.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation in which a form agent generates another agent.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of a form agent as a data provider.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of a form agent at a data receiving destination.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the inter-agent communication means at the time of data transfer.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a workflow as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of data transfer between forms in a workflow according to the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a flow of data in the work process of the boss of the workflow according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Definition information storage server 20 Client 50 Data providing form agent 51 Thread ID generating means 52 Data providing means 60 Data receiving form agent 61 Thread ID handover means 62 Data receiving means 30 Agent communication means 31 Data receiving means 32 Data Receiving request receiving means 33 Data notification means 34 Data matching means 40 Thread ID 41 Character string of generation time 42 E-mail address 91 Application form used in workflow example 92 Confirmation form used in workflow example 93 Applicant's work process in workflow example 94 The work process of the boss in the workflow example 95 The work process of the budget person in the workflow example

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A workflow system for transmitting and receiving the form agent between a plurality of clients that generate a form agent based on a workflow definition, wherein the client includes inter-agent communication means for transferring data between the form agents. An identification information generating means for generating and holding identification information for distinguishing each workflow instance in the form agent serving as a data provider in data transfer between the form agents, and identifying the data to be passed to another form agent; Data providing means for assigning information as a key and registering the information in the inter-agent communication means, wherein the form information agent serving as a data receiving destination in data transfer between the form agents takes over the identification information at the time of generation. A workflow system comprising: identification information takeover means for receiving data; and data receiving means for receiving the data from the inter-agent communication means using the identification information as a key. 2. The workflow system according to claim 1, wherein the identification information includes a date and time of generation of the form agent and information that can uniquely identify a user. 3. The inter-agent communication means, if the identification information relating to the registered data and the identification information from the form agent requesting the data reception match, transfer the registered data to the The workflow system according to claim 1, wherein the data is passed to the form agent that has requested data reception. 4. An inter-agent communication unit, comprising: a data receiving unit that receives data from a data providing unit of the form agent; a data receiving request receiving unit that receives a data receiving request from the form agent that receives the data; Data notifying means for passing the registered data to the form agent, and data matching means for determining whether or not the identification information matches each other in data transfer between the form agents. The workflow system according to claim 1, wherein: