摘要 |
Lifecycle of an entity residing within a hierarchy, may be managed according to corresponding status identifiers of a ruleset referenced by an engine. At design time, particular embodiments determine a finite set of fundamental statuses common to the entities, and covering the full lifecycle of each entity. A ruleset is created comprising rules accounting for each change in the status of the entity over its lifetime within the hierarchy. The status may be indicated by status identifiers, that in some embodiments are stored within a database. During runtime, an engine receives information from the entity. The engine references the ruleset including the status identifier information, and then propagates the status change of the entity to other entities in the same or different hierarchy levels based upon the ruleset. In this manner, the lifecycle of an entity within a hierarchy can be managed according to its status. |