METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PERFORMING WORKFLOW

摘要

A declarative approach to programming involves providing a transaction engine and a repository. The transaction engine controls the behavior of an application by routing messages between a pre-defined group of work steps. The repository includes a declaration space within which components are defined as well as the relationship between the components. An administrator includes an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) editor for allowing developers to access and modify portions of the repository. In the preferred embodiment, developers are allowed to define attributes of data elements, define relationships between the data elements, and to organize data elements into messages through the repository. Furthermore, developers are able to define the logical-to-physical mapping in the repository, such as by defining message stores. An application is defined by a workflow comprised of a number of work steps interconnected to each other. The workflow and the work steps are also defined within the repository. The workflow that may be implemented allows for both interactive worksteps requiring user intervention and non-interactive worksteps. A workflow can be dynamic and incorporate champion challenger techniques and may have worksteps executed in parallel to each other.