Automating business events

1. A database system for automating a business rule, including:

a state definition table defining one or more states for a business rule state machine;

a state transition table defining (a) one or more beginning states, (b) for each beginning state a corresponding ending state, each of the beginning states and the ending states corresponding to a state in the state definition table, and (c) for each beginning state an event that causes a transition from the beginning state to the corresponding ending state;

a database triggers table defining the one or more database triggers, each event identified in the state transition table being associated in the database triggers table with one or more of the database triggers, the database triggers in the database triggers table being disabled except when the business rule is activated;

an action table defining one or more actions to be performed on entering one or more of the states identified in the state definition table;

a current state table for each user of the business rule state machine, each current state table defining the current state of the business rule state machine for the user associated with that current state table, the current state table for each user being initialized with the states in the state definition table that correspond to current conditions for the user associated with that current state table when the business rule is activated; and

storing the state definition table, the state transition table, the database triggers table, the action table, and the current state tables on a computer.

2. The database system of claim 1 further including:

a pseudo lock to serialize access to the current state table.

3. The database system of claim 1 further including:

a database triggers table for each user of the business rules state machine.

4. The database system of claim 1 wherein:

two or more of the state definition table, the state transition table, the database triggers table, the action table, and the current state table are included in the same database table.

5. The database system of claim 1 wherein:

the action table includes a “terminate” flag associated with one or more states, such that upon completion of the action associated with that state, the business rule will be deactivated by disabling the database triggers.

6. A method for automating a business rule in a database, including:

creating a business rule state machine by:

creating a state definition table defining one or more states, each of the states corresponding to one or more conditions of a system;

creating a state transition table defining (a) one or more beginning states, (b) for each beginning state a corresponding ending state, each of the beginning states and the ending states corresponding to a state in the state definition table, and (c) for each beginning state an event that causes a transition from the beginning state to the corresponding ending state;

creating a database triggers table defining the one or more database triggers, each event identified in the state transition table being associated in the database triggers table with one or more of the database triggers, the database triggers being disabled except when the business rule is activated;

creating an action table defining one or more actions to be performed on entering one or more of the states identified in the state definition table; and

creating for each user of the business rule state machine a current state table defining the current state of the business rule state machine for the user associated with that current state table;

enabling one or more database triggers associated with the business rule state machine; and

initializing the business rule state machine by determining for each user of the business rule state machine which of the states in the state definition table corresponds to current conditions for that user and initializing the current state table for that user with the determined current state.

7. The method of claim 6 , further including:

providing parallel access to the business rule state machine by creating a current state table for each user of the business rule state machine.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein creating the action table further includes:

.associating a “terminate” flag with one or more states, such that upon completion of an action associated with that state, the business rule will be deactivated by disabling the database triggers.

9. The method of claim 6 , further including:

creating an action table for each user of the business rules state machine.

10. the method of claim 6 , further including:

serializing access to the business rule machine.

11. A computer program, stored on a tangible storage medium, for use in automating a business rule in a database, the computer program including executable instructions that cause a computer to:

create a business rule state machine by:

creating a state definition table defining one or more states, each of the states corresponding to one or more conditions of a system;

creating a state transition table defining (a) one or more beginning states, (b) for each beginning state a corresponding ending state, each of the beginning states and the ending states corresponding to a state in the state definition table, and (c) for each beginning state an event that causes a transition from the beginning state to the corresponding ending state;

creating a database triggers table defining the one or more database triggers, each event identified in the state transition table being associated in the database triggers table with one or more of the database triggers, the database triggers being disabled except when the business rule is activated;

creating an action table defining one or more actions to be performed on entering one or more of the states identified in the state definition table; and

creating for each user of the business rule state machine a current state table defining the current state of the business rule state machine for the associated with that current state table;

enable one or more database triggers associated with the business rule state machine; and

initialize the business rule state machine by determining for each user of the business rule state machine which of the states in the state definition table corresponds to current conditions for that user and initializing the current state table for that user with the determined current state.

12. The computer program of claim 11 where, when initializing the business rule state machine, the computer:

determines a current state of the business rule state machine by determining which of the states in the state definition table corresponds to current conditions; and

initializes the current state table with the determined current state.

13. The computer program of claim 11 , where the computer program further includes executable instructions that cause the computer to:

provide parallel access to the business rule state machine by creating a current state table for each user of the business rule state machine.

14. The computer program of claim 11 where, when creating the action table, the computer further:

associates a “terminate” flag with one or more states, such that upon completion of an action associated with that state, the business rule will be deactivated by disabling the database triggers.

15. The computer program of claim 11 , where the computer program further includes executable instructions that cause the computer to:

create an action table for each user of the business rules state machine.

16. The computer program of claim 11 , where the computer program further includes executable instructions that cause the computer to:

serialize access to the business rule machine.