Systems and/or methods for end-to-end business process management, business event management, and/or business activity monitoring
The example embodiments disclosed herein relate to application integration techniques built around the publish-and-subscribe model (or one of its variants). In certain example embodiments, application integration techniques for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in at least one resource external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof are provided. During design time, by introspecting the business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource, potential state changes may be identified, and an integrative linkage may be established, with the integrative linkage being managed and maintained by a process monitoring agent (PMA). During runtime, the PMA may “listen” to the business object state changes in the at least one external resource and notify the local process engine accordingly.
1. In an application integration system for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in one or more resources external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof, a method comprising:
during design time of an event monitor for one or more resources external to the application integration system, in connection with a processor:
introspecting existing business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource, wherein the plurality of activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource are located external to the process engine,
identifying potential state changes for the business object types, and
establishing business object type state change to receiver couplings via a process monitoring agent in communication with the at least one resource and the process engine, the established business object type state change to receiver couplings based on at least one of the identified potential state changes; and
during runtime of the event monitor for the one or more resources external to the application integration system, in connection with a or the processor:
causing the process monitoring agent to listen for business object state changes in the at least one resource through an adapter;
when a business object state change is detected by the process monitoring agent:
causing the process monitoring agent to notify the process engine of the detected business object state change; and
producing a document processable by the process engine in accordance with an appropriate coupling based on the notification to the process engine,
wherein no alterations are made to any existing application logic in the at least one resource.
2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein each said resource has one process monitoring agent or process monitoring agent instance associated therewith.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising at runtime, associating a correlation id with each detected business object state change.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising enabling the process engine to manage and/or monitor a sequence or message flow among and/or between activities, events, and/or objects in the resources and in the application integration system and the one or more resources.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one resource is a closed system.
6. An application integration system for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in one or more resources that are external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof, the system comprising:
at least one processor configured to perform tasks at design time and at run time, the tasks including:
during design time of an event monitor for one or more resources external to the application integration system:
introspecting existing business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource, wherein the plurality of activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource are located external to the process engine,
identifying potential state changes for the existing business object types, and
establishing business object type state change to receiver couplings via a process monitoring agent in communication with the at least one resource and the process engine, the established business object type state change to receiver couplings based on at least one of the identified potential state changes; and
during runtime of the event monitor for the one or more resources external to the application integration system:
causing the process monitoring agent to listen to the business object state changes in the at least one resource through an adapter;
in accordance with the process monitoring agent detecting a business object state change, causing the process monitoring agent to notify the process engine of the detected business object state change by producing a document processable by the process engine in accordance with an appropriate coupling,
wherein no alterations are made to any existing application logic of the at least one resource.
7. The system of claim 6 ,
wherein each said resource has one process monitoring agent or process monitoring agent instance associated therewith.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the tasks further include at runtime, associating a correlation id with each detected business object state change.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the tasks further include enabling the process engine to manage and/or monitor a sequence or message flow among and/or between activities, events, and/or objects in the resources and in the application integration system and the one or more resources.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one resource is a closed system.