Generic lifecycle management of entity in hierarchy according to status
View Patent ↗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.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
causing an engine to receive from a first entity belonging to a hierarchy, information regarding a lifecycle change of the first entity from a first status to a second status associated with an event, wherein the first entity comprises a step of a process;
in response to the information, causing the engine to reference a rule of a predefined ruleset stored in a hardware server as a database table comprising rows and columns, the rule comprising a row and a status identifier comprising a first column; and
based upon the rule, causing the engine to propagate the second status to change a status of a second entity belonging to the hierarchy, wherein the second entity comprises the process and wherein:
a second column of the table comprises a new status identifier used to handle the event with specific programming comprising propagating a generic error status identifier to indicate an error for the step and another error for a different step of the process.
2. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
the first entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status as soon as the information is received.
3. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
the first entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status only after other entities belonging to the lower level are changed to a specific state.
4. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
the step and the different step are performed in parallel, and the different step belongs to a same hierarchy level as the first entity.
5. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
the second entity belongs to a different hierarchy level than the first entity.
6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying a computer program for performing a method, said method comprising:
causing an engine to receive from a first entity belonging to a hierarchy, information regarding a lifecycle change of the first entity from a first status to a second status associated with an event, wherein the first entity comprises a step of a process;
in response to the information, causing the engine to reference a rule of a predefined ruleset stored in a hardware server as a database table comprising rows and columns, the rule comprising a row and a status identifier comprising a first column; and
based upon the rule, causing the engine to propagate the second status to change a status of a second entity belonging to the hierarchy, wherein the second entity comprises the process and wherein:
a second column of the table comprises a new status identifier used to handle the event with specific programming comprising propagating a generic error status identifier to indicate an error for the step and another error for a different step of the process.
7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium as in claim 6 wherein:
the first entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status as soon as the information is received.
8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium as in claim 6 wherein:
the first entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status only after other entities belonging to the lower level are changed to a specific state.
9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium as in claim 6 wherein:
the step and the different step are performed in parallel, and the different step belongs to a same hierarchy level as the first entity.
10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium as in claim 6 wherein:
the second entity belongs to a different hierarchy level than the first entity.
11. A system comprising:
one or more processors in a first computer comprising a remote hardware database server;
a second computer in communication with the first computer through a network to communicate an occurrence of an event affecting a first database entity in the remote hardware database server;
a software program, executable on said first computer, the software program configured to:
cause an engine of the remote hardware database server to receive from the first database entity belonging to a hierarchy, information regarding a lifecycle change of the first database entity from a first status to a second status associated with the event, wherein the first database entity comprises a step of a process;
in response to the information, cause the engine to reference a rule of a predefined ruleset stored in the remote hardware database server as a database table comprising rows and columns, the rule comprising a row and a status identifier comprising a first column; and
based upon the rule, cause the engine to propagate the second status to change a status of a second database entity belonging to the hierarchy, wherein the second database entity comprises the process and wherein:
a second column of the table comprises a new status identifier used to handle the event with specific programming comprising propagating a generic error status identifier to indicate an error for the step and another error for a different step of the process.
12. A system as in claim 11 wherein:
the first database entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second database entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status as soon as the information is received.
13. A system as in claim 11 wherein:
the first database entity belongs to a lower level in the hierarchy than the second database entity; and
the rule calls for propagating the second status only after other entities belonging to the lower level are changed to a specific state.
14. A system as in claim 11 wherein:
the step and the different step are performed in parallel, and the different step belongs to a same hierarchy level as the first database entity.
15. A system as in claim 11 wherein:
the second database entity belongs to a different hierarchy level than the first database entity.