SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR GENERATING TRIGGER NETWORKS CORRESPONDING TO EVENT-CONDITION-ACTION RULES

1 . A method of executing a business task, the method being implemented by a computer system and comprising the steps of:

receiving an instruction to execute a business task;

generating an event-condition-action (ECA) rule during execution of the business task;

generating a graphical representation corresponding to the ECA rule; and

executing, using a processor of the computer system, the business task based on an evaluation of the graphical representation.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the instruction is a workflow model generated by using Business Process Modeling Notation.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical representation is a trigger network.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation includes resolving the condition in the ECA rule by using the trigger network.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical representation includes a source node representing an event in the ECA rule, an operator node representing a condition in the ECA rule, and an action node representing an action in the ECA rule.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the operator node is one of a filter operator, a join operator, a Cartesian product, or a swizzle operator.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a condition in the ECA rule includes a plurality of variables.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of variables correspond to different data types.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of variables includes a plurality of instances of different types.

10 . A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of executing a business task, the method comprising:

receiving an instruction to execute a business task;

generating an event-condition-action (ECA) rule during execution of the business task;

generating a graphical representation corresponding to the ECA rule; and

executing, using a processor of the computer system, the business task based on an evaluation of the graphical representation.

11 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instruction is a workflow model generated by using Business Process Modeling Notation.

12 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the graphical representation is a trigger network.

13 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the evaluation includes resolving a condition in the ECA rule by using the trigger network.

14 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the graphical representation includes a source node representing an event in the ECA rule, an operator node representing a condition in the ECA rule, and an action node representing an action in the ECA rule.

15 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operator node is one of a filter operator, a join operator, a Cartesian product, or a swizzle operator.

16 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein a condition in the ECA rule includes a plurality of variables.

17 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of variables correspond to different data types.

18 . A computer-implemented system of executing a business task comprising:

a memory device having instructions; and

a processor executing the instructions to perform the steps of:

receiving an instruction to execute a business task;

generating an event-condition-action (ECA) rule during execution of the business task;

generating a graphical representation corresponding to the ECA rule; and

executing, through use of the processor, the business task based on an evaluation of the graphical representation.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the graphical representation is a trigger network, and the evaluation includes resolving a condition in the ECA rule by using the trigger network.