Patent US20070136675A1 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.

US20070136675A1 Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Methods and apparatus for updating a plurality of data fields in an elecronic form

Assignee: K2 Software Inc

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Filing: 2006-11-02

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Granted: —

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Expires: 2026-11-02

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Abstract

Abstract The disclosed system empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects, author intelligent business forms, and create automated workflows. The logical business objects include data definitions and methods from existing and new data sources. An object broker interprets the business object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources. The intelligent business forms are created by an information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment. Each form is intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. The automated workflow tools include process discovery features that assist users during the process identification phase. The tools assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization.

Inventors

👤 Adriaan van Wyk
👤 Ben Fourie
👤 Schalk de Jager
👤 Pieter Janson
👤 Natachya Raath
👤 Lenz le Roux
👤 Wynand du Toit
👤 Olaf Wagner

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —

Jurisdiction US

Data Source google_patents

Last Synchronized 2026-11-06 23:36

CPC Classifications

G; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/06; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/20; G06F16/27; G06F16/273

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 16

Claim 1

Independent Claim 88 words

1 . A method of updating a plurality of data fields in an electronic form, the method comprising: detecting an event associated with an update at a client device; sending a method call from the client device to a broker server in response to detecting the event, the method call using a first protocol; and receiving data from the broker server using the first protocol, wherein the data received from the broker server is retrieved from a plurality of different data sources using a plurality of different protocols.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 88 words

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 123 words

2 . The method of claim 1 , including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by: placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a resource map, the first object being indicative of a first business resource, the second object being indicative of a second different business resource; connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of the workflow process; associating a second computer based design canvas with the arrow; and placing a plurality of objects on the second computer based design canvas to create a process map, each object in the plurality of objects being indicative of a step in the workflow process.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 165 words

3 . The method of claim 1 , including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by: placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step; connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and creating a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 95 words

4 . The method of claim 1 , including designing a workflow process to use the electronic form by: placing a plurality of objects on a computer based design canvas at a first client device to create a workflow representation; sharing at least a portion of the workflow representation with a second different client device via a network; exchanging messages associated with the portion of the workflow representation between the first client device and the second client device; and storing data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the workflow representation.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 110 words

5 . The method of claim 1 , including displaying a setup sequence associated with the electronic form by: displaying a plurality of thumbnail images in a first area of a display, each of the thumbnail images representing a step in the setup sequence; displaying a full image in a second area of the display, the full image representing one of the steps in the setup sequence; detecting a first event associated with a thumbnail image in the plurality of thumbnail images; and displaying a popup image in response to detecting the first event, the popup image being a larger version of the thumbnail image associated with the first event.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 91 words

6 . The method of claim 1 , including displaying a setup sequence associated with the electronic form by: displaying a graphical object indicative of a step in a workflow process that uses the combined business object; detecting an event associated with the graphical object; displaying an animation of the graphical object rotating in three dimensions in response to detecting the event associated with the graphical object; displaying a setup sequence associated with the step in the workflow process; and receiving configuration parameters associated with the step in the workflow process.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 97 words

7 . A computer readable medium storing instructions for updating a plurality of data fields in an electronic form, the instructions to cause a computing device to: detect an event associated with an update at a client device; send a method call from the client device to a broker server in response to detecting the event, the method call using a first protocol; and receive data from the broker server using the first protocol, wherein the data received from the broker server is retrieved from a plurality of different data sources using a plurality of different protocols.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 97 words

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 135 words

8 . The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions facilitate designing a workflow process to use the electronic form, the instructions to cause the computing device to: place a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a resource map, the first object being indicative of a first business resource, the second object being indicative of a second different business resource; connect the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of the workflow process; associate a second computer based design canvas with the arrow; and place a plurality of objects on the second computer based design canvas to create a process map, each object in the plurality of objects being indicative of a step in the workflow process.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 177 words

9 . The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions facilitate designing a workflow process to use the electronic form, the instructions to cause the computing device to: place a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step; connect the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and create a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 107 words

10 . The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions facilitate designing a workflow process to use the electronic form, the instructions to cause the computing device to: place a plurality of objects on a computer based design canvas at a first client device to create a workflow representation; share at least a portion of the workflow representation with a second different client device via a network; exchange messages associated with the portion of the workflow representation between the first client device and the second client device; and store data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the workflow representation.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 92 words

11 . A computing device for generating instructions for updating a plurality of data fields in an electronic form, the computing device: detecting an event associated with an update at a client device; sending a method call from the client device to a broker server in response to detecting the event, the method call using a first protocol; and receiving data from the broker server using the first protocol, wherein the data received from the broker server is retrieved from a plurality of different data sources using a plurality of different protocols.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 92 words

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 162 words

12 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is structured to: place a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step; connect the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and create a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 92 words

13 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is structured to: place a plurality of objects on a computer based design canvas at a first client device to create a workflow representation; share at least a portion of the workflow representation with a second different client device via a network; exchange messages associated with the portion of the workflow representation between the first client device and the second client device; and store data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the workflow representation.

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