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BeyondTrack 的 Software Process Engine 以及 SPDL 看來要暫時告一段落了 :-)
Software Process Engine of BeyondTrack
Software Process Engine of BeyondTrack
1 Motivation
Software process modeling and execution is very specialized unlike general workflows. The relations and associations of tasks of an ordinary workflow are not very closed and coupled. In general, we may consider a task of an ordinary workflow is a work sheet rather than a task. By ISO/IEC 12207(SOFTWARE LIFE CYCLE PROCESSES), a task is a set of elementary or atomic actions. A task consumes inputs (data, information, control) and produces outputs (data, information, control).We consider that a software process engine is a subset of workflow engine is true. But, software process is too specialized to use a workflow engine. Software process has its own specifications and practices. So, in process engine of BeyondTrack, we defined a language to depict software process, which named Software Process Definition Language .
Petri Net is a formalized mathematical modeling languages for the description of discrete distributed systems. The Software process is a such system need to be defined and executed by rule and line.
2 Main Ideas
2.1 Coloured Petri Net
All process instances defined by the same process definition are marked as the template parameter of a token, and put these process instances into one petri net graph, which generated by the process definition. So, just using one petri net(contains the petri net graph and markings ) instance we can depict all process instances defined by the same process definition by markings. Here, we use the coloured petri net to model the process engine as one idea.Every token associates a process instance, we can treat it as the token was coloured. There is some benefits as followings:
- save storage
- more easily to mine associations of process instances
2.2 Nested Petri Net
TODO: sub-process
2.3 Concurrency
TODO: concurrency description using petri net.
3 Design Intentions
3.1 Meta Model
As far as we know, XML technology is the base of web service, a beautiful solution for distributed heterogeneous application. The role of XML of web service is
description
of service and
transformation
of service implementation. At this view, let's have a look at how XML do it.
We decided to use Java classes as the source meta model, and XML Schema as the target meta model.
3.1.1 SPDL XML Schema
To an XML document of the SPDL, all elements associate with each other by their names. So, the name of every element must unique in one SPDL XML document. The followings are all elements defined by SPDL.
3.1.1.1 process-definition
|
Name
|
Type
|
Multiplicity
|
Description
|
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the process definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the process definition
|
|
actor-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the actor definitions of the process definition
|
|
start-activity-definition
|
element
|
1
|
the start activity definition of the process definition
|
|
activity-definition
|
element
|
[0..*]
|
all ordinary activity definitions of the process definition
|
|
end-activity-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
all end activity definitions of the process definition
|
3.1.1.2 actor-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the actor definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the actor definition
|
3.1.1.3 start-activity-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the start activity definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the start activity definition
|
|
task-definition
|
element
|
[0..*]
|
the task definitions of the start activity definition
|
|
output-transition-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the output transition definitions of the start activity definition
|
3.1.1.4 activity-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the activity definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the activity definition
|
|
task-definition
|
element
|
[0..*]
|
the task definitions of the activity definition
|
|
input-transition-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the input transition definitions of the activity definition
|
|
output-transition-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the output transition definitions of the activity definition
|
3.1.1.5 end-activity-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the end activity definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the end activity definition
|
|
task-definition
|
element
|
[0..*]
|
the task definitions of the end activity definition
|
|
input-transition-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the input transition definitions of the end activity definition
|
3.1.1.6 input-transition-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the input transition definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the input transition definition
|
3.1.1.7 output-transition-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the output transition definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the output transition definition
|
3.1.1.8 task-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the task definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the task definition
|
|
actor-definition
|
element
|
1
|
the actor definition of the task definition
|
|
property-definition
|
element
|
[1..*]
|
the property definition of the task definition
|
3.1.1.9 property-definition
| Name | Type | Multiplicity | Description |
|
name
|
attribute
|
1
|
the name of the property definition
|
|
description
|
element
|
[0..1]
|
the description of the property definition
|
|
value-type
|
element
|
1
|
the value type defined by the property definition. At present, the value of this element only "java.lang.String" be allowed
|
3.2 TODO....
3.3 Petri net Core
There are two kinds of vertexes in petri net(P/T system),
Place
and
Transition
. Place vertex depicts the process control computing, transition vertex depicts the business activity. Them collaborate each other over events.
3.3.1 Process Events
Process events depict process-level events, such as creation of a process, completion of a activity. These events raise from business logic and will be handled by place vertex event handler. So far, all process events raise synchronously with raiser.See the following illustration:
TODO: illustration and event API snippet
3.3.2 Transition vertex Logic
Transition vertex depicts the business logic of process engine of BeyondTrack. In classic petri net, a transition of a petri net may fire . We can consider there is a fire event raised. The condition of firing please refers to petri net theory for details. When a transition fired, tokens of place connected with this transition changed.The fire event corresponds to a business operation performed.
TODO: API snippets
3.3.3 Place vertex Event Handler
A transition fire, a event raise like just we mentioned. So, there must exist a event handler to deal with that. Place vertex depicts the event handling. There are two responsibilities of place event handler mainly:
- move of token
Token move means the token related process instance's status has changed.
- generation of the next activity node
3.4 Task Management
3.4.1 Task property Customizing
To depict the various of tasks of user's project is very hard in general. So, let user to customize the properties of a task is necessary. The property customizing of a task was performed in process modeling.
There are three property types has been considered:
-
Pure text
A pure text property is implemented by java.lang.String . -
Date
A date property is implemented by java.util.Date . -
List
TODO: list property
4 Implementation
4.1 Using JAXB for SPDL
In 3.1 Meta Model , we decided to use Java classes as the source meta model. And, the transformation rules and transformation engine have been defined by JAXB(JSR 222). The scenario of proceeding transformation as the following illustration(cut from JavaEE Tutorials ):
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