Decision tables and flow engine for building automated flows within a cloud based development platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10824948-B2
Application number	US-201816230607-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2018
Priority date	Sep 17, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A trigger element of a design-time flow plan is set so that the trigger element activates in response computing conditions being satisfied. A decision action element of the design-time flow plan executed at run-time in response to activation of the trigger element is set. The decision action element is implemented by a decision table that includes decision inputs and respective condition logic based on the decision inputs for each of a plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table. The decision table is external to the design-time flow plan. First and second decision answer action elements are defined to execute at run-time respectively when a decision answer served-up by the decision table corresponds to first and second decision answer paths in the design-time flow plan that are associated with a first and second one of the plurality of decision answers, respectively. The design-time flow plan is published.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
non-transitory memory; and
one or more hardware processors configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the one or more hardware processors to:
set a trigger element of a design-time flow plan so that the trigger element activates in response to one or more predetermined computing conditions being satisfied;
set a plurality of action elements of the design-time flow plan, wherein at least one of the plurality of action elements is a decision action element implemented by a decision table that includes decision inputs and respective condition logic based on the decision inputs for each of a plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table, wherein the decision table is external to and decoupled from the design-time flow plan;
define a first one of the plurality of action elements of the design-time flow plan as a first decision answer action element that is executed when a decision answer served-up by the decision table corresponds to a first decision answer path in the design-time flow plan that is associated with a first one of the plurality of decision answers;
publish the design-time flow plan;
in response to the trigger element being activated, convert the published design-time flow plan into a run-time flow plan;
execute, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with the decision action element by passing values for the decision inputs to the decision table based on the activated trigger element;
in response to none of the respective condition logic of the plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table being satisfied based on the passed values to the decision table, execute, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with a default decision answer path in the published design-time flow plan; and
update the respective condition logic corresponding to at least one of the plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table, wherein the one or more operations associated with the decision action element are executed within the run-time flow plan to receive one of the plurality of decision answers from the decision table based on the updated condition logic of the decision table, without re-publishing the design-time flow plan.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the one or more hardware processors to:
receive, from the decision table, one of the plurality of decision answers served-up based on the passed values for the decision inputs and the respective condition logic;
execute, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with the first decision answer action element when the served-up decision answer is associated with the first decision answer path in the design-time flow plan; and
execute, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with a second decision answer action element when the served-up decision answer is associated with a second decision answer path in the design-time flow plan.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more operations associated with each of the first and second decision answer action elements include at least one of an operation with an external application, an operation with an internal application, and an operation to update a field value of a record in a table, wherein the record is associated with the activated trigger element.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the respective condition logic is updated by one of changing a number of the decision inputs associated with the decision table, and updating or adding one or more values of one or more of the decision inputs to arrive at a particular decision answer.

5. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the values passed for the decision inputs to the decision table include values of predetermined fields of a record that activated the trigger element.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the one or more hardware processors to:
update the decision table by adding new condition logic corresponding to a new decision answer associated with the decision table, wherein the new decision answer is distinct from the plurality of decision answers;
update the design-time flow plan by defining a second one of the plurality of action elements of the design-time flow plan as a second decision answer action element that is executed at run-time when the decision answer served up by the updated decision table corresponds to a second decision answer path in the design-time flow plan that is associated with the new decision answer; and re-publish the updated design-time flow plan.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the trigger element comprises a decision trigger element that is implemented by another decision table having a plurality of decision answers respectively corresponding to a plurality of flow objects, each of the plurality of flow objects being a reference to a corresponding design-time flow plan.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more predetermined computing conditions of the trigger element in the design-time flow plan include one of a create, read, update, or delete operation for a record matching a filter condition, expiration of a timer, and arrival of an inbound Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST API) call.

9. A method comprising:
setting a trigger element of a design-time flow plan so that the trigger element activates in response to one or more predetermined computing conditions being satisfied;
setting a plurality of action elements of the design-time flow plan, wherein at least one of the plurality of action elements is a decision action element implemented by a decision table that includes decision inputs and respective condition logic based on the decision inputs for each of a plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table, wherein the decision table is external to and decoupled from the design-time flow plan;
defining a first one of the plurality of action elements of the design-time flow plan as a first decision answer action element that is executed when a decision answer served-up by the decision table corresponds to a first decision answer path in the design-time flow plan that is associated with a first one of the plurality of decision answers;
publishing the design-time flow plan;
in response to the trigger element being activated, converting the published design-time flow plan into a run-time flow plan;
executing, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with the decision action element by passing values for the decision inputs to the decision table based on the activated trigger element;
in response to none of the respective condition logic of the plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table being satisfied based on the passed values to the decision table, executing, within the run-time flow plan, one or more operations associated with a default decision answer path in the published design-time flow plan; and
updating the respective condition logic corresponding to at least one of the plurality of decision answers associated with the decision table, wherein the one or more operations associated with the decision action element are executed within the run-time flow plan to receive one of the plurality of decision answers from the decision table based on the updated condition logic of the decision table, without re-publishing the design

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Nelson Harry Thomas
• Burman Jacob Samuel
• Solaegui Juell
• Alvarado Jimenez Alberto
• Dias Rebecca Anita

Classifications

• G06Q10/06316

  Sequencing of tasks or work · CPC title

• G06F16/23

  Updating · CPC title

• G06F16/908

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• G06N5/025 Primary

  Extracting rules from data · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title