Management of L-shaped swim lanes of variable heights and widths in a graphical editor used to represent multiple asynchronous process in the same view

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10838696-B2
Application number	US-201816155001-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2018
Priority date	Oct 9, 2018
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system having a processor and a memory. The memory comprises instructions which are executed by the processor to cause the processor to implement a graphical editor for managing L-shaped swim lanes in a graphical view of an application process. The graphical editor receives a data serialization file representing a process flow of a software application. The graphical editor renders each synchronous node in the process flow in the graphical view of the application process. A swim lane rendering engine executing within the graphical editor creates an L-shaped swim lane for each asynchronous node in the process flow in the graphical view of the application process. The graphical editor presents the graphical view of the application process via an output device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, in a data processing system having a processor and a memory, wherein the memory comprises instructions which are executed by the processor to cause the processor to implement a graphical editor for managing L-shaped swim lanes in a graphical view of an application process, the method comprising:
receiving, by the graphical editor, a data serialization file representing a process flow of a software application as a configuration of program portions or service calls;
assigning, by the swim lane rendering engine, nodes in the process flow of the software application to groups, wherein each group has one or more synchronous nodes and zero or one asynchronous node, wherein for a given group having a given asynchronous node the given asynchronous node is the last node of the given group, wherein the swim lane rendering engine assigns nodes of an asynchronous branch for the given asynchronous node to an asynchronous group, and wherein the swim lane rendering engine assigns zero or more nodes succeeding the asynchronous node to a succeeding group;
rendering, by the graphical editor, each synchronous node in the given group at a first level in the graphical view of the application process;
creating, by a swim lane rendering engine executing within the graphical editor, an L-shaped swim lane for the given asynchronous node from the first level to a second level in the graphical view of the application process;
rendering, by the graphical editor, each node in the asynchronous group within the L-shaped swim lane at the second level in the graphical view of the application process;
rendering, by the graphical editor, each node in the succeeding group after the L-shaped swim lane at the first level in the graphical view of the application process; and
presenting, by the graphical editor, the graphical view of the application process via an output device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating a first L-shaped swim lane for a first asynchronous node representing a first batch process, wherein the first batch process comprises at least one synchronous node and a second asynchronous node; and
creating a second L-shaped swim lane for the second asynchronous node, wherein the second asynchronous node represents a second batch process, wherein the second L-shaped swim lane is nested within the first L-shaped swim lane.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each L-shaped swim lane comprises an arrow in a vertical portion of the L-shaped swim lane and a batch process box in a horizontal portion of the L-shaped swim lane, wherein the batch process box comprises one or more nodes of a batch process associated with its corresponding asynchronous node.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a given L-shaped swim lane comprises a batch node representing retrieving multiple data items, wherein the graphical view of the application process comprises a batch begin indicator and a batch end indicator in association with the batch node, and wherein one or more nodes appearing between the batch begin indicator and the batch end indicator are performed in parallel for the multiple data items.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to a user making changes to the data serialization file, modifying the graphical view of the application process based on the changes to the data serialization file.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to the user making changes to the graphical view of the application process, modifying the data serialization file based on the changes to the graphical view of the application process.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical view of the application process comprises a node addition control after each node, the method further comprising:
responsive to a user selecting a given node addition control after a given node, creating a node type menu in association with the given node addition control, wherein the node type menu includes a synchronous node type and an asynchronous node type;
responsive to the user selecting the synchronous node type, creating a synchronous node after the given node in the graphical view; and
responsive to the user selecting the asynchronous node type, creating an L-shaped swim lane after the given node in the graphical view.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to a user removing a given node from the graphical view, removing code associated with the given node from the data serialization file.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to implement a graphical editor for managing L-shaped swim lanes in a graphical view of an application process, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to:
receive, by the graphical editor, a data serialization file representing a process flow of a software application as a configuration of program portions or service calls;
assign, by the swim lane rendering engine, nodes in the process flow of the software application to groups, wherein each group has one or more synchronous nodes and zero or one asynchronous node, wherein for a given group having a given asynchronous node the given asynchronous node is the last node of the given group, wherein the swim lane rendering engine assigns nodes of an asynchronous branch for the given asynchronous node to an asynchronous group, and wherein the swim lane rendering engine assigns zero or more nodes succeeding the asynchronous node to a succeeding group;
render, by the graphical editor, each synchronous node in the given group at a first level in the graphical view of the application process;
create, by a swim lane rendering engine executing within the graphical editor, an L-shaped swim lane for the given asynchronous node from the first level to a second level in the graphical view of the application process;
render, by the graphical editor, each node in the asynchronous group within the L shaped swim lane at the second level in the graphical view of the application process;
render, by the graphical editor, each node in the succeeding group after the L-shaped swim lane at the first level in the graphical view of the application process; and
present, by the graphical editor, the graphical view of the application process; via an output device.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to:
create a first L-shaped swim lane for a first asynchronous node representing a first batch process, wherein the first hatch process comprises at least one synchronous node and a second asynchronous node; and
create a second L-shaped swim lane for the second asynchronous node, wherein the second asynchronous node represents a second batch process, wherein the second L-shaped swim lane is nested within the first L-shaped swim lane.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein each L-shaped swim lane comprises an arrow in a vertical portion of the L-shaped swim lane and a hatch process box in a horizontal portion of the L-shaped swim lane, wherein the batch process box comprises one or more nodes of a batch process associated with its corresponding asynchronous node.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein a given L-shaped swim lane comprises a batch node representing retrieving multiple data items, wherein the graphical view of the application process comprises a batch begin indicator and a batch end indicator in association with the batch node, and wherein one or mor

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Harrison Ashley
• Klinger Doina L
• Xing Chengxuan

Classifications

• G06F3/04845

  for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour · CPC title

• G06F8/34 Primary

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F8/20 Primary

  Software design · CPC title