User interface for automated flows within a cloud based developmental platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10956013-B2
Application number	US-201715815476-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2017
Priority date	May 5, 2017
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

Abstract

Creating, executing, and managing flow plans by performing at least the following: presenting on a display an action instance associated with a flow plan within an action designer user interface, wherein the action designer user interface comprises: an action outline component that includes an input graphical element, one or more step instance graphical element, and an action graphical element, wherein one of the graphical elements is highlighted within the action outline component; and an action window adjacent to the action outline component, wherein the action window comprises one or more input fields that dynamically change based on a user selection of one of the graphical elements within the action outline component, and present a window to select from a list of pre-existing step instance types for a step instance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a 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:
present, on a display, an action designer user interface associated with a flow plan, wherein the action designer user interface is configured to define an action instance of the flow plan within a cloud-computing environment based on one or more user inputs, and wherein the action designer user interface comprises:
an action outline component that includes an input graphical element, one or more step instance graphical elements, and an action graphical element, wherein one of the graphical elements is highlighted within the action outline component; and
an action window adjacent to the action outline component, wherein the action window comprises one or more input fields that dynamically change based on a user selection of one of the graphical elements within the action outline component;

receive, from the action designer user interface, one or more user inputs configured to link one or more output values of a first operation of the action instance to one or more input values of a second operation of the action instance, define execution of the first operation by a first computing device, and define execution of the second operation to be offloaded from the first computing device to a second computing device in response to a determination that one or more operational conditions of the first computing device are insufficient to execute the second operation;
receive one or more additional user inputs configured to add one or more step instances to the second operation of the action instance; and
present, on the display, a window to select from a list of pre-existing step instance types to add corresponding step instances to the second operation in response to receiving the one or more additional user inputs.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more step instance graphical elements include a graphical element for an approval step instance indicative of one or more approval conditions that the flow plan satisfies prior to executing.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the action window comprises an approval rule builder graphical element configured to build one or more rules for creating the one or more approval conditions, and wherein the approval rule builder graphical element includes one or more fields to define the one or more rules for the one or more approval conditions.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more rules are combined with a logical operation to form a rule set.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more hardware processors to present a remove rule set option that deletes one or more rule sets for the approval rule builder graphical element.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding step instances are added to the second operation within the action instance without creating a custom script.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second computing device is a management, instrumentation, and discovery (MID) server.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more hardware processors to present an action property window within the action designer user interface, wherein the action property window is configured to setup properties or policies for the action instance.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more hardware processors to present a menu component that includes a publish option indicative of creating a snapshot version of the action instance.

10. A method comprising:
presenting, on a display, an action designer user interface associated with a flow plan, wherein the action designer user interface is configured to define an action instance of the flow plan within a cloud-computing environment based on one or more user inputs, and wherein the action designer user interface comprises:
an action outline component that includes an input graphical element, one or more step instance graphical elements, and an action graphical element, wherein one of the graphical elements is highlighted within the action outline component; and
an action window adjacent to the action outline component, wherein the action window comprises one or more input fields that dynamically change based on a user selection of one of the graphical elements within the action outline component; and

receiving, from the action designer user interface, one or more user inputs configured to link one or more output values of a first operation of the action instance to one or more input values of a second operation of the action instance, define execution of the first operation by a first computing device, and define execution of the second operation to be offloaded from the first computing device to a second computing device in response to a determination that one or more operational conditions of the first computing device are insufficient to execute the second operation;
receiving one or more additional user inputs configured to add one or more step instances to the second operation of the action instance; and
presenting, on the display, a window to select from a list of pre-existing step instance types to add corresponding step instances to the second operation in response to receiving the one or more additional user inputs.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more step instance graphical elements include a graphical element for an approval step instance indicative of one or more approval conditions that the flow plan satisfies prior to executing.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the action window comprises an approval rule builder graphical element configured to build one or more rules for creating the one or more approval conditions, and wherein the approval rule builder graphical element includes one or more fields to define the one or more rules for the one or more approval conditions.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more rules are combined with a logical operation to form a rule set.

14. The method of claim 13 , comprising presenting a remove rule set option that deletes one or more rule sets for the approval rule builder graphical element.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the corresponding step instances are added to the second operation within the action instance without creating a custom script.

16. The method of claim 10 , comprising presenting a menu component that includes a publish option indicative of creating a snapshot version of the action instance.

17. A system comprising:
a 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:
receive, from an action designer user interface configured to define an action instance of a flow plan within a cloud-computing environment, one or more first user inputs configured to link one or more output values of a first operation of the action instance to one or more input values of a second operation of the action instance, define execution of the first operation by a first computing device, and define execution of the second operation to be offloaded from the first computing device to a second computing device in response to a determination that one or more operational conditions of the first computing device are insufficient to execute the second operation;
receive, from the action designer user interface, one or more second user inputs configured to add an appr

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Nelson Harry Thomas
• Dias Rebecca
• Brennan Mark
• Zhang Qian
• Mitchell Christen

Classifications

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• G06Q10/0631 Primary

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title

• G06F9/5038

  considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration (scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups) · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title