Method and apparatus for improved error handling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017286207-A1
Application number	US-201615086428-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 31, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Oct 5, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product provide mechanisms for improved error handling in workflow management systems. An example of the method includes receiving a first content item in an electronic workflow management system, the first content item comprising an electronic document and a set of document metadata, validating the first content item to determine that an error exists within the first content item, the validation performed according to a set of validation rules, in response to determining that an error exists within the first content item, identifying the first content item as an erroneous content item, determining error metadata associated with the first content item, generating a packaged erroneous content item comprising the first content item and the error metadata, and processing the packaged erroneous content item by a workflow engine of the electronic workflow management system.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1 . A method for providing improved error handling, the method comprising:
receiving a first content item in an electronic content management system, the first content item comprising an electronic digital media item and a set of content metadata; validating the first content item, the validation performed according to a set of validation rules, wherein the validation determine that an error exists within the first content item; in response to determining that an error exists within the first content item, identifying the first content item as an erroneous content item; generating error metadata associated with the first content item; generating a packaged erroneous content item comprising the first content item and the error metadata; and processing the packaged erroneous content item by a workflow engine of the electronic content management system.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second content item; validating the second content item according to the set of validation rules; and in response to determining that the second content item passes validation, processing the second content item by the workflow engine of the electronic content management system.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the packaged erroneous content item further comprises:
generating an interface for receiving at least one edit to the set of document metadata; receiving, via the interface, the at least one edit to the set of document metadata; applying the edit to the first content item; validating the first content item again subsequent to applying the edit to the first content item; and processing the first content item by the workflow engine in response to successfully validating the first content item.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the packaged erroneous content item further comprises:
generating a task for correcting the first content item; and transmitting a notification of the task to at least one user.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving at least one correction to the first content item; validating the first content item subsequent to receiving the at least one correction; and deleting the task for correcting the first content item in response to successfully validating the first content item.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the error metadata comprises at least one of an indicator of a metadata field that failed validation, a batch processing identifier, a time at which the first content item was received.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the packaged erroneous content item further comprises:
determining that the error metadata of the packaged erroneous content item shares at least one common characteristic with at least one another packaged erroneous content item; grouping the packaged erroneous content item and the at least one another packaged erroneous content item in an error context; and generating a single task for correcting the packaged erroneous content item and the at least one another erroneous packaged content item.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an error type of the error; determining at least one remedial measure based on the error type; applying the remedial measure; and identifying the first content item as an erroneous content item in response to a failure of the remedial measure.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the remedial measure comprises:
performing an optical character recognition operation on the electronic document; parsing the electronic document subsequent to the optical character recognition operation to identify one or more text terms; and determining whether the one or more identified text terms include at least one valid value for at least one field of the set of document metadata.

10 . An apparatus for providing improved error handling, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that configure the processor to at least:
receive a first content item in an electronic content management system, the first content item comprising an electronic digital media item and a set of content metadata; validate the first content item, the validation performed according to a set of validation rules, wherein the validation determine that an error exists within the first content item; in response to determining that an error exists within the first content item, identify the first content item as an erroneous content item; generate error metadata associated with the first content item; generate a packaged erroneous content item comprising the first content item and the error metadata; and process the packaged erroneous content item by a workflow engine of the electronic content management system.

11 . The apparatus of claim 10 , further configured to:
receive a second content item; validate the second content item according to the set of validation rules; and in response to determining that the second content item passes validation, process the second content item by the workflow engine of the electronic content management system.

12 . The apparatus of claim 10 , further configured to process the packaged erroneous content item by at least:
generating an interface for receiving at least one edit to the set of document metadata; receiving, via the interface, the at least one edit to the set of document metadata; applying the edit to the first content item; validating the first content item again subsequent to applying the edit to the first content item; and processing the first content item by the workflow engine in response to successfully validating the first content item.

13 . The apparatus of claim 10 , further configured to process the packaged erroneous content item by at least:
generating a task for correcting the first content item; and transmitting a notification of the task to at least one user.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , further configured to:
receive at least one correction to the first content item; validate the first content item subsequent to receiving the at least one correction; and delete the task for correcting the first content item in response to successfully validating the first content item.

15 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the error metadata comprises at least one of an indicator of a metadata field that failed validation, a batch processing identifier, a time at which the first content item was received.

16 . The apparatus of claim 10 , further configured to process the packaged erroneous content item by at least:
determining that the error metadata of the packaged erroneous content item shares at least one common characteristic with at least one another packaged erroneous content item; grouping the packaged erroneous content item and the at least one another packaged erroneous content item in an error context; and generating a single task for correcting the packaged erroneous content item and the at least one another erroneous packaged content item.

17 . The apparatus of claim 10 , further configured to:
determine an error type of the error; determine at least one remedial measure based on the error type; apply the remedial measure; and identify the first content item as an erroneous content item in response to a failure of the remedial measure.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , further configured to perform the remedial measure by at least:
performing an optical character recognition operation on the ele

Assignees

• Mckesson Financial Holdings

Inventors

• Campbell Brian
• Poliashenko Yana

Classifications

• G06F11/0772

  Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title

• G06F11/0787

  Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection · CPC title

• G06F11/0793 Primary

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• G06F11/079

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title