基于柔性建模的工作流管理系统的研究与实现
摘要
九十年代初工作流技术给企业应用提供了一种横向整合能力,到了今天,工作流技术还不够完善。企业面临着复杂多变的环境,业务过程在实际执行时常常无法事先确定其执行逻辑,这就要求过程在运行时具有动态变化的能力,因而柔性问题是现如今工作流技术正面临的难题。建模的柔性将在辅助企业流程的优化方面发挥重要作用,研制具有柔性的快速适应企业变化的柔性流程建模是个重要的新课题。
通过深入研究现有建模方法、柔性建模方法、工作流管理系统设计和现在仍未解决的柔性化问题,设计了一种基于构件的柔性建模方法和柔性工作流管理系统。基于构件的柔性建模方法将工作流程中的活动分为三种类型:普通活动、静态构件和动态构件。将构件分为静态构件和动态构件的目的在于同时满足手动选择静态构件和系统自动选择动态构件的需要。动态构件和静态构件在自身未处于运行状态之前都可以进行修改并在运行时刻得到反映,具有更高的灵活性。在活动属性中加入了类型和约束两个属性,其中约束是实现动态构件的重要属性并对约束进行了详细讨论。特别是为了能够处理所有的流程顺序,在动态构件的组合约束中设计了附加条件,用于作为或分支和或汇聚类型活动的选择处理条件。动态构件能够自动化运行是因为设计了一种能根据约束来动态生成所需要的构件的算法,并验证了此方法能够使得动态构件的活动库中的活动在运行时具有最高的并发性,能够最快的完成构件任务。
工作流管理联盟提出的工作流管理系统架构难以处理柔性化问题,针对这点进行了基于构件的工作流管理系统的设计。这个基于构件的工作流管理系统包括搜索引擎,执行各种构件搜索;还包括构件库。构件是一种可能被再次使用的工作流成分,可以节省不必要的重复建模;通过搜索接口查询获取构件之后可以再次使用。
最后讨论本课题研究所基于的器件管理系统中工作流管理子系统的设计,通过增加所需要的属性来将构件设计添加在建模工具设计中,并且给出了工作流管理子系统的应用实例。
During the early 90’s, workflow technologies have offerd a transversal integration capacity to the enterprise applications. Until now, it is still not sufficient to intergrate applications and the activities they support into the business process. The companys face diverse and complicated situations, which make it hard to predefine the exacution of business processes in most circumstances. Hence, business process is required to be flexible or dynamic. This is a big problem for workflow thecnology. Flexible modeling is newly brought about and plays an important part in optimizing the business processes.
A lot of researches are done on the flexibile or unflexible modling method, as well as on the design of the workflow system and the potential flexible problem in the existing systems. After the researching, a flexible modeling method based on component is proposed. The activity in the workflow is devided into three types: general activity, static component and dynamic component. Static component can be chosen manually while dynamic component will be composed at run time and run automaticly. Hence, two attributes are added into the activity: type and constraints. Constraints, which are very important in implementing the dynamic component, are detailedly dicussed. Especially, in order to fulfill all possible sequence of activities, in the dynamic components’composition constraint, condition is added to complement the types of or-join and or-split. The workflow system runs the dynamic component automaticly according to an algorithm proposed. The algorithm uses the constraints as a reference and form the ideal component automaticly. Validation is made to insure the activities in the dynamic component can be run intercurrently and fast.
The architecture of a workflow management system proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition shows its difficulty in dealing with the flexible problem. Hence the concept of component is introduced into the workflow management system. This knid of system include searching engine and component database. Reusable components are stored in the dabase, which save unnecessary re-modeling, and can be found through the searching engine.
Last but not least, a workflow management system including the concept of components is showed in details, along with an example of applications.
通过深入研究现有建模方法、柔性建模方法、工作流管理系统设计和现在仍未解决的柔性化问题,设计了一种基于构件的柔性建模方法和柔性工作流管理系统。基于构件的柔性建模方法将工作流程中的活动分为三种类型:普通活动、静态构件和动态构件。将构件分为静态构件和动态构件的目的在于同时满足手动选择静态构件和系统自动选择动态构件的需要。动态构件和静态构件在自身未处于运行状态之前都可以进行修改并在运行时刻得到反映,具有更高的灵活性。在活动属性中加入了类型和约束两个属性,其中约束是实现动态构件的重要属性并对约束进行了详细讨论。特别是为了能够处理所有的流程顺序,在动态构件的组合约束中设计了附加条件,用于作为或分支和或汇聚类型活动的选择处理条件。动态构件能够自动化运行是因为设计了一种能根据约束来动态生成所需要的构件的算法,并验证了此方法能够使得动态构件的活动库中的活动在运行时具有最高的并发性,能够最快的完成构件任务。
工作流管理联盟提出的工作流管理系统架构难以处理柔性化问题,针对这点进行了基于构件的工作流管理系统的设计。这个基于构件的工作流管理系统包括搜索引擎,执行各种构件搜索;还包括构件库。构件是一种可能被再次使用的工作流成分,可以节省不必要的重复建模;通过搜索接口查询获取构件之后可以再次使用。
最后讨论本课题研究所基于的器件管理系统中工作流管理子系统的设计,通过增加所需要的属性来将构件设计添加在建模工具设计中,并且给出了工作流管理子系统的应用实例。
During the early 90’s, workflow technologies have offerd a transversal integration capacity to the enterprise applications. Until now, it is still not sufficient to intergrate applications and the activities they support into the business process. The companys face diverse and complicated situations, which make it hard to predefine the exacution of business processes in most circumstances. Hence, business process is required to be flexible or dynamic. This is a big problem for workflow thecnology. Flexible modeling is newly brought about and plays an important part in optimizing the business processes.
A lot of researches are done on the flexibile or unflexible modling method, as well as on the design of the workflow system and the potential flexible problem in the existing systems. After the researching, a flexible modeling method based on component is proposed. The activity in the workflow is devided into three types: general activity, static component and dynamic component. Static component can be chosen manually while dynamic component will be composed at run time and run automaticly. Hence, two attributes are added into the activity: type and constraints. Constraints, which are very important in implementing the dynamic component, are detailedly dicussed. Especially, in order to fulfill all possible sequence of activities, in the dynamic components’composition constraint, condition is added to complement the types of or-join and or-split. The workflow system runs the dynamic component automaticly according to an algorithm proposed. The algorithm uses the constraints as a reference and form the ideal component automaticly. Validation is made to insure the activities in the dynamic component can be run intercurrently and fast.
The architecture of a workflow management system proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition shows its difficulty in dealing with the flexible problem. Hence the concept of component is introduced into the workflow management system. This knid of system include searching engine and component database. Reusable components are stored in the dabase, which save unnecessary re-modeling, and can be found through the searching engine.
Last but not least, a workflow management system including the concept of components is showed in details, along with an example of applications.
引文
[1]王利霞.工作流参考模型分析,电脑应用技术[J],2007,(71):30-34
[2]罗海滨,范玉顺,吴澄等.工作流技术综述.软件学报,2000,11(7):899-970
[3]范玉顺,吴澄.工作流管理技术研究与产品现状及发展趋势,计算机集成制造系统, 2000,6(1):1-8
[4] Georgakopoulos D, Hornick M, Sheth A. An overview of workflow management: from modeling to workflow automation infrastructure. Distributed and Parallel Databases, 1995, 3(2): 119-153
[5] W.M.P. van der Aalst. The application of Petri nets to workflow management. The Journal of Circuits Systems and Computers, 1998, 8(1): 21-26.
[6]范玉顺,吴澄.基于工作流的CIMS应用集成支持系统研究.计算机工程与应用, 2000, 11(2): 62-110
[7] Jin Xin, Xu Jing, Li Xuemeng.The Design and implementation of XML-based Workflow Engine, in: Proceedings of the Eighth ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking, and Parallel/Distributed Computing, v 3,2007, Qingdao: IEEE Computer Society , Washington D C, USA, 2007.137-142
[8]彭丹.一种基于Web Service的分布式工作流引擎构架.计算机与现代化.2007.(9):40-43
[9]杨东,王英林,张申生等.工作流过程建模方法及模型的形式化验证.计算机科学.2003.30(9):127-131
[10] Corina Stratan, Alexandru Iosup and Dick H.J. Epema. A Performance Study of Grid Workflow Engines, in: 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Grid Computing Conference, 2008:25-32
[11] Dr. Michael Rohloff, Danet GmbH. Reference model and object oriented approach for business process design and workflow management, in: Proceedings of the 1996 Information Systems Conference of New Zealand, 1996. IEEE Computer Society, Washington,D C, USA, 1996: 43-52
[12] Liu Min; Yan Jun-wei; Bai Li. The Inter-operating Mechanism of the Alliance-Collaboration-Oriented Dynamic Grid Workflow, in: IEEE International Conference on Integration Technology.2007.ICIT’07,2007:301-306
[13]付燕宁,刘磊,陈伟.两种业务流程建模方法的分析与比较,吉林大学学报. 2007, 45(6): 990-994
[14]朱瑜,杨国纬.过程定义语言XPDL, BPML, BPEL4WS的比较分析.成都信心工程学院学报, 2005, 20(6): 645-648
[15] Selmin Nurcan. A Survey on the Flexibility Requirments Related to Business Process and Modeling Artifacts, in: Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2008: 378-378
[16] Xiao Zhou-yuan, Pan Tian-hen. Research on flexibility of the Workflow reference model, in: Proceedings of the 2009 Second International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2009, IEEE Computer Society, Washington,D C, USA, 2009:422-427
[17]张芳,严晓光.工作流管理系统建模研究.计算机与现代化, 2005, 12(1): 55-58
[18] Karl RPH Leung, et al. The Liaision Workflow Engine Architecture. In: Proceeding of the 32nd Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences, January5-8, 1999, Maui, Hawaii, 2002:1-10.
[19] Ping Sun; Junli Wang; Xiangmei Li, et al. Performance Analysis of Workflow Model with Resource Constraints, in: Proceedings of the First International Multi-Symposiums on Computer and Computational Sciences, IMSCCS '06. Volume 1, 20-24 June 2006. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 2006. Page(s):397– 401
[20] Sadiq W, Orlowska M E. Analyzing Process Models Using Graph Reduction Techniques, Information System, 2000, 25(2): 117-134.
[21]赵合计,张立春.UML活动图支持下的工作流建模方法与设计.计算机应用与软件. 2004, 21(8):44-45+96
[22] PNicolas Guelfi, PAmel Mammar. A Formal Framework to Generate XPDL Specifications from UML Activity, in: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on applied computing. Dijon, France, 2006. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 2006:1224-1231
[23] Ping Jiang, Quentin Mair, Julian Newman. Using UML to Design Distributed Collaborative Workflows: form UML to XPDL. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises.2003. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2003: 71-76
[24]李锡祚,韩桂英.一种结构化的工作流过程建模方法.计算机工程, 2005,31(8):63-65
[25] Simone Pellegrini, Francesco Giacomini. Design of a Petri Net-Based Workflow Engine, in: Proceedings of the 2008 3rd International Conference on Grid and Pervasive Computing– Workshops, 2008. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2008:81-86
[26] Suhaila Zainudin, Abdul Razak Hamdan. A Proposed Design for a Workflow Engine.in Electrical and Electronic Technology, 2001, TENCON. Proceedings of IEEE Region 10 International Conference on Volume 1, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 2002: 65-68.
[27] Y. C. Ngeow.Web-based Device Workflow Management Engine, in: Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 2007. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2007: 914-919
[28]徐建军,谭庆平,杨艳萍.一种基于J2EE的工作流引擎体系结构.计算机应用, 2005, 25(2):469-471
[29]张洪山,殷人昆,张素琴.基于Web的工作流引擎设计.计算机工程, 2004, 30(4): 83-85
[30]程旭,侯开虎,李长征.一个简易工作流引擎的设计与实现.现代制造工程, 2008, 2: 70-72
[31] Shaohua Zhang, Ning Gu, Saihan Li. Grid Workflow based on Dynamic Modeling and Scheduling, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology: Coding and Computing, Volume 2, 2004, IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA, 2004: 35-39
[32] Hideyuki Katoh, Takashi Kobayashi, Haruo Yokota. Activity Scheduling in Web-Service Based Workflow Management for Balancing Load and Handling Failures, in: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Mobile DataManagement.2006, MDM, 2006: 135-135
[33]刑建川,李志蜀.动态柔性工作流建模方法研究.见:第25届中国控制会议论文集.昆明,2006.918-921
[34] Lasse Pajunen, Anna Ruokonen. Modeling and Generating Mobile Business Process. In: IEEE International Conference on Web Services.2007. San Diego, California, USA. IEEE Computer Society 2007: 920-927
[35] Lican Huang. Production Rule Based Selection Decision for Dynamic Flexible Workflow.in.Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing. Bangalore, 2007. Washington, DC, USA. IEEE Computer Society. 2008: 627-632.
[36] Shi-jun Liu, Xiang-xu Meng, Bin Gong. Modeling and Implementing of a Flexible Workflow System which Supporting Engineering Change. In: The 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design Proceedings, 2004: 418-422
[37] Jian Tang. Ad-Hoc recovery in workflows, a formal model and some system support aspects. 1999. CoopIS '99. Proceedings of the Fourth IFCIS International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems, 2-4 Sept. 1999 Page(s):222– 233.
[38]范玉顺,吴澄.一种提高系统柔性的工作流建模方法研究.软件学报. 2002. 13(4):833-839
[39] Deng ShuiGuang, Yu Zhen, Wu ZhaoHui, Huang LiCan. A Worlflow Model Supporting Flexible Process Using Activities Combination at Run Time, in: The 8th International conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design Proceedings, Volume 1, 2004:409-417
[40] Shazia Sadiq, Wasim Sadiq and Maria Orlowska. Pockets of Flexibility in Workflow Specifications, in: H. Kunii, S Jajodia and A. Solvberg, Conceptual Modeling: ER 2001. Twentieth International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Yokohama, Japan, 27-30 November, 2001: 513-526.
[41]徐劲松,丁志强,陈卫.一种改进的柔性工作流过程定义元模型研究.计算机工程与应用. 2008, 44(4): 77-79,158.
[42] Peter Mangan, Shazia Sadiq. On Building Workflow Models for Flexible Processes. In: X. Zhou, Database Technologies 2002: Proceedings of theThirteenth Australasian Database Conference. Thirteenth Australasian Database Conference, Melbourne, 28 January-1 February, 2003: 103-109
[43]张海滨,曹健.基于构件的Petri-net工作流建模方法.计算机工程.2004.(30):519-521
[44]苏鹏,王文,刘学理等.基于关系数据库的轻量级工作流引擎.计算机应用与软件, 2008,25(3):117-119
[45]方俊.基于关系数据库的工作流引擎的设计.计算技术与自动化.2005.24(3):102-105
[2]罗海滨,范玉顺,吴澄等.工作流技术综述.软件学报,2000,11(7):899-970
[3]范玉顺,吴澄.工作流管理技术研究与产品现状及发展趋势,计算机集成制造系统, 2000,6(1):1-8
[4] Georgakopoulos D, Hornick M, Sheth A. An overview of workflow management: from modeling to workflow automation infrastructure. Distributed and Parallel Databases, 1995, 3(2): 119-153
[5] W.M.P. van der Aalst. The application of Petri nets to workflow management. The Journal of Circuits Systems and Computers, 1998, 8(1): 21-26.
[6]范玉顺,吴澄.基于工作流的CIMS应用集成支持系统研究.计算机工程与应用, 2000, 11(2): 62-110
[7] Jin Xin, Xu Jing, Li Xuemeng.The Design and implementation of XML-based Workflow Engine, in: Proceedings of the Eighth ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking, and Parallel/Distributed Computing, v 3,2007, Qingdao: IEEE Computer Society , Washington D C, USA, 2007.137-142
[8]彭丹.一种基于Web Service的分布式工作流引擎构架.计算机与现代化.2007.(9):40-43
[9]杨东,王英林,张申生等.工作流过程建模方法及模型的形式化验证.计算机科学.2003.30(9):127-131
[10] Corina Stratan, Alexandru Iosup and Dick H.J. Epema. A Performance Study of Grid Workflow Engines, in: 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Grid Computing Conference, 2008:25-32
[11] Dr. Michael Rohloff, Danet GmbH. Reference model and object oriented approach for business process design and workflow management, in: Proceedings of the 1996 Information Systems Conference of New Zealand, 1996. IEEE Computer Society, Washington,D C, USA, 1996: 43-52
[12] Liu Min; Yan Jun-wei; Bai Li. The Inter-operating Mechanism of the Alliance-Collaboration-Oriented Dynamic Grid Workflow, in: IEEE International Conference on Integration Technology.2007.ICIT’07,2007:301-306
[13]付燕宁,刘磊,陈伟.两种业务流程建模方法的分析与比较,吉林大学学报. 2007, 45(6): 990-994
[14]朱瑜,杨国纬.过程定义语言XPDL, BPML, BPEL4WS的比较分析.成都信心工程学院学报, 2005, 20(6): 645-648
[15] Selmin Nurcan. A Survey on the Flexibility Requirments Related to Business Process and Modeling Artifacts, in: Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2008: 378-378
[16] Xiao Zhou-yuan, Pan Tian-hen. Research on flexibility of the Workflow reference model, in: Proceedings of the 2009 Second International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2009, IEEE Computer Society, Washington,D C, USA, 2009:422-427
[17]张芳,严晓光.工作流管理系统建模研究.计算机与现代化, 2005, 12(1): 55-58
[18] Karl RPH Leung, et al. The Liaision Workflow Engine Architecture. In: Proceeding of the 32nd Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences, January5-8, 1999, Maui, Hawaii, 2002:1-10.
[19] Ping Sun; Junli Wang; Xiangmei Li, et al. Performance Analysis of Workflow Model with Resource Constraints, in: Proceedings of the First International Multi-Symposiums on Computer and Computational Sciences, IMSCCS '06. Volume 1, 20-24 June 2006. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 2006. Page(s):397– 401
[20] Sadiq W, Orlowska M E. Analyzing Process Models Using Graph Reduction Techniques, Information System, 2000, 25(2): 117-134.
[21]赵合计,张立春.UML活动图支持下的工作流建模方法与设计.计算机应用与软件. 2004, 21(8):44-45+96
[22] PNicolas Guelfi, PAmel Mammar. A Formal Framework to Generate XPDL Specifications from UML Activity, in: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on applied computing. Dijon, France, 2006. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 2006:1224-1231
[23] Ping Jiang, Quentin Mair, Julian Newman. Using UML to Design Distributed Collaborative Workflows: form UML to XPDL. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises.2003. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2003: 71-76
[24]李锡祚,韩桂英.一种结构化的工作流过程建模方法.计算机工程, 2005,31(8):63-65
[25] Simone Pellegrini, Francesco Giacomini. Design of a Petri Net-Based Workflow Engine, in: Proceedings of the 2008 3rd International Conference on Grid and Pervasive Computing– Workshops, 2008. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2008:81-86
[26] Suhaila Zainudin, Abdul Razak Hamdan. A Proposed Design for a Workflow Engine.in Electrical and Electronic Technology, 2001, TENCON. Proceedings of IEEE Region 10 International Conference on Volume 1, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 2002: 65-68.
[27] Y. C. Ngeow.Web-based Device Workflow Management Engine, in: Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 2007. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA. 2007: 914-919
[28]徐建军,谭庆平,杨艳萍.一种基于J2EE的工作流引擎体系结构.计算机应用, 2005, 25(2):469-471
[29]张洪山,殷人昆,张素琴.基于Web的工作流引擎设计.计算机工程, 2004, 30(4): 83-85
[30]程旭,侯开虎,李长征.一个简易工作流引擎的设计与实现.现代制造工程, 2008, 2: 70-72
[31] Shaohua Zhang, Ning Gu, Saihan Li. Grid Workflow based on Dynamic Modeling and Scheduling, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology: Coding and Computing, Volume 2, 2004, IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA, 2004: 35-39
[32] Hideyuki Katoh, Takashi Kobayashi, Haruo Yokota. Activity Scheduling in Web-Service Based Workflow Management for Balancing Load and Handling Failures, in: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Mobile DataManagement.2006, MDM, 2006: 135-135
[33]刑建川,李志蜀.动态柔性工作流建模方法研究.见:第25届中国控制会议论文集.昆明,2006.918-921
[34] Lasse Pajunen, Anna Ruokonen. Modeling and Generating Mobile Business Process. In: IEEE International Conference on Web Services.2007. San Diego, California, USA. IEEE Computer Society 2007: 920-927
[35] Lican Huang. Production Rule Based Selection Decision for Dynamic Flexible Workflow.in.Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing. Bangalore, 2007. Washington, DC, USA. IEEE Computer Society. 2008: 627-632.
[36] Shi-jun Liu, Xiang-xu Meng, Bin Gong. Modeling and Implementing of a Flexible Workflow System which Supporting Engineering Change. In: The 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design Proceedings, 2004: 418-422
[37] Jian Tang. Ad-Hoc recovery in workflows, a formal model and some system support aspects. 1999. CoopIS '99. Proceedings of the Fourth IFCIS International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems, 2-4 Sept. 1999 Page(s):222– 233.
[38]范玉顺,吴澄.一种提高系统柔性的工作流建模方法研究.软件学报. 2002. 13(4):833-839
[39] Deng ShuiGuang, Yu Zhen, Wu ZhaoHui, Huang LiCan. A Worlflow Model Supporting Flexible Process Using Activities Combination at Run Time, in: The 8th International conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design Proceedings, Volume 1, 2004:409-417
[40] Shazia Sadiq, Wasim Sadiq and Maria Orlowska. Pockets of Flexibility in Workflow Specifications, in: H. Kunii, S Jajodia and A. Solvberg, Conceptual Modeling: ER 2001. Twentieth International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Yokohama, Japan, 27-30 November, 2001: 513-526.
[41]徐劲松,丁志强,陈卫.一种改进的柔性工作流过程定义元模型研究.计算机工程与应用. 2008, 44(4): 77-79,158.
[42] Peter Mangan, Shazia Sadiq. On Building Workflow Models for Flexible Processes. In: X. Zhou, Database Technologies 2002: Proceedings of theThirteenth Australasian Database Conference. Thirteenth Australasian Database Conference, Melbourne, 28 January-1 February, 2003: 103-109
[43]张海滨,曹健.基于构件的Petri-net工作流建模方法.计算机工程.2004.(30):519-521
[44]苏鹏,王文,刘学理等.基于关系数据库的轻量级工作流引擎.计算机应用与软件, 2008,25(3):117-119
[45]方俊.基于关系数据库的工作流引擎的设计.计算技术与自动化.2005.24(3):102-105