Abstract
The Mentor-lite prototype has been developed within the research project “Architecture, Configuration, and Administration of Large Workflow Management Systems” funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG). It has evolved from its predecessor Mentor [1], but aims at a simpler architecture. The main goal of Mentor-lite has been to build a light-weight, extensible, and tailorable workflow management system (WFMS) with small footprint and easy-to-use administration capabilities. Our approach is to provide only kernel functionality inside the workflow engine, and consider system components like history management and worklist management as extensions on top of the kernel. The key point to retain the light-weight nature is that these extensions are implemented as workflows themselves. The workflow specifications are interpreted at runtime, which is a crucial prerequisite for flexible exception handling and dynamic modifications during runtime. The interpreter performs a stepwise execution of the workflow specification according to its formal semantics. For each step, the activities to be performed by the step are determined and started. Mentor-lite supports a protocol for distributed execution of workflows spread across multiple workflow engines. This support is crucial for workflows that span large, decentralized enterprises with largely autonomous organizational units or even cross multiple enterprises to form so-called “virtual enterprises”. A communication manager is responsible for sending and receiving synchronization messages between the engines. In order to guarantee a consistent global state even in the presence of site or network failures, we have built reliable message queues using the CORBA Object Transaction Services. For administration, Mentor-lite provides a Java-based workbench for workflow design, workflow partitioning across multiple workflow servers, and a Java-based runtime monitoring tool.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.