Traditional workflow systems are not suited for highly interactive online systems. We present a state-machine based workflow system, named FlexFlow, which formally describes Internet applications using state charts. The FlexFlow engine uses these descriptions to directly control the execution of the applications. FlexFlow helps in generating controls for user interactions on web pages. Different versions of an application can be generated by visually editing its FlexFlow description, with minimal incremental effort in rewriting application software or related web pages. FlexFlow, thus, provides an efficient way to customize online systems to variations in business processes or to support different versions of a business processes in the same e-business system for
different sets of industries, organizations, users, or devices. We demonstrate FlexFlow’s use for rapid prototyping of business processes. We describe how we have used FlexFlow in commercial platforms for B2B e-commerce.
By: Rakesh Mohan, Mitchell A. Cohen, Josef Schiefer
Published in: RC22406 in 2002
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