A framework supporting dynamic workflow interoperation and enterprise application integration

In this paper, we propose a framework supporting dynamic interoperation between heterogeneous workflow systems and workflow-based dynamic enterprise application integration (EAI). To this end, based on a subflow task model and multi-tiered dynamic state transition model, four major components are defined: the workflow engine, adapter, service interface repositories (SIRs), and XML messages. The workflow engine provides a user with location transparency of subprocesses by encapsulating and dynamically binding both internal and external subprocesses. As middleware, the adapter achieves location and system transparency with the help of the workflow engine by encapsulating and dynamically binding external subprocesses to its superprocess. SIRs contain the service information of other systems. The local SIR (LSIR) within an organization is an important component for dynamic EAI. The adapter looks up the LSIR at run time when it tries to find external services. Several XML messages enable communications between heterogeneous workflow systems and enterprise applications.