Automated transaction engine

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to automated tools for tracking, recording, restoring and auditing transactions. In accordance with various embodiments, applications and servers can provide a variety of features including, but not limited to, behind the scene monitoring activity (transaction or business) and recording, persisting client activity, ubiquitous autosave, business workflow and approval lifecycles, error correction at the business level, management of the state of the transaction without the user having to manage the activity, tracking posted and unposted transactions (e.g., business state), and the like. The applications can communicate with a unified transaction engine that combines awareness of database transaction state along with business transaction states. As a result, the end-user and/or developer do not have to be concerned about the underlying differences between the database transaction state and business transaction states, and can focus on where their transaction is in its lifecycle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a processor;   a memory;   a communications component configured to:
 receive activity snapshots identifying changes to a transactional entry being modified in an application running on a client device,
 wherein the activity snapshots are automatically created in response to triggering events; and 
 
   a transaction engine configured to create transient records that link the activity snapshots received from the client device to a transaction,
 wherein the transaction engine uses business logic to associate an application workflow state to each of the activity snapshots, and 
 wherein the transaction engine assigns a transaction identifier to each of the activity snapshots; 
   a database to store the transient records.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a recovery engine to return, in response to a request from the application running on the client device, a series of transient records representing a series of changes to the transactional entry to return the transactional entry from a current state to a previous state. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the activity snapshots only identify changes to the transactional entry since a previous activity snapshot. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein triggering events include expiration of a time interval, logical transaction boundaries, metadata defined trigger points, or metadata boundaries. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an audit engine configured to:
 access the transient records stored in the database; and   create, based on the business logic, an audit trail identifying workflow activity.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a metadata-driven boundary detector to analyze the transient records for boundaries identified by the business logic and, in response to detection of any of the boundaries, automatically create persistent records within the database. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein boundary detector creates the persistent records based on the transient records and then removes the transient records from the database. 
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from an application accessed on a client device, activity snapshots identifying changes to a transaction being modified in the application,
 wherein the activity snapshots are automatically created in response to triggering events; and 
 wherein the activity snapshots identify only the changes to the transaction that have occurred since a previous activity snapshot; 
   linking the activity snapshots to an automated transaction record;
 wherein linking the activity snapshots to the automated transaction record includes assigning a transaction identifier to the activity snapshots; 
   receiving a request to restore the transaction to a previous state; and   processing the activity snapshots associated with the automated transaction record to create the previous state of the transaction.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the request to restore the transaction to the previous state is automatically generated. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the activity snapshots also identify a user of the application and a client session. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein processing the activity snapshots associated with the automated transaction record comprises:
 identifying a subset of transactional data that will return the automated transaction record to the previous state; and   transmitting, from a server to the client device, the subset of the transactional data to the application.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the application is one of multiple applications generated by a cloud-based software platform and wherein the cloud-based software platform provides a set of common services to each of the multiple applications. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the set of common services include administrative service, application programing interfaces, and security services. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the transaction is being created in a client session hosted by one or more servers in a stateless manner. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising identifying a set of business rules associated with the transaction. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein linking the activity snapshots to the automated transaction record includes associating a state of workflow specified according to a set of business rules. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-readable medium, excluding transitory signals, storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a machine to:
 monitor user interactions entered via an application running on a client device;   generate activity snapshots identifying changes to a transaction being modified in the application,
 wherein the activity snapshots are automatically created in response to triggering events; and 
 wherein the activity snapshots identify only the changes to the transaction that have occurred since a previous activity snapshot; 
   link the activity snapshots to an automated transaction record by assigning a transaction identifier to the activity snapshots;   receive a request to restore the transaction to a previous state; and   process the activity snapshots associated with the automated transaction record to create the previous state of the transaction.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the instructions when executed by the one or more processors further cause the machine to monitor the transaction and identify a transaction boundary. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the triggering events include expiration of a time interval, logical transaction boundaries, metadata defined trigger points, or metadata boundaries. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the activity snapshots also identify a user of the application and a client session.