Analyzing workflows implied by instance-dependent access rules

Recently proposed form-based web information systems liberate the capture and reuse of data in organizations by substituting the development of technical implementations of electronic forms for the conceptual modelling of forms' tree-structured schemas and their data access rules. Significantly, these instance-dependent rules also imply a workflow process associated to a form, eliminating the need for a costly workflow design phase. Instead, the workflows thus created in an ad hoc manner by unsophisticated end-users can be automatically analyzed, and incorrect forms rejected. This paper examines fundamental correctness properties of workflows that are implied by instance-dependent access rules. Specifically, we study the decidability of the form completability property and the semi-soundness of a form's workflow. These problems are affected by a choice of constraints on the path language used to express access rules and completion formulas, and on the depth of the form'...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: PODS
• Authors: Toon Calders, Stijn Dekeyser, Jan Hidders, Jan Paredaens
• Keywords: Access Rules, Costly Workflow Design, Data Access Rules, Database, PODS 2006