9 Internal Workflows
This section provides a detailed view of how this Building Block will interact with other Building Blocks to support common use cases.
In the current scope, examples drawn from user-journey steps of use-cases of Post-Partum care and Unconditional Social Benefit transfer programs were considered to derive Key Digital Functionalities required to orchestrate services from this Building Block. In this section, we identify workflows to manifest some of the main services. These may be enhanced or customized as needed for specific implementation needs. The following common preconditions may be needed to be met before utilizing these services:
Entities that Host an Event registered in the Scheduler before scheduling respective events;
Subscriber, Organizer, and Resources are registered in Scheduler before being used in Event;
Service Endpoints of Scheduler and other Building Blocks it will interact with are already configured in Information Mediator Building Block;
All users are logged into the GovStack Host application to do their respective tasks;
Subscriber/Organizer knows preferred host entity, and event category to search for resources and available events;
Any payments associated with event subscription are done outside of the Scheduler;
Records of the latest resource and subscriber contact details stored in the Scheduler are up-to-date;
Target Building Block is registered as publisher and Scheduler is registered as a subscriber in the “status” room of Information Mediator Building Block Pub/Sub dedicated to the target Building Block before using Pub/Sub mode for status updates/triggers;
Event schedule with a unique ID already exists in Scheduler before seeking cancellation update;
Scheduler can also call some of its APIs from inside for operations that do not need external interaction in a particular workflow if the information is already available internally.
This section captures the example workflows that may take place between internal functional blocks to orchestrate key functionalities for a minimum viable product as follows. The exact workflows may be decided depending on implementation time considerations.
Event creation;
Finding resources of a host entity which are available in a given date-time range;
Finding event slots of a given category and resource Id in a given date-time range;
Appointment Scheduling for the resource or subscriber to a specific event;
Cancellation of appointment;
Registering new Alert Message Template;
Scheduling Alerts for a given event;
Tracking and Alerting as per schedule;
Cancellation of a scheduled event;
Log Reporting;
Registering a new entity;
Registering a new resource;
Affiliating an existing resource to a new entity;
Registering a new subscriber.
9.1 Event Management
9.1.1 Event Creation
An organizer can use this workflow to create a new event in the system. The Organizer will need to feed in minimum details such as the event name, category, address, start and end date-time, host entity, terms for subscription, and subscription limit (e.g. a doctor consultation event is limited to one patient. In a training event the limit may include multiple students). Optionally, a deadline may be specified for participants to log attendance to the event (else marked as absent). The Scheduler avoids duplication of a given event by checking if the same properties are already registered in its Event_List. The start and end date-time is an JSON array structure that enables scheduling the same event multiple times at different date-time slots. It then returns either success status along with an array of unique event ids one for each requested slot, or an appropriate error code to host the application of the organizer.
9.1.2 Cancellation of scheduled event
Organizer can request the cancellation of a prescheduled event through the host app by supplying the event id. The Scheduler first removes dependent alert_schedules and appointments empanelled in the event. It then deletes the event from the event list and returns success to the host app for confirmation to the organizer. Optionally it can send out an event cancellation message through preferred channels to all subscribers and resources of the event, before deleting the event from the event list.
9.1.3 Finding events of a given type and status having a specific resource in a given date-time range
In some scenarios, one may search for events of a specific category involving a specific resource of a specific host entity (e.g. consultation with a specific doctor in a particular hospital) that are open for subscription. The organizer can feed through a host app, a date range, event type, entity ID, and resource_id seeking matching events with status=open. The Scheduler seeks its appointment_List for the event_ids of events with a given type, resource and entity, within a given time range. For each event, the Scheduler gets details of the event if the event status is = "open". The Schedule returns details of selected open events or returns the appropriate error code (e.g. if specified category/resource not found, etc.). The Host app will present the results or error appropriately to the Organizer.
9.2 Entity Management
9.2.1 Registering a new entity
A new entity that can use the Scheduler must be registered by the administrator of the Scheduler Building Block. The Administrator requests entity registration in the scheduler through Scheduler's administrative front-end user interface by supplying relevant entity details. The Scheduler after verifying the requestor's credentials will store the entity information against a new entity id it generates. In case it finds that the entity details match any of the earlier registered entities it returns an error code and avoids duplication. In the normal course, the entity id is returned to the Administrator along with a prompt to register an Organizer resource for that entity, to use the Scheduler further.
9.3 Alert Schedule Management
9.3.1 Scheduling Alerts for a given event
An organizer may schedule different alert messages to be sent to subscribers and resources before, during, and after a prescheduled event. It is assumed here that the alert messages are borrowed from a list of messaging templates within the Scheduler that have been pre-registered and affiliated with a specific entity. The Organizer may use a host app to request the Scheduler to create a new alert schedule by choosing the alert message template, date-time of when the alert is to be sent, and type of targets to receive the message (subscriber/resource/both). If the Scheduler finds all inputs valid it will store the details against a unique Alert Schedule id in the Alert_schedile_list and returns success status and the unique id, otherwise, it will return an appropriate error code. This workflow assumes that the message templates created by the organizer of one entity should not be accessible to organizers affiliated with the host entity. Also, it is assumed that all participants of a given type (resource/subscriber/both) will receive the alert. If a specific implementation needs to define individual participants who should receive a specific alert, it will require further refining of the steps laid out here and is out of scope of the current workflow.
9.3.2 Tracking and Alerting as per schedule
The Scheduler's internal tracker keeps fetching (with a predefined interval) a list of all alerts for which the scheduled date time has arrived (within the interval). For each alert that is ready to go and based on the given target type (resource/ subscriber/ both) it will list participants of that associated event from the appointment list and send the alert message to them. The alert message will be sent using the preferred channel (sms/URL/mail) registered in the resources /subscribers list. It should be noted that the Scheduler does not wait for confirmation of the delivery of the message. In the current context, a recipient of an alert may asynchronously send back a delivery acknowledgement to the log update (see log update workflow) of the Scheduler.
9.4 Alert Message Management
9.4.1 Registering new Alert Message Template
Several predefined templates of alert messages can be stored in a Message List so that they can be reused in different alerts and events (for example appointment reminders, triggers to devices and software applications, etc. Using a host app an organizer may submit a new message and request the Scheduler to register the message. The Scheduler tries to store a new entry in its message list and returns a success or error code in response.
9.5 Resource management
9.5.1 Registering a new resource
An organizer must register into the scheduler various categories of resources {people, equipment, vehicles, facility, etc.) into a specific entity before the resource can be used in different events. An organizer is also a resource of an entity but can be registered only by the Administrator of the Building Block. An organizer can register resources of other categories only into his/her affiliated entity only. The registration process begins with the submission of resource details with the request to the Scheduler for registration of the resource. The Scheduler internally stores details of the resource into a resource_list and generates a new resource ID.
9.5.2 Finding resource availability in a given date-time range
An organizer may use a host application to seek the Scheduler for availability within a specific period (date-time range) of a chosen resource in a chosen entity. The Scheduler finds the affiliated workdays-hours of a given resource in the given entity from its Affiliation_List and calculates corresponding date-time slots that fall within the given date-time range. Then it finds from Appointments List the start and end date-time zones of all events booked for a given resource id and entity, in a given date-time range. From all this information it calculates the free time zones of the given resource, within the affiliated time zones of the given entity and given date-time range. Finally, the Scheduler returns a list of free zones of the given resource within the given date-time range and affiliated workday hours in the given entity. The host application presents this information to the Organizer. If any of the given criteria have invalid values, the scheduler notifies an appropriate error message to Host-App.
9.6 Subscriber Management
9.6.1 Registering a new Subscriber
A subscriber can be registered into the scheduler with relevant details, either by organizer or by subscriber himself. A subscriber must be registered into the scheduler before they are allowed to book appointments for various events. The user submits subscriber details through Host_App to Scheduler requesting registration. The Scheduler internally stores details of the subscriber into its subscriber_list and generates a new subscriber ID. The Scheduler returns the new subscriber id or a duplication error if it finds the subscriber profile is already existing. The Host app confirms registration or duplication error to the Organizer.
9.7 Affiliation management
9.7.1 Affiliating a resource to an entity
A registered resource must be affiliated with at least one entity. A resource may be affiliated with different entities only in non-overlapping day-time zones (e.g. doctor may give consultation in multiple hospitals). An organizer can be affiliated only by an administrator. All other categories of resources can be affiliated by an Organizer. The affiliation request may be submitted through the host-App to the scheduler along with affiliation details (resource_id, entity_id, affiliated days and time zones in that entity, etc.). The scheduler will add a new affiliation of that resource to the new entity in the Affiliation List and generate a new affiliation ID. The Scheduler flags an error if it finds a duplicate entry.
9.8 Appointment Management
9.8.1 Appointment Scheduling for resource or subscriber to a specific event
An organizer may enrol a subscriber or resource to a specific event through a host app. The host application first finds out details of a chosen event_id. Then the host application requests a new appointment booking by giving participant details, and event details as needed. The Scheduler stores appointment details against a unique appointment id in its Appointment List. The Scheduler then confirms successful enrolment to the user through the host app and publishes the unique appointment id for that participant.
9.8.2 Cancellation of appointment
An organizer may cancel an existing appointment of a resource or a subscriber for an event using the Host App. The user may submit the participant id or participant type (subscriber/resource) and the event ID to the Scheduler through the host app, requesting for cancellation of respective enrollment for the event. If the Scheduler finds the given event id and subscriber/resource id in the appointment_list it will delete the enrolment entry of the given resource in the given event, else it will return an appropriate error message. The Host-app confirms success or error condition to the user. The Scheduler also emits a notification through Messaging Building Block to inform the cancelled participant only (in different implementations one can also inform all participants). It should be noted that the deletion of the enrolment of a subscriber does not remove subscriber/resource details stored in the subscriber/resource list, but it removes only the allocation to the specific event.
9.9 Status Logging and Reporting
9.9.1 Log reporting
In this workflow, a simple case of extracting chosen type of log in a given time range is described. The Organizer requests the Scheduler through a host app to report logs of a chosen category within a chosen date range. The Scheduler fetches a list of matching logs found from its Log_List, or null if nothing is found. The Scheduler publishes the logs or null to the user through the host app. This function can be extended in different implementations to generate more complex types of reports based on information in the log.
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