Generating a database model from natural language expressions of business rules

• US 20060026576A1
• Filed: 07/27/2004
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Baisley, Donald Edward, Dirckze, Ravi Anthony Joseph, Ziebell, Jonathan Virgil, Cole, Russel Elliot
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention is a method for generating a database model from a set of business rules. For a business rule given as input, an empty list of fact types is created. A determination of whether the business rule is a definitional rule defining that one or more propositions become true upon occurrence of an event is made. If the business rule is a definitional rule, the fact type of each of the propositions is added to the list of fact types. Otherwise, a determination of whether the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information that comprises one or more authorized provisions of information corresponding to one or more fact types is made. If the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information, the corresponding fact types are added to the list of fact types. For each fact type in the list of fact types, the fact type having at least one role, the role having a type, if the type of the role is not a lexical type, the type is added to a list of types. The types in the list of types are processed and the fact types in the list of fact types are processed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating a list of fact types;

determining whether a business rule is a definitional rule defining that one or more propositions become true upon occurrence of an event;

if the business rule is a definitional rule, adding fact type of each of the propositions to the list of fact types;

else, determining whether the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information that comprises one or more authorized provisions of information corresponding to one or more fact types;

if the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information,

adding the corresponding fact types to the list of fact types;

for each fact type in the list of fact types, the fact type having at least one role, the role having a type, if the type of the role is not of a lexical type, adding the type to a list of types;

processing the types in the list of types; and

processing the fact types in the list of fact types.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

determining whether the business rule imposes a limit that a role of a fact type has a maximum cardinality of one; and

if the business rule imposes such limit, adding the role to a list of single-valued roles.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the types in the list of types comprises:

setting a current type to a first type in the list of types;

if the current type has a supertype,

setting the current type to be the supertype, and

repeating the operation of setting the current type to be the supertype until the current type does not have a supertype;

else,

if the current type has not been processed,

creating an empty column list,

processing the empty column list for the current type,

creating a database table for the current type,

adding an identity-type column to the database table to represent database identity of instances of the current type,

creating, for each column in the column list, a column of lexical type or of identity-type, and

marking the current type as processed.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein processing the empty column list for the current type comprises:

adding a Boolean column to the column list to indicate whether an instance is of this current type;

if there is a reference scheme defined for the current type, the reference scheme including one or more fact types,

for each of the fact types in the reference scheme, the fact type having an identifying role which has a type;

if the type of the identifying role of the fact type is a lexical type,

adding a column of the lexical type to the column list;

else,

adding an identity-type column to the column list to represent

database identity of the type of the identifying role of the fact type;

and

marking the current type as processed.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

if the current type has a subtype and the subtype has not been marked as processed, repeating the operations listed in claim 4 using the subtype as the current type.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the fact types in the list of fact types comprises:

if a fact type in the list of fact types is not a basis for describing a reference scheme for a type;

(1) creating a database table for the fact type, the fact type having one or more roles, each of the roles having a type;

(2) for a role of the roles of the fact type,

if the type of the role is a lexical type,

adding a column of the lexical type to the database table,

else,

adding an identity-type column to refer to database identity of the type;

if the role is in the list of single-valued roles of fact types,

creating a uniqueness constraint spanning columns that correspond to the remaining roles of the fact type.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

repeating the operation (2) onward for each of the remaining roles of the fact type.

8. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

creating a list of fact types;

determining whether a business rule is a definitional rule defining that one or more propositions become true upon occurrence of an event;

if the business rule is a definitional rule, adding fact type of each of the propositions to the list of fact types;

else, determining whether the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information that comprises one or more authorized provisions of information corresponding to one or more fact types;

if the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information, adding the corresponding fact types to the list of fact types;

for each fact type in the list of fact types, the fact type having at least one role, the role having a type, if the type of the role is not of a lexical type, adding the type to a list of types;

processing the types in the list of types; and

processing the fact types in the list of fact types.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8 wherein the data further comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

determining whether the business rule imposes a limit that a role of a fact type has a maximum cardinality of one; and

if the business rule imposes such limit, adding the role to a list of single-valued roles.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8 wherein the data causing the machine to perform processing the types in the list of types comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

setting a current type to a first type in the list of types;

if the current type has a supertype,

setting the current type to be the supertype, and

repeating the operation of setting the current type to be the supertype until the current type does not have a supertype;

else,

if the current type has not been processed,

creating an empty column list,

processing the empty column list for the current type,

creating a database table for the current type,

adding an identity-type column to the database table to represent database identity of instances of the current type,

creating, for each column in the column list, a column of lexical type or of identity-type, and

marking the current type as processed.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the data causing the machine to perform processing the empty column list for the current type comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

adding a Boolean column to the column list to indicate whether an instance is of this current type;

if there is a reference scheme defined for the current type, the reference scheme including one or more fact types,

for each of the fact types in the reference scheme, the fact type having an identifying role which has a type;

if the type of the identifying role of the fact type is a lexical type,

adding a column of the lexical type to the column list;

else,

adding an identity-type column to the column list to represent database identity of the type of the identifying role of the fact type;

and

marking the current type as processed.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the data further comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

if the current type has a subtype and the subtype has not been marked as processed, repeating the operations listed in claim 11 using the subtype as the current type.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 8 wherein the data causing the machine to perform processing the fact types in the list of fact types comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

if a fact type in the list of fact types is not a basis for describing a reference scheme for a type;

(1) creating a database table for the fact type, the fact type having one or more roles, each of the roles having a type;

(2) for a role of the roles of the fact type,

if the type of the role is a lexical type,

adding a column of the lexical type to the database table,

else,

adding an identity-type column to refer to database identity of the type;

if the role is in the list of single-valued roles of fact types,

creating a uniqueness constraint spanning columns that correspond to the remaining roles of the fact type.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13 wherein the data further comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

repeating the operation (2) onward for each of the remaining roles of the fact type.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

if the current type has a subtype and the subtype has not been marked as processed, repeat the operations listed in claim 11 using the subtype as the current type.

15. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

create a list of fact types;

determine whether a business rule is a definitional rule defining that one or more propositions become true upon occurrence of an event;

if the business rule is a definitional rule, add fact type of each of the propositions to the list of fact types;

else, determine whether the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information that comprises one or more authorized provisions of information corresponding to one or more fact types;

if the business rule is an authorization rule for provision of information, add

the corresponding fact types to the list of fact types;

for each fact type in the list of fact types, the fact type having at least one role, the role having a type, if the type of the role is not of a lexical type, add the type to a list of types;

process the types in the list of types; and

process the fact types in the list of fact types.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

determine whether the business rule imposes a limit that a role of a fact type has a maximum cardinality of one; and

if the business rule imposes such limit, add the role to a list of single-valued roles.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the instructions causing the processor to perform processing the types in the list of types comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

set a current type to a first type in the list of types;

if the current type has a supertype,

set the current type to be the supertype, and

repeat the operation of setting the current type to be the supertype until the current type does not have a supertype;

else,

if the current type has not been processed,

create an empty column list,

process the empty column list for the current type,

create a database table for the current type,

add an identity-type column to the database table to represent database identity of instances of the current type,

create, for each column in the column list, a column of lexical type or of identity-type, and

mark the current type as processed.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the instructions causing the processor to perform processing the empty column list for the current type comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

add a Boolean column to the column list to indicate whether an instance is of this current type;

if there is a reference scheme defined for the current type, the reference scheme including one or more fact types,

for each of the fact types in the reference scheme, the fact type having an identifying role which has a type;

if the type of the identifying role of the fact type is a lexical type,

add a column of the lexical type to the column list;

else,

add an identity-type column to the column list to represent database identity of the type of the identifying role of the fact type;

and

mark the current type as processed.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the instructions causing the processor to perform processing the fact types in the list of fact types comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

if a fact type in the list of fact types is not a basis for describing a reference scheme for a type;

(1) create a database table for the fact type, the fact type having one or more roles, each of the roles having a type;

(2) for a role of the roles of the fact type,

if the type of the role is a lexical type,

add a column of the lexical type to the database table,

else,

add an identity-type column to refer to database identity of the type;

if the role is in the list of single-valued roles of fact types,

create a uniqueness constraint spanning columns that correspond to the remaining roles of the fact type.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

repeat the operation (2) onward for each of the remaining roles of the fact type.