Business rules user interface for development of adaptable enterprise applications

• US 20060129978A1
• Filed: 02/06/2006
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Progress Software Corporation
• Original Assignee: Corticon Technologies Incorporated (Progress Software Corporation)
• Inventors: Abrari, Pedram, Allen, Mark J.F.
• Application Number:
  US11/350,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for interacting with a user to define business rules in a declarative manner. The invention operates to display a set of business rules as editable conditions and editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of editable if-values and editable then-values.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer coupled to a display device to:

interact with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

display a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values, wherein if-values and then-values are explicitly linked to each other, conditions and if-values are explicitly linked to each other, and then-values and actions are explicitly linked to each other in the display, and wherein at least one condition or action includes a statement containing an operator;

receive from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values; and

calculate, based on the statement, a value for the at least one condition or action that includes the statement.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein the statement is an assignment statement assigning a value to a field.

3. The product of claim 2, wherein the statement calculates the value assigned to the field.

4. The product of claim 1, wherein the operator is a comparison operator or an arithmetic operator.

5. The product of claim 1, the product further comprising instructions to:

display business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the set of business rules.

6. The product of claim 1, the product further comprising instructions to:

display one or more preconditions, where each precondition acts as an additional condition for each rule in the set of business rules.

7. The product of claim 1, the product further comprising instructions to:

receive an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

display the user-defined precedence.

8. The product of claim 1, wherein at least one condition or action includes a complex business term, a complex business term being a business term having a specific scope within a vocabulary of business terms, the scope being determined by relationship traversals between entities in the vocabulary.

9. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer coupled to a display device to:

interact with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

display a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values, wherein at least one condition or action includes a complex business term, a complex business term being a business term having a specific scope determined by relationship traversals; and

receive from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values.

10. The product of claim 9, further including instructions to:

display the complex business term explicitly linked to a corresponding editable alias; and

display the alias in the at least one condition or action to represent the complex business term.

11. The product of claim 9, further including instructions to:

display the complex business term in the at least one condition or action using a dot notation that gives the complex business term a specific context in a vocabulary of business terms.

12. The product of claim 9, further including instructions to:

display the complex business term as a branch off of an entity node in a tree view of business terms.

13. The product of claim 12, further including instructions to:

receive user input dragging the complex business term from the tree view of business terms and dropping the complex business term into the at least one condition or action.

14. The product of claim 9, wherein the specific scope is within a vocabulary of business terms and the relationship traversals are between entities in the vocabulary.

15. The product of claim 9, the product further comprising instructions to:

display business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the set of business rules.

16. The product of claim 9, the product further comprising instructions to:

display one or more preconditions, where each precondition acts as an additional condition for each rule in the set of business rules.

17. The product of claim 9, the product further comprising instructions to:

receive an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

display the user-defined precedence.

18. The product of claim 9, wherein at least one condition or action includes a statement containing an operator, the product further comprising instructions to:

calculate, based on the statement, a value for the at least one condition or action that includes the statement.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

interacting with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

displaying a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values, wherein if-values and then-values are explicitly linked to each other, conditions and if-values are explicitly linked to each other, and then-values and actions are explicitly linked to each other in the display, and wherein at least one condition or action includes a statement containing an operator;

receiving from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values; and

calculating, based on the statement, a value for the at least one condition or action that includes the statement.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the statement is an assignment statement assigning a value to a field

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the statement calculates the value assigned to the field.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the operator is a comparison operator or an arithmetic operator.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the rule set.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying one or more preconditions, where each precondition acts as an additional condition for each rule in the set of business rules.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

displaying the user-defined precedence.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one condition or action includes a complex business term, a complex business term being a business term having a specific scope within a vocabulary of business terms, the scope being determined by relationship traversals between entities in the vocabulary.

27. A computer-implemented method comprising:

interacting with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

displaying a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values, wherein at least one condition or action includes a complex business term, a complex business term being a business term having a specific scope determined by relationship traversals; and

receiving from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying the complex business term explicitly linked to a corresponding editable alias; and

displaying the alias in the at least one condition or action to represent the complex business term.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying the complex business term in the at least one condition or action using a dot notation that gives the complex business term a specific context in a vocabulary of business terms.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying the complex business term as a branch off of an entity node in a tree view of business terms.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

receiving user input dragging the complex business term from the tree view of business terms and dropping the complex business term into the at least one condition or action.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the specific scope is within a vocabulary of business terms and the relationship traversals are between entities in the vocabulary.

33. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the set of business rules.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying one or more preconditions, where each precondition acts as an additional condition for each rule in the set of business rules.

35. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

displaying the user-defined precedence.

36. The method of claim 27, wherein at least one condition or action includes a statement containing an operator, the method further comprising:

calculating, based on the statement, a value for the at least one condition or action that includes the statement.

37. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer coupled to a display device to:

interact with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

display a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values;

receive from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values;

receive an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

display the user-defined precedence.

38. The product of claim 37, the product further comprising instructions to:

display business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the set of business rules.

39. The product of claim 37, the product further comprising instructions to:

display a logical ambiguity in the set of business rules by highlighting business rules that can produce different actions for the exact same conditions.

40. A computer-implemented method comprising:

interacting with a user to define one or more business rules in a declarative manner;

displaying a set of business rules as one or more editable conditions and one or more editable actions, the conditions and the actions being linked to each other by a combination of one or more editable if-values and one or more editable then-values;

receiving from the user inputs editing one or more of the conditions, actions, if-values, or then-values;

receive an input from the user setting an override precedence of one rule over another rule in the set of business rules; and

display the user-defined precedence.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

display business rule statements in plain language, each business rule statement being linked to a rule in the set of business rules.

42. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

display a logical ambiguity in the set of business rules by highlighting business rules that can produce different actions for the exact same conditions.