System and method for interpreting a specification language file to implement a business system

• US 20080134155A1
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation (NCR Voyix Corporation)
• Inventors: Miller, David D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/139
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4498 Finite state machines

Abstract

A system controls operation of a business system having a processor, memory, and a hard drive. The system comprises a specification language file stored on a hard drive, the file containing specification language statements defining a state machine implementation of a business system, a parser for extracting specification language statements from the specification language file and interpreting the extracted specification language statements, a business logic application program comprised of business logic modules, the business logic modules including executable compiled program statements, and the parser calls at least one of the business logic modules to process a message extracted by the parser from the specification language file.

Claims

1. A system for controlling operation of a business system having a processor, memory, and a hard drive, the system comprising:

a specification language file stored on a hard drive, the file containing specification language statements defining a state machine implementation of a business system;

a parser for extracting specification language statements from the specification language file and interpreting the extracted specification language statements;

a business logic application program comprised of business logic modules, the business logic modules including executable compiled program statements; and

the parser calls at least one of the business logic modules to process a message extracted by the parser from the specification language file.

2. The system of claim 1, the parser comprising:

an expression interpreter for locating expression tags in the specification language statements and interpreting the specification language statements between corresponding tags in accordance with the located expression tags;

a method invoker for calling business logic modules, the invoker using messages extracted by the parser from the specification language file to support the business logic module calls.

3. The system of claim 1, the business logic modules being programming language objects.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of specification files, each of which contains specification language statements defining a state machine implementation of a business system; and

the parser maintaining a focus variable identifying the specification file currently being parsed.

5. The system of claim 1, the specification language statements being written in Extensible Markup Language (XML) statements.

6. The system of claim 1, the parser being an application program executed by a processor of the business system.

7. The system of claim 1, the business logic modules being programming language objects.

8. The system of claim 7, the programming language objects being one of a C++ object and a Java object.

9. The system of claim 2 further comprising:

a Java support interface in a Java application for generating a state machine and invoking actions implemented in one of a Java class and a C++ object.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the parser changes focus status in response to the state machine implementation defined by the specification language statements in the specification language file being parsed failing to have a method for processing a message.

11. A method for controlling operation of a business system having a processor, memory, and a hard drive, the method comprising:

defining with specification language statements a state machine implementation of a business system;

interpreting the specification language statements to implement the business system; and

calling a business logic module containing executable compiled program statements to process a message extracted by the parser from an interpreted specification language statement.

12. The method of claim 11, the interpretation of specification language statements further comprising:

locating expression tags in the specification language statements;

interpreting the specification language statements between corresponding tags in accordance with the located expression tags;

calling a business logic module using messages extracted by the from the specification language statements.

13. The method of claim 11, the calling of a business logic module further comprising:

invoking a method in a programming language object.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

clustering a plurality of specification language files, each of which contains specification language statements defining a state machine implementation of a business system; and

maintaining a focus variable to identify the specification file in the plurality of specification language files currently being parsed.

15. The method of claim 11, the interpretation of specification language statements further comprising:

interpreting Extensible Markup Language (XML) statements.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the specification language statement interpretation includes:

executing an application program with a processor of the business system.

17. The method of claim 11, the calling of a business logic module including:

invoking a programming language object.

18. The method of claim 17, the invocation of a programming language object including:

invoking one of a C++ object and a Java object.

19. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

calling Java action classes through a Java support interface included in a definition of a state machine implementation.

20. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

changing status of the focus variable in response to the state machine implementation defined by the specification language statements in the specification language file being parsed failing to have a method for processing a message.