Systems and methods for automatic detection and processing of instances of business rules

• US 20080162395A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Pfeifer, Tobias
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,618 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method for processing instances of business rules, includes providing a business rule, parsing the business rule to extract entities used as rule parts, creating a hierarchical entity buffer indicating the entities used as the rule parts and identifying instances of each of the entities and real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities and creating a step result table indicating instances of the business rule and information identifying the real data in the hierarchical entity buffer used by each of the instances of the business rule.

Claims

1. A method for processing instances of business rules, comprising:

providing a business rule;

parsing the business rule to extract entities used as rule parts;

creating a hierarchical entity buffer indicating the entities used as the rule parts and identifying instances of each of the entities and real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities; and

creating a step result table indicating instances of the business rule and information identifying the real data in the hierarchical entity buffer used by each of the instances of the business rule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the step result table comprises determining a lowest common leaf in the hierarchical entity buffer for each combination of rule parts.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising creating a temporary step table for a first rule part identifying the first rule part and all lowest common parent rule parts that the first rule part has in common with any other rule parts;

and

comparing the step result table to the temporary step table instance by instance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein if a result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and a result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are different no further step is taken and wherein if the result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and the result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are the same, a new instance is created and added to the step result table.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, if the new instance is created and added to the step result table, determining whether each leaf in the temporary step table is also in the step result table

6. The method of claim 5, wherein if a leaf in the temporary step table is not in the step result table, adding the leaf to the step result table.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information identifying the real data comprises a result ID uniquely identifying the real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities-.

8. A system for processing instances of business rules, comprising:

a providing module for providing a business rule;

a parsing module for parsing the business rule to extract entities used as rule parts;

a buffer creating module for creating a hierarchical entity buffer indicating the entities used as the rule parts and identifying instances of each of the entities and real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities; and

a table creating module for creating a step result table indicating instances of the business rule and information identifying the real data in the hierarchical entity buffer used by each of the instances of the business rule.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein table creating module for creating the step result table comprises determines a lowest common leaf in the hierarchical entity buffer for each combination of rule parts.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a temporary table creating module for creating a temporary step table for a first rule part identifying the first rule part and all lowest common parent rule parts that the first rule part has in common with any other rule parts;

and

comparing the step result table to the temporary step table instance by instance.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein if a result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and a result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are different no further step is taken and wherein if the result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and the result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are the same, a new instance is created and added to the step result table.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising, a determination module, wherein if the new instance is created and added to the step result table, the determination module determines whether each leaf in the temporary step table is also in the step result table

13. The system of claim 12, wherein if a leaf in the temporary step table is not in the step result table, the leaf is added to the step result table.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the information identifying the real data comprises a result ID uniquely identifying the real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities-.

15. A computer recording medium including computer executable for processing instances of business rules, comprising:

code for providing a business rule;

code for parsing the business rule to extract entities used as rule parts;

code for creating a hierarchical entity buffer indicating the entities used as the rule parts and identifying instances of each of the entities and real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities; and

code for creating a step result table indicating instances of the business rule and information identifying the real data in the hierarchical entity buffer used by each of the instances of the business rule.

16. The computer recording medium of claim 15, wherein the code for creating the step result table comprises code for determining a lowest common leaf in the hierarchical entity buffer for each combination of rule parts.

17. The computer recording medium of claim 16, further comprising code for creating a temporary step table for a first rule part identifying the first rule part and all lowest common parent rule parts that the first rule part has in common with any other rule parts;

and

code for comparing the step result table to the temporary step table instance by instance.

18. The computer recording medium of claim 17, wherein if a result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and a result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are different no further step is taken and wherein if the result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and the result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are the same, a new instance is created and added to the step result table.

19. The computer recording medium of claim 18, further comprising, if the new instance is created and added to the step result table, determining whether each leaf in the temporary step table is also in the step result table

20. The computer recording medium of claim 19, wherein if a leaf in the temporary step table is not in the step result table, adding the leaf to the step result table.

21. The computer recording medium of claim 15, wherein the information identifying the real data comprises a result ID uniquely identifying the real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities-.