DESCRIBING EXPECTED ENTITY RELATIONSHIPS IN A MODEL
First Claim
1. A method of explicitly declaring expected relationships between expected entities and a reference entity in a model, said reference entity have a reference data type definition associated therewith, said method comprising:
- creating an expected targets tag in a markup language schema type declaration;
defining one or more elements describing one or more expected entities in the model;
identifying a predefined entity relationship;
associating the expected targets tag with the defined elements and the identified, predefined entity relationship; and
locating the expected targets tag and associated elements and predefined entity relationship in the reference data type definition of the reference entity to declare a relationship between the expected entities and the reference entity.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Defining target data types within an instance of a target data type definition for inclusion in a reference data type definition to declare expected entity relationships in a model. The model corresponds to, for example, software, a business process, or an organizational structure. The target data type defines one or more elements with target data. The target data describes entities that are expected to be related to the reference entity according to a predefined entity relationship. The existing reference data type definition is used to declare the expected entity relationships. In an embodiment, the defined target data type includes a tag in an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document.
35 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method of explicitly declaring expected relationships between expected entities and a reference entity in a model, said reference entity have a reference data type definition associated therewith, said method comprising:
-
creating an expected targets tag in a markup language schema type declaration; defining one or more elements describing one or more expected entities in the model; identifying a predefined entity relationship; associating the expected targets tag with the defined elements and the identified, predefined entity relationship; and locating the expected targets tag and associated elements and predefined entity relationship in the reference data type definition of the reference entity to declare a relationship between the expected entities and the reference entity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system for referencing a pre-defined data type definition associated with an entity to define target data types describing relationships of the entity, said system comprising:
-
a memory area for storing a markup language schema corresponding to a model representing objects in a system; and a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for; identifying a data type definition from the markup language schema, said data type definition corresponding to a reference entity in the model; defining one or more elements describing one or more entities expected to be associated with the reference entity; identifying predefined entity relationships for use in associating the expected entities with the reference entity, said expected entities having a target data type definition associated therewith, said reference entity having a reference data type definition associated therewith; associating the defined elements and the defined relationships with a tag; inserting the tag with the associated elements and relationships into an instance of the target data type definition; and locating the instance of the target data type definition in the reference data type definition to relate the expected entities with the reference entity in the model. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure representing a system model, said data structure comprising:
-
a first field for storing a reference data type definition, said reference data type definition corresponding to a reference entity in the object model; and a second field, within the reference data type definition in the first field, for storing an instance of a target data type definition, said instance comprising instances of one or more target data type elements each describing one or more target entities expected to be associated with the reference entity according to predefined entity relationships, wherein a computing device executes computer-executable instructions to; instantiate the reference data type definition stored in the first field; associate the instantiated reference data type definition with the instance of the target data type definition stored in the second field to relate the reference entity to the expected target entities according to the predefined relationships; and store the instantiated reference data type definition in a markup language document, said markup language document representing the system model. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
Specification