ONTOLOGICAL TRANSLATION OF ABSTRACT RULES

• US 20080288235A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dettinger, Richard D., Wenzel, Shannon E., Kulack, Frederick A., Wang, Xueyun S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for selecting rule engines for processing abstract rules based on functionality and cost. In general, an abstract rule is analyzed to determine which functions are required to process the rule. The abstract rule is assigned to a rule engine by evaluating metadata describing the functions and costs of the rule engines. The abstract rule is then translated to the format required by the selected rule engine.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for ontological translation of abstract rules of a data abstraction model, comprising:

receiving an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement;

wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied;

wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in an abstraction model that models underlying physical data in a manner making a schema of the physical data transparent to a user of the abstraction model;

determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model; and

translating semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using a predefined ontology mapping.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule;

and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concepts included in the data abstraction model.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the logical field definitions defined in the abstraction model include a reference to an access model selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of the physical data in a different manner.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

transforming the abstract rule into an executable rule;

processing, by a rule engine, the executable rule; and

if the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, returning the particular recommendation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein processing the executable rule comprises:

executing a query against a database;

receiving a result set for the executed query; and

determining, from the result set, one or more inputs against which the conditional statement is resolved;

wherein the transformed rule includes the inputs.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein transforming the abstract rule into the executable rule comprises:

retrieving a specification of the abstract rule in a first computer-readable language; and

transforming the specification into a language which is accepted by the rules engine.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the ontology mapping comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

9. A computer readable storage medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation, comprising:

receiving an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement;

wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied;

wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in an abstraction model that models underlying physical data in a manner making a schema of the physical data transparent to a user of the abstraction model;

determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model; and

translating semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using a predefined ontology mapping.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule;

and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concepts included in the data abstraction model.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the logical field definitions defined in the abstraction model include a reference to an access model selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of the physical data in a different manner.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

transforming the abstract rule into an executable rule;

processing, by a rule engine, the executable rule; and

if the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, returning the particular recommendation.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein processing the executable rule comprises:

executing a query against a database;

receiving a result set for the executed query; and

determining, from the result set, one or more inputs against which the conditional statement is resolved;

wherein the transformed rule includes the inputs.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein transforming the abstract rule into the executable rule comprises:

retrieving a specification of the abstract rule in a first computer-readable language; and

transforming the specification into a language which is accepted by the rules engine.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the ontology mapping comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

17. A system, comprising:

an ontology mapping structure that relates equivalent meanings of a semantic concept defined from two or more data models;

an abstract rule translator; and

a processor configured to execute the abstract rule translator to;

receive an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement;

wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied;

wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in an abstraction model that models underlying physical data in a manner making a schema of the physical data transparent to a user of the abstraction model;

determine that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model; and

translate semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using the ontology mapping structure.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule;

and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concepts included in the data abstraction model.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the logical field definitions defined in the abstraction model include a reference to an access model selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of the physical data in a different manner.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the ontology mapping comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transform the abstract rule into an executable rule;

process the executable rule; and

if the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, returning the particular recommendation.