NOTIFICATION-BASED FORWARD CHAINING

• US 20100241604A1
• Filed: 03/23/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rummell, John, McCrady, Donald James, Kamani, Kavita
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,316 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

In an embodiment, a computer system determines that a first rule in a ruleset comprising a plurality of rules is to be executed, where the first rule includes a condition and an action that is to be performed when the first rule'"'"'s condition is met. The computer system dynamically modifies the first rule'"'"'s condition to include a portion of software code configured to monitor and receive notifications from a data-change notification system. The computer system executes the dynamically modified first rule and executes a second rule in the ruleset. The computer system receives a notification from the data-change notification system indicating that execution of the second rule'"'"'s action has modified data values being monitored by the first rule'"'"'s software code portion and that, as a result of the modification, the first rule is to be re-executed. The computer system also re-executes the first rule based on the received notification.

Claims

1. At a computer system including a processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for implementing dynamic forward chaining in ruleset execution using a data-change notification system, the method comprising:

an act of determining that a first rule in a ruleset comprising a plurality of rules is to be executed, the first rule including at least one condition and at least one action that is to be performed when the first rule'"'"'s condition is met;

an act of dynamically modifying the first rule'"'"'s condition to include a portion of software code configured to monitor and receive notifications from a data-change notification system, the notifications indicating that data values associated with the first rule'"'"'s condition have changed;

an act of executing the dynamically modified first rule;

an act of executing at least a second rule in the ruleset such that at least one of the second rule'"'"'s actions is performed;

an act of receiving a notification from the data-change notification system indicating that execution of the second rule'"'"'s action has modified one or more data values being monitored by the first rule'"'"'s software code portion and that, as a result of the modification, the first rule is to be re-executed; and

an act of re-executing the first rule based on the received notification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of software code is configured to instantiate change notification handlers for each variable and property associated with the first rule'"'"'s condition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first rule'"'"'s condition is dynamically modified at runtime.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules of the ruleset are configured to execute against a collection of items.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising an act of determining, after at least one of the rules of the ruleset has been executed, that one or more items in the collection of items has been modified.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising an act of determining, after at least one of the rules of the ruleset has been executed, that one or more items has been added to the collection of items.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising an act of re-executing only those rules of the ruleset whose conditions were affected by the modification of the one or more items of the collection of items.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising an act of re-executing only those rules of the ruleset whose conditions were affected by the addition of the one or more items to the collection of items.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein change notification handlers are only instantiated for those variables and property values that are changeable during execution of the ruleset.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the notifications comprise tuples, each tuple including an object value, a property value and a rule value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising, upon receiving notification that a property value associated with an object has changed, an act of notifying those rules that are monitoring that property value that they are to be re-executed.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the addresses of the property value values are used to determine which rules were monitoring those property values.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

an act of determining that the rules which were monitoring the property values have been re-executed; and

an act of removing the notifications, such that the rules are no longer designated for re-execution.

14. A computer program product for implementing a method for implementing dynamic forward chaining in ruleset execution using a data-change notification system, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising:

an act of determining that a first rule in a ruleset comprising a plurality of rules is to be executed, the first rule including at least one condition and at least one process that includes multiple execution paths, wherein the process is executed when the first rule'"'"'s condition is met;

an act of dynamically modifying the first rule'"'"'s condition to include a portion of software code configured to monitor data changes caused by the subsequent execution of one or more other rules, wherein data-change notifications generated by the added software code portion identify when and if the first rule is to be re-executed;

an act of executing the dynamically modified first rule;

an act of executing a second rule in the ruleset such that the second rule'"'"'s multipath process is executed;

an act of receiving from the data-change notification system a data-change notification indicating that, as a result of the second rule'"'"'s execution, one or more portions of data being monitored by the added software code were changed; and

an act of re-executing the first rule'"'"'s multipath process based on the received data-change notification.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the multipath process comprises a workflow.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the rules of the ruleset are configured to execute against a collection of items.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising an act of determining, after at least one of the rules of the ruleset has been executed, that one or more items in the collection of items has been modified.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising an act of re-executing only those rules of the ruleset whose conditions were affected by the modification of the one or more items of the collection of items.

19. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for implementing dynamic forward chaining in ruleset execution using a data-change notification system, the method comprising the following;

an act of determining that a first rule in a ruleset comprising a plurality of rules is to be executed, the first rule including at least one condition and at least one action that is to be performed when the first rule'"'"'s condition is met;

an act of dynamically modifying the first rule'"'"'s condition to include a portion of software code configured to monitor and receive notifications from a data-change notification system, the notifications indicating that data values associated with the first rule'"'"'s condition have changed;

an act of executing the dynamically modified first rule;

an act of executing at least a second rule in the ruleset such that at least one of the second rule'"'"'s actions is performed;

an act of receiving a notification from the data-change notification system indicating that execution of the second rule'"'"'s action has modified one or more data values being monitored by the first rule'"'"'s software code portion and that, as a result of the modification, the first rule is to be re-executed; and

an act of re-executing the first rule based on the received notification.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the data-change notification system is configured to operate independent of the computer system and is provided by a remotely located server computer system.