MODULAR AUTHORING AND VISUALIZATION OF RULES USING TREES

• US 20110004632A1
• Filed: 07/02/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Martino, Jacquelyn A., Uceda-Sosa, Rosario A., Matchen, Paul M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The system and method in one aspect provide a set of extended Boolean operators and a tree visual paradigm that enable business users to modularize the construction of a rule and visualize it as the rules is being built.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of modularly authoring and visualizing rules using trees, comprising:

parsing a natural language expression;

determining a plurality of logic words used in the natural language;

receiving one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression;

converting said one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression into corresponding logical Boolean expressions based on said plurality of logic words;

presenting one or more extended Boolean operators;

aggregating said logical Boolean expressions into said one or more extended Boolean operators; and

building a parse tree comprising said aggregated logical Boolean expressions.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

displaying the parse tree using visual effects.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ALL operator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ANY operator.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NOT ALL operator.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NONE operator.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

providing a user interface wherein said natural language expression is entered via the user interface and said parse tree, said one or more extended Boolean operators, and said converted logical Boolean expressions are presented via the user interface.

8. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of modularly authoring and visualizing rules using trees, comprising:

parsing a natural language expression;

determining a plurality of logic words used in the natural language;

receiving one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression;

converting said one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression into corresponding logical Boolean expressions based on said plurality of logic words;

presenting one or more extended Boolean operators;

aggregating said logical Boolean expressions into said one or more extended Boolean operators; and

building a parse tree comprising said aggregated logical Boolean expressions.

9. The program storage device of claim 8, further including:

displaying the parse tree using visual effects.

10. The program storage device of claim 8, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ALL operator.

11. The program storage device of claim 8, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ANY operator.

12. The program storage device of claim 8, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NOT ALL operator.

13. The program storage device of claim 8, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NONE operator.

14. The program storage device of claim 8, further including:

providing a user interface wherein said natural language expression is entered via the user interface and said parse tree, said one or more extended Boolean operators, and said converted logical Boolean expressions are presented via the user interface.

15. A system for modularly authoring and visualizing rules using trees, comprising:

a processor;

ontology of words database;

a parser module operable to parse a natural language expression; and

an analysis module operable to determine a plurality of logic words used in the natural language based the ontology of words database, the module further operable to receive one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression, convert said one or more user selected portions of said natural language expression into corresponding logical Boolean expressions based on said plurality of logic words, present one or more extended Boolean operators, aggregate said logical Boolean expressions into said one or more extended Boolean operators, and build a parse tree comprising said aggregated logical Boolean expressions.

16. The system of claim 15, further including a user interface module wherein said natural language expression is entered via the user interface and said parse tree, said one or more extended Boolean operators, and said converted logical Boolean expressions are presented via the user interface.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ALL operator.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein said extended Boolean operators include an ANY operator.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NOT ALL operator.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein said extended Boolean operators include a NONE operator.