Method and system of business rule extraction from existing applications for integration into new applications

• US 6,389,588 B1
• Filed: 02/04/1999
• Issued: 05/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Relativity Technologies, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Terekhov, Andrey N., Oara, Ioan M, Erlikh, Len, Bulyonkov, Mikhail, Wadhwa, Vivek
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Application Number:
  US09/245,002
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 717/4, 717/5, 717/8, 717/1, 717/2, 717/3, 707/6, 707/101, 705/1, 705/7, 703/25, 703/26, 703/27, 703/28
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/74 Reverse engineering; Extracting design information from source code

Abstract

A method of extracting and transforming a business rule which is a self contained section of legacy code focused on the computation of specific business policy includes identifying the business rule. Thereafter, the business rule code is located in the existing program and extracted in human readable code form. New code is generated for a new application for containing the business rule therein, and the new code is integrated into the new application. A system for extracting and transforming such business rules from existing programs such as legacy applications to a new application includes various components for achieving the various noted steps.

Claims

1. A method of extracting and transforming a business rule from an existing program to a new application, comprising:

identifying the business rule;

locating all of the code making up the business rule code in the existing program, and backtracking through the existing code to extract only the portions of the existing code making up the portions of the business rule desired to be extracted;

extracting the business rule in human readable code form from the business rule code in the existing program;

generating code for the new application containing the business rule therein; and

integrating the code containing the business rule into the new application.

2. A method as in claim 1 further comprising locating the business rule code by analysis with a graphical editor.

3. A method as in claim 2 further comprising locating the business rule code by identifying points of origin and boundaries of the business rule code in the existing program.

4. A method as in claim 3 further comprising locating all of the code making up the business rule, and backtracking through the existing code to extract only the portions of the existing code making up the portions of the business rule desired to be extracted.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein the existing program is written in COBOL, PL/I or C.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in C++.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in Java.

8. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in Visual Basic.

9. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating of code in the new application is conducted in a manner integrating the business rule as a component object.

10. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating code in the new application creates a dynamic link library.

11. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating code in the new application creates a Active X component.

12. A method as in claim 1 wherein said generating code in the new application creates a Java applet.

13. A system for extracting and transforming a business rule from an existing program to a new application, comprising:

means for identifying and locating business rule code in an existing program and for backtracking through the existing code to extract only the portion of the existing code making up portions of the business rule desired to be extracted;

means for extracting the business rule in human readable code form from the business rule code in the existing program;

means for generating code for the new application for containing the business rule therein; and

means for integrating the code for the new application into the new application.

14. A system as in claim 13, wherein said means for identifying and locating business rule code, further comprises a graphical editor configured for conducting analysis for locating all of the business rule code in the existing program, and for identifying points of origin and boundaries of the business rule code in the existing program.

15. A system as in claim 13 wherein said means for identifying and locating comprises a first routine of a graphical editor program.

16. A system as in claim 15 wherein said means for generating code for the new application is one of a translator and code generator program.

17. A system as in claim 13 wherein said means for extracting comprises a second routine of a graphical editor.

18. A system as in claim 15 wherein said means for generating code for the new application is one of a translator and code generator program.

19. A system as in claim 13 wherein said means for generating code for the new application is one of a translator and code generator program.

20. A method of extracting and transforming a business rule from an existing program to a new application, comprising:

identifying the business rule;

locating all of the business rule code in the existing program by analysis with a graphical editor, identifying points of origin and boundaries of the business rule code in the existing program, and backtracking through the existing code to extract only the portions of the existing code making up the portions of the business rule desired to be extracted;

extracting the business rule in human readable code form from the business rule code in the existing program;

generating code for the new application containing the business rule therein; and

integrating the code containing the business rule into the new application.

21. A method as in claim 20 wherein the existing program is written in COBOL, PL/I or C.

22. A method as in claim 20 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in C++.

23. A method as in claim 20 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in Java.

24. A method as in claim 20 wherein said generating of code in the new application comprises generating code in Visual Basic.

25. A method as in claim 20 wherein said generating of code in the new application is conducted in a manner integrating the business rule as a component object.

26. A method as in claim 20 wherein said generating code in the new application creates a dynamic link library.