Use of ontologies for auto-generating and handling applications, their persistent storage, and user interfaces

• US 7,240,330 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2003
• Issued: 07/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Fairweather
• Original Assignee: John Fairweather
• Inventors: Fairweather, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Ingberg; Todd
• Application Number:
  US10/357,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20030200531A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 717/114, 717/116, 706/45, 706/46, 706/48, 706/59, 704/9, 704/270, 704/257, 715/500, 715/1, 715/513, 707/200, 707/10, 707/103.R, 707/104, 707/1, 707/5, 707/8, 707/4, 707/3, 707/101, 707/100
• US Class Current: 717/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4493 Object persistence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 13/0825 the ejection arrangement being of the push-push kind
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/966 Distributed
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A system and environment in which the data within the system can be defined and manipulated in terms of a world model or Ontology, and for which the DBA and GUI portions of the programming tasks can be specified and automatically generated from this Ontology is provided. The invention includes the following components: extensions to a programming language that describe and abstract the logic associated with interacting with external ‘persistent’ storage; extensions to a programming language to handle type inheritance; extensions to the programming language to allow specification of the GUI content and layout; extensions to the programming language to allow specification and inheritance of scriptable actions; a means whereby the data described in the programming language can be translated automatically into generating the corresponding tables and fields in external databases and the queries and actions necessary to access those databases and read/write to them; a high level ontology designed to facilitate operation of the particular application being developed; and a means to tie types and their access into a suite of federated type or container/engine specific servers responsible for the actual persistence of the data. Other improvements and extensions are also claimed.

Claims

1. A system for rapid generation of software applications from a describing ontology as expressed in an ontology definition language comprising the following:

a) a processor;

b) one or more storage devices accessible from said processor for storing and retrieving data and to provide persistent storage;

c) a run-time discoverable and alterable types system describing arbitrary binary structures, their constituent fields, and relationships between them;

d) a memory system for instantiating and manipulating arbitrary collections of said data and its interrelations described using said types system, as obtained from said persistent storage in said one or more storage devices;

e) an ontology description language, or ODL, wherein said ODL is derived by extensions to a standard computer programming base language as implemented using said types system;

f) a collections system wherein a plurality of data containers can be registered with said collections system via a plug-in registry;

g) a database creation engine wherein said database creation engine uses specifications given in said ODL to automatically generate and handle one or more persistent storage tables necessary in said data containers that have been registered with said collections system; and

h) a user interface creation engine, wherein said user interface creation engine uses said ODL to automatically generate a user interface that permits display, interaction with, and querying of said data residing in said persistent storage in said one or more storage devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said memory system uses information in said ODL to unify one or more arbitrary collections of data into one or more federated data containers such that each said federated data container is associated with one or more types of fields in a given object.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of said federated data containers is a relational database.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of said federated data containers is an inverted text file query engine.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising a query system for constructing and issuing data requests to said one or more federated data containers.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said query system is capable of assembling a data resulting from said data requests.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said query system is logically separated into two distinct layers such that each said distinct layer independently handles different aspects of said issued data requests and said data resulting from said assembling process performed by said query system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein one layer of said query system is a lower layer, which handles container specific aspects of a query.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein one layer of said query system is an upper layer, which handles cross-container queries and assembly of a data resulting from said cross-container queries via logical operations such as AND, OR, and NOT.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said computer programming base language used to create said ODL is a C programming language.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said ODL includes a symbol and syntax for expressing a persistent reference from a field of a type to an object in said persistent storage.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein said ODL utilizes a first character such as ‘

#’

to identify said persistent reference.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said ODL includes a symbol and syntax for expressing a collection reference from a field of a type to a collection of data held in said persistent storage.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said ODL utilizes a first character string such as ‘

@@’

to identify said collection reference.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said ODL includes a symbol and syntax for expressing an echo field for any given reference to said persistent storage wherein said echo field can be used to automate data retrieval.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said ODL utilizes a second character string such as ‘

>

<

’

to specify said echo field.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said ODL includes the ability to specify and manipulate named, executable scripts and annotations on a per-type and per-field basis through said ODL.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said ODL is built to organize data relating to world events.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein an uppermost layer of said ODL includes one or more of the following:

Actor, Action, Stage, Event, Observation, and Source.