Registering rules for entity attributes for validation and inference

• US 7,472,103 B1
• Filed: 12/23/2005
• Issued: 12/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Inventors: Yang, Dongzhe
• Primary Examiner(s): Holmes; Michael B
• Application Number:
  US11/317,927
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for registering rules for attributes of an entity with an entity validation and inference unit. The entity validation and inference unit can further validate input values for an entity and/or infer attributes of an entity using the associated registered rules. The entity validation and inference unit can also provide information regarding attributes, relations, and behaviors of an entity using the associated registered rules in response to a query. The present invention also provides a mechanism for a user to query an entity or the entity validation and inference unit regarding valid values for an entity. The mechanism also allows the user to query the registered rule associated with the entity.

Claims

1. In a computing device, a method comprising:

receiving input defining one or more rules associated with a first entity, the first entity being associated with a block or a signal of an executable block diagram model, the one or more rules related to one or more attributes of the first entity;

registering the one or more rules with a graphical modeling application;

receiving input specifying a value for a first attribute of the first entity;

applying the one or more registered rules to the value to determine if the value is valid;

generating a validation result that indicates whether the value is valid based on the applied rules;

displaying the validation result; and

storing the validation result in a storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first entity is a dialog element or a parameter associated with the block or the signal of the executable block diagram model.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the block is a user-defined block.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules are registered with an entity validation and inference unit within the graphical modeling application.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

inferring a value of a second attribute of the first entity using the registered one or more rules.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

inferring the a value of a first attribute of a second entity using the registered one or more rules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first entity is a user defined entity and the method further comprises:

registering user-specified validation code with the graphical modeling application for validating the value of the first entity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an error message indicating the received input is an invalid value for the first entity; and

displaying the registered one or more rules to suggest how to correct the invalid value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprise at least one of or a combination of an entity type, data type, complexity, dimension, allowable range, monotonicity, sign, and numericness.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprises a relation with respect to a second entity.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

querying the graphical modeling application regarding the valid values for the first entity; and

in response to the query, returning the registered one or more rules.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving input defining one or more rules of a second entity, wherein the second entity has at least one attribute that is different from the first entity and the first entity and the second entity are two different instances of a block.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules are further related to one or more relations or one or more behaviors of the first entity.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of a compile-time rule and a run-time rule.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more rules comprises a condition and an action.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying the one or more rules to propagate compilation information or validate the compilation information.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying the one or more rules during code generation of the executable block diagram model using the first entity.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying the one or more rules in an intermediate representation of a model.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

checking the one or more rules against one or more existing rules for conflict.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

detecting a conflict between one of the one or more rules and one of the one or more existing rules; and

receiving information to resolve the conflict.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

assigning a priority to at least one of the one or more rules.

15. The method of 14, wherein the compile-time rule is used to validate the first entity at compile-time.

16. The method of 14, wherein the run-time rule is used to validate the first entity at run-time.

17. The method of 14, wherein the compile-time rule is related to at least one different attribute, relation, or behavior of the first entity comparing to the run-time rule.

25. A storage medium storing executable instructions, the medium comprising:

instructions for receiving input defining one or more rules associated with a first entity, the first entity being associated with a block or a signal of an executable block diagram model, the one or more rules related to one or more attributes of the first entity;

instructions for registering the one or more rules with a graphical modeling application;

instructions for receiving input specifying a value for a first attribute of the first entity;

instructions for applying the one or more registered rules to the value to determine if the value is valid;

instructions for generating a validation result that indicates whether the value is valid based on the applied rules;

instructions for displaying the validation result; and

instructions for storing the validation result in a storage.

26. The medium of claim 25, wherein the first entity is a dialog element or a parameter associated with the block or the signal of the executable block diagram model.

27. The medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more rules are registered with an entity validation and inference unit within the graphical modeling application.

28. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for inferring a value of a second attribute of the first entity using the registered one or more rules.

29. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for inferring a value of a first attribute of a second entity using the registered one or more rules.

30. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for registering user-specified validation code with the graphical modeling application for validating the value of the first entity, wherein the first entity is a user-defined entity.

31. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for displaying an error message indicating the received input is an invalid value for the first entity; and

instructions for displaying the registered one or more rules to suggest how to correct the invalid value.

32. The medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more attributes comprises at least one of or a combination of an entity type, data type, complexity, dimension, allowable range, monotonicity, sign, and numericness.

33. The medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more attributes comprises a relation with respect to a second entity.

34. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for querying the graphical modeling application regarding the valid values for the first entity; and

instructions for returning the registered one or more rules in response to the query.

35. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for receiving input defining one or more rules of a second entity, wherein the second entity has at least one attribute that is different from the first entity and the first entity and the second entity are two different instances of a user-defined block.

36. The medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more rules are further related one or more relations or one or more behaviors of the first entity.

37. The medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of a compile-time rule and a run-time rule.

38. The medium of claim 37, wherein the compile-time rule is related to at least one different attribute, relation, or behavior of the first entity comparing to the run-time rule.

39. The medium of claim 25, wherein at least one of the one or more rules comprises a condition and an action.

40. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for applying the one or more rules to propagate compilation information or validate the compilation information.

41. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for applying the one or more rules during code generation of the executable block diagram model using the first entity.

42. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

instructions for applying the one or more rules in an intermediate representation of a model.

43. The medium of claim 25 further comprising:

the instructions for checking the one or more rules against one or more existing rules for conflict.

44. A system for registering rules for attributes of an entity with a graphical modeling application, the system comprising:

a processor executing;

an executable block diagram model provided in the graphical modeling application, the executable block diagram model comprising one or more blocks or one or more signals; and

an entity validation and inference unit in communication with the graphical modeling application, the entity validation and inference unit configured to register one or more rules associated with a first entity associated with a first block of the executable block diagram model and infer at least one of or a combination of an attribute, a relation, and a behavior of the first entity using the registered one or more rules.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the entity validation and inference unit comprises an entity validation and inference code generator that generates code to validate an input value for an attribute using the one or more rules.

46. The system of claim 44 wherein the graphical modeling application comprises entity query mechanism to query the entity validation and inference unit regarding at least one of or a combination of an attribute, a relation, and a behavior the first entity.

47. The system of claim 44, wherein the entity validation and inference unit comprises a knowledge-based rule system for applying the one or more rules to at least one of or a combination of a compilation, a code generation, an intermediate representation, and a dynamic dialog of a block diagram model using the first block.

48. The system of claim 44, wherein the attribute comprises at least one or a combination of an entity type, data type, complexity, dimension, allowable range, monotonicity, sign, and numericness.

49. The system of claim 44, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of a compile-time rule and a run-time rule.

50. A system comprising:

means for receiving input defining one or more rules associated with a first entity, the first entity being associated with a block or a signal of an executable block diagram model, the one or more rules related to one or more attributes of the first entity;

means for registering the one or more rules with a graphical modeling application;

means for receiving input specifying a value for a first attribute of the first entity;

means for applying the one or more registered rules to the value to determine if the value is valid;

means for generating a validation result that indicates whether the value is valid based on the applied rules;

means for displaying the validation result; and

means for storing the validation result in a storage.