Software customization system and method

• US 7,543,269 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2002
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BigLever Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: BigLever Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Jungman, Mark N., Krueger, Charles W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dao; Thuy
• Application Number:
  US10/106,154
• Publication Number:
  US 20020154555A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,625 Days
• Field of Search: 717/106, 717/104, 717/100, 717/108, 717/122
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44547 Fat binaries

Abstract

A system and method for the mass customization of software includes a software production line infrastructure, development environment, and actuator. The infrastructure organizes the software production line using a feature declarations component, a product definitions component, an automatons component, and a partition composition component. The development environment browses, displays, organizes, edits, and maintains the infrastructure. The actuator actuates the software production line to produce custom software products.

Claims

1. A method for the mass customization of a software artifact to create one or more software products in a software product family comprising:

creating software artifacts with common data files and common directories, said software artifacts also having one or more file automatons, wherein each of said file automatons serves as a proxy for a real data file that varies between software products within a software product family, said software artifacts also having one or more directory automatons, wherein each of said directory automatons serves as a proxy for a real directory that varies between said software products within said software product family;

defining one or more feature variations for said software product family, wherein each of said feature variations includes two or more selectable values;

creating one or more feature profiles, each feature profile consisting of selected values for each feature variation for a desired software product within said software product family; and

using a fully automated product actuator to provide one of said feature profiles to each of said file automatons and said directory automatons, thereby automatically instantiating a real data file in place of said file automaton and a real directory in place of said directory automaton to create said desired software product.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said file automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said directory automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

6. A method for the mass customization of a software artifact to create one or more software products in a software product family comprising:

creating software artifacts with common data files and common directories, said software artifacts also having one or more file automatons, wherein each of said file automatons serves as a proxy for a real data file that varies between software products within a software product family;

defining one or more feature variations for said software product family, wherein each of said feature variations includes two or more selectable values;

creating one or more feature profiles, each feature profile consisting of selected values for each feature variation for a desired software product within said software product family; and

using a fully automated product actuator to provide one of said feature profiles to each of said file automatons, thereby automatically instantiating a real data file in place of said file automaton to create said desired software product.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of said file automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

9. A method for the mass customization of a software artifact to create one or more software products in a software product family comprising:

creating software artifacts with common data files and common directories, said software artifacts also having one or more directory automatons, wherein each of said directory automatons serves as a proxy for a real directory that varies between said software products within said software product family;

defining one or more feature variations for said software product family, wherein each of said feature variations includes two or more selectable values;

creating one or more feature profiles, each feature profile consisting of selected values for each feature variation for a desired software product within said software product family; and

using a fully automated product actuator to provide one of said feature profiles to each of said directory automatons, thereby automatically instantiating a real directory in place of said directory automaton to create said desired software product.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of said directory automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

12. A method for the mass customization of a software artifact to create one or more software products in a software product family comprising:

identifying one or more feature variations for a software product family, wherein each of said feature variations includes two or more selectable values;

creating one or more feature profiles, each feature profile consisting of selected values for each feature variation for a desired software product within said software product family; and

using a fully automated product actuator to create said desired software product by instantiating real data files in place of virtual file automatons in a software artifact and by instantiating real directories in place of virtual directory automatons in said software artifact, wherein each of said virtual file automatons serves as a proxy for a real data file which corresponds to said values for said feature profile and wherein each of said virtual directory automatons serves as a proxy for a real directory which corresponds to values for said feature profile.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of said virtual file automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein each of said virtual directory automatons encapsulates the data and logic required to be self-configuring with only said feature profile as input.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said logic and said data reside separately from one another.

17. A method for the mass customization of a software artifact to create one or more software products in a software product family comprising:

means for creating software artifacts with common data files and common directories, said software artifacts also having one or more file automatons, wherein each of said file automatons serves as a proxy for a real data file that varies between software products within a software product family, said software artifacts also having one or more directory automatons, wherein each of said directory automatons serves as a proxy for a real directory that vary between said software products within said software product family;

means for defining one or more feature variations for said software product family, wherein each of said feature variations includes two or more selectable values;

means for creating one or more feature profiles, each feature profile consisting of selected values for each feature variation for a desired software product within said software product family; and

means for using a fully automated product actuator to provide said feature profile to said file automatons and said directory automatons, thereby automatically instantiating a real data file in place of each of said file automatons and a real directory in place of each of said directory automatons to create said desired software product.