Batch validation method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for rule processing

• US 7,565,337 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2004
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mineral Lassen LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Verde Sabor Assets LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Mair, Douglas M., Huelsman, David L., Love, Sharon E.
• Primary Examiner(s): STARKS, WILBERT L
• Application Number:
  US10/950,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20050080798A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 706/47, 707/203
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and apparatus thereof for validating combinations of product features that are compliant with existing business rules relative to a modified business rule, where the modification includes an include and/or an exclude ZDD rule component. The method comprises obtaining combinations of features compliant with the existing business rules, processing the combinations against a representation of the rule components to determine validity against the modified business rule, and providing to a user an indication of validity of the combinations relative to the modification. The processing optionally comprises forming a representation of a record-by-feature array having rows corresponding to the combinations, ordering columns of the array according to one of the rule components, and testing validity of the rows of the array against the rule component. The features or combinations arc optionally read from a database, and optionally include a service.

Claims

1. A method of validating an existing product configuration comprising:

storing one or more particular combinations of features associated with the existing product configuration that are compliant with an existing business rule in a memory for access by an application program executed on a processing system, where each feature is associated with one or more enumerations;

using the application program executed on the processing system to process each of the one or more particular combinations against a representation of at least one of a component indicating included combinations of features or a component indicating excluded combinations of features of a modification of the existing business rule by;

forming a record-by-enumeration array comprising one or more rows representing one or more features and one or more columns representing one or more enumerations associated with each of the one or more particular combinations of features;

ordering the one or more columns according to the at least one of the component indicating included combinations of features or the component indicating excluded combinations of features of the modification of the existing business rule;

sorting the one or more rows responsive to the ordering of the one or more columns;

testing each one of the one or more rows against the at least one of the components indicating included combinations of features or the component indicating excluded combinations of features to determine validity of the row, the validity of the row indicating the validity of the respective combination relative to the modification of the existing business rule; and

denoting the validity in a column of the record-by-enumeration array.

2. The method of claim 1 where the storing comprises reading the particular combinations from a database.

3. The method of claim 2 where the features include a service.

4. The method of claim 1, where each of the columns corresponds to one of the features.

5. The method of claim 1, where at least one of the columns corresponds to a plurality of the features.

6. The method of claim 1, where the component indicating included combinations of features is represented as an include Zero-suppress binary Decision Diagram (ZDD).

7. The method of claim 1, where the component indicating excluded combinations of features is represented as an exclude Zero-suppress binary Decision Diagram (ZDD).

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing a database stored in a memory using an application program executed on a processing system to obtain a plurality of records each defining an existing product configuration compliant with an existing rule;

using the application program, representing a modification of one or more rules validating enumerations of the plurality of records as at least one Zero-suppress Decision Diagram (ZDD) component;

using the application program, representing the plurality of records as a record-by-enumeration array, each one of one or more rows of the array representing a respective one of the records, each one of one or more columns of the array representing one or more of enumerations associated with the records;

using the application program, ordering the columns according to the at least one ZDD component;

using the application program, sorting the rows according to the ordering of the columns; and

using the application program, determining validity of each of the sorted rows according to existence of a respective path in the at least one ZDD component corresponding to the enumerations of the respective record, the validity of the row indicating compliancy of the respective record; and

using the application program, denoting the compliancy of the respective records in a column of the record-by-enumeration array.

9. The improvement of claim 8, where the at least one ZDD component is an include ZDD component;

and where the determining validates the row according to the existence of the respective path.

10. The improvement of claim 8, where the at least one ZDD component includes an exclude ZDD component;

and where the determining is configured to invalidate the row according to the existence of the respective path.

11. The improvement of claim 10, where the respective path corresponds to an initial subset less than all of the enumerations of the respective record, the enumerations of the respective record considered according to the ordering of the columns.

12. An apparatus configured to validate plurality of product data records, the apparatus comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the computer readable medium to;

obtain the plurality of product data records each comprising a particular combination of one or more features each having one or more enumerations defining an existing product configuration compliant with an existing business rule;

represent a modification of the existing rule as at least one Zero-suppress binary Decision Diagram (ZDD) component;

represent the plurality of product data records as a record-by-enumeration array, each one of one or more rows of the array representing a respective one of the product data records, each one of one or more columns of the array representing one or more of the enumerations associated with the plurality of records;

order the columns according to the at least one ZDD component; and

determine validity of each of the rows according to the at least one ZDD component, the validity of the row indicating the compliancy of the respective product data record to the modification of the existing business rule; and

denote the compliancy of the respective product data record in a column of the record-by-enumeration array.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, where the at least one ZDD component includes at least one of an include component and an exclude component.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, where the processor is further configured to retrieve the selected product data records as ones of the product data records indicative of the criteria.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, where the processor is further configured to sort the rows according to the ordering of the columns.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, where the validity of each of the rows is according to existence of a respective path in the at least one ZDD component corresponding to the enumerations of the respective product data record.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, where the processor is further configured to:

determine the validity of each of the rows in order according to the sorting of the rows, buffer nodes of at least some of the paths; and

determine existence of an initial portion of the respective path corresponding to an initial subset of the enumerations of the respective product data record of a particular one of the rows based, at least in part, on the buffered nodes, the enumerations of the respective product data record considered according to the order of the columns.

18. A computer-readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor, result in:

accessing a plurality of data records each defining a combination of enumerations of an existing product compliant with an existing rule;

forming a record-by-enumeration array indicative of the plurality of data records, each one of one or more rows of the array representing a respective one of the data records, each one of one or more columns of the array representing one or more of the enumerations;

order the columns according to a ZDD component of a modified rules;

determine validity of each of the rows according to the ZDD component, the validity of the row indicating the compliancy of the respective data record to the modified rule; and

denote the compliancy of the respective data record in the record-by-enumeration array.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the ZDD component comprises an include component or an exclude component or combinations thereof.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the combinations comprises product configuration parameters.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the product comprises a service.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the product comprises a rule-based system.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further embodying program instructions to sort the rows according to the ordering of the columns.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the validity of each of the rows is according to existence of a respective path in the ZDD component corresponding to the enumerations of the respective data record.