Method and system for expression evaluation

• US 7,584,163 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2006
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Altenhofen, Michael, Hettel, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Holmes; Michael B
• Application Number:
  US11/521,266
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques

Abstract

A method to analyze impact of changes to a model includes accessing a proposed change to a model. An expression that is relevant to the proposed change is accessed. An instances set associated the expression is obtained. The instance set is evaluated to determine an impact of the proposed change to the model. An application utilizes the expression of a model. An impact analyzer assesses impact of a change to the model by evaluating at least one of the one or more expressions and returning an evaluation set for use by the application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor and a memory;

an application operative deployed within the memory and executed by the processor to use a number of expressions on a model, the model being represented by a modeling language and further defined by the expressions;

an event framework component to provide notification to the application regarding changes to the model; and

an impact analyzer component to assess impact of a change to the model by evaluating the expressions, generating an evaluation set based on the evaluating of the expressions, and returning the evaluation set to the application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is further operative to receive the evaluation set to optimize the change to the model.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the application includes a constraint checker.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the application includes a model transformation engine.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the evaluation set includes an evaluation unit.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the evaluation unit includes a statement and an instance set.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the instance set includes a starting point and a navigation path.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the navigation path is a reverse navigation path.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising:

a filter component to specify selected notifications to be provided from the event framework component to the application.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the expressions include constraints for the model.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the expressions include model-to-model transformation rules.

25. The system of claim 1, comprising:

an expression evaluator to receive the evaluation set from the application and to evaluate the evaluation set.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a processor and a memory;

a class scope analysis component deployed within the memory and executed by the processor to receive an expression and provide an identification of an event that is relevant to the expression; and

an instance scope analysis component to access the identification and to associate a navigation path with the event that is relevant to the expression.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, comprising:

an event cache component to store the identification of the event and the navigation path associated with the event.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the navigation path includes a reverse navigation path.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the navigation path includes a reverse navigation path leading from instances affected by the event to context instances of the expression.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure including;

a first field including a statement for a model, the statement identifying in what is to be evaluated for a change to the model; and

a second field including an instance set for the statement, the instance set including a starting point and a navigation path, and an instance of the model for which the statement is selectively reevaluated for the change to the model.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the navigation path includes a reverse navigation path.

18. A method for evaluating change impact comprising:

using one or more processors to execute instructions retained in machine-readable media to perform at least some portion of the following

accessing a proposed change to a model, the model represented by a modeling language and further defined by a number of expressions;

accessing an expression relevant to the proposed change;

obtaining an instances set associated with the expression; and

evaluating the instance set to determine an impact of the proposed change to the model.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising:

identifying the expression relevant to the proposed change by identifying the expression as an expression for which reevaluation should be performed.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the instance set includes a starting point and a navigation path.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the navigation path includes a reverse navigation path.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the expression includes constraints on the model.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the expression includes model to model transformation rules.

24. A system comprising:

a processor and a memory;

means deployed within the memory and executed by the processor for using a number of expressions on a model, the model represented by a modeling language and further defined by the number of expressions;

means for providing notification to the application regarding changes to the model; and

means for assessing an impact of a change to the model by evaluating the expressions, generating an evaluation set based on the evaluating of the expressions, and returning an the evaluation set for use by the first means for using.