System and method for providing supplemental functionalities to a computer program

• US 9,864,598 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2017
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reactivecore LLC
• Original Assignee: Reactivecore LLC
• Inventors: Agnew, Paul, Davies, Neena, Dufresne, Michel
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US15/480,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20170212748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 279 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-177, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/00 Computing arrangements using knowledge-based models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

Supplemental functionalities may be provided for an executable program. In some embodiments, documentation associated with a business or technical asset may be collected. Business objects may be extracted from the associated documentation. The business objects may be converted to one or more data sets having a pre-defined format. One or more relationships between the data sets may be defined. An ontology may be generated based on the data sets and the relationships. Supplemental information may be generated for an executable program based on the ontology. The supplemental information may be related to one or more functionalities of an application. The supplemental information may be provided as input to the executable program, where the supplemental information causes the functionalities of the application be made available via the executable program.

Claims

1. A method of creating an ontology from business or technology assets and providing supplemental functionalities to an executable program via the ontology, the method being implemented by a computer system that includes one or more physical processors executing computer program instructions that, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:

collecting documentation associated with a business or technical asset;

extracting business objects from the documentation associated with the business or technical asset;

converting the business objects to one or more data sets having a pre-defined format;

defining one or more relationships between the one or more data sets;

generating an ontology based on the one or more data sets and the one or more relationships;

generating, based on the generated ontology, supplemental information for an executable program, wherein the supplemental information is related to one or more functionalities of an application to be added to the executable program; and

providing the supplemental information as input to the executable program, wherein the supplemental information, at least in part, causes the one or more functionalities of the application be made available via the executable program,

wherein the one or more functionalities are made available via the executable program without recompiling the entire executable program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more functionalities are made available via the executable program without recompiling any portion of the executable program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the documentation associated with the business or technical asset includes business logic that defines at least one of the one or more functionalities associated with the application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the business objects include business rules, business definitions, constraints, data points, data models, or relationships embedded in the documentation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the one or more relationships comprises performing, based on one or more natural language processing libraries, natural language processing on the one or more data sets to define the one or more relationships between the one or more data sets.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

cleansing the one or more data sets to remove one or more naming conventions.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting additional documentation associated with (i) the business or technical asset or (ii) another business or technical asset;

extracting additional business objects from the additional documentation;

converting the additional business objects to one or more additional data sets having the pre-defined format;

defining one or more additional relationships between the one or more data sets or the one or more additional data sets;

updating the ontology based on the one or more additional data sets and the one or more additional relationships to generate an updated version of the ontology such that supplemental information subsequently derived from the updated version of the ontology is related to one or more additional application functionalities, the one or more additional application functionalities not being in the supplemental information generated based on an older version of the ontology; and

generating, based on the updated version of the ontology, subsequent supplemental information for the executable program, wherein the subsequent supplemental information is related to the one or more additional application functionalities to be added to the executable program; and

providing the subsequent supplemental information as input to the executable program, wherein the subsequent supplemental information, at least in part, causes the one or more additional application functionalities to be made available via the executable program.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

selecting the one or more additional data sets to be used to update the ontology, the selection of the one or more additional data sets being based on a determination that aspects of the one or more additional data sets are not represented in the ontology.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

extracting further business objects from the additional documentation; and

converting the further business objects to one or more further data sets having the pre-defined format,

wherein, based on a determination that aspects of the one or more further data sets are represented in the ontology, the one or more further data sets are not selected for use in updating the ontology.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable program obtains the supplemental information from working memory at runtime.

11. A system for creating an ontology from business or technology assets and providing supplemental functionalities to an executable program via the ontology, the system comprising:

a computer system that includes one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to;

collect documentation associated with a business or technical asset;

extract business objects from the documentation associated with the business or technical asset;

convert the business objects to one or more data sets having a pre-defined format;

define one or more relationships between the one or more data sets;

generate an ontology based on the one or more data sets and the one or more relationships;

generate, based on the generated ontology, supplemental information for an executable program, wherein the supplemental information is related to one or more functionalities of an application to be added to the executable program; and

provide the supplemental information as input to the executable program, wherein the supplemental information, at least in part, causes the one or more functionalities of the application be made available via the executable program,

wherein the one or more functionalities are made available via the executable program without recompiling the entire executable program.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more functionalities are made available via the executable program without recompiling any portion of the executable program.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the documentation associated with the business or technical asset includes business logic that defines at least one of the one or more functionalities associated with the application.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the business objects include business rules, business definitions, constraints, data points, data models, or relationships embedded in the documentation.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein defining the one or more relationships comprises performing, based on one or more natural language processing libraries, natural language processing on the one or more data sets to define the one or more relationships between the one or more data sets.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer system is further caused to:

cleanse the one or more data sets to remove one or more naming conventions.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer system is further caused to:

collect additional documentation associated with (i) the business or technical asset or (ii) another business or technical asset;

extract additional business objects from the additional documentation;

convert the additional business objects to one or more additional data sets having the pre-defined format;

define one or more additional relationships between the one or more data sets or the one or more additional data sets;

update the ontology based on the one or more additional data sets and the one or more additional relationships to generate an updated version of the ontology such that supplemental information subsequently derived from the updated version of the ontology is related to one or more additional application functionalities, the one or more additional application functionalities not being in the supplemental information generated based on an older version of the ontology; and

generate, based on the updated version of the ontology, subsequent supplemental information for the executable program, wherein the subsequent supplemental information is related to the one or more additional application functionalities to be added to the executable program; and

provide the subsequent supplemental information as input to the executable program, wherein the subsequent supplemental information, at least in part, causes the one or more additional application functionalities to be made available via the executable program.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer system is further caused to:

select the one or more additional data sets to be used to update the ontology, the selection of the one or more additional data sets being based on a determination that aspects of the one or more additional data sets are not represented in the ontology.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer system is further caused to:

extract further business objects from the additional documentation; and

convert the further business objects to one or more further data sets having the pre-defined format,

wherein, based on a determination that aspects of the one or more further data sets are represented in the ontology, the one or more further data sets are not selected for use in updating the ontology.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the executable program obtains the supplemental information from working memory at runtime.