Method, apparatus, and system for data modeling and processing

• US 20070073762A1
• Filed: 04/05/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shih, Leo, Adamson, Dan, Rappaport, Alain
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A method and system to process a domain. A domain is modeled with one or more domain models. Support models are generated from domain models. An ontological system utilizes the support models to interact with and manipulate the domain models. Further, the support models are used to describe domain model states.

Claims

1. A method to process a domain, the method including:

modeling the domain with at least one domain model;

generating support models for an ontological system to interact with and manipulate the domain models; and

using the support models to describe domain model states.

2. The method of claim 1, which includes:

modeling the domain by, generating domain models in the form of data schemas of a first type corresponding to data objects that represent the domain;

generating support models in the form of data schemas of a second type based on data schemas of the first type, the data schemas of the second type corresponding to data selectors to access the domain;

generating programming source code based on the data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type; and

selectively, generating database tables based on data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating data schemas of the second type includes:

parsing each data schema of the first type;

for each property of a respective complex data type, determining whether the respective property is a simple property type or a complex property type; and

if the respective property is a simple property type, adding a criterion object to the corresponding data schema of the second type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating data schemas of the second type includes:

parsing each data schema of the first type into a document object model (DOM), the respective data schema of the first type containing a complex data type;

creating a DOM tree for a data schema of the second type which corresponds to the complex data type;

5. The method of claim 4, which includes:

if the respective property type is complex, adding a new element to the schema of the second type corresponding to the respective complex type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating programming source code includes:

parsing elements contained in a complex type of a data schema; and

for each element contained in the complex type, creating a set of corresponding properties according to specifications of a first programming language.

7. The method of claim 6, which includes:

generating data object classes based on the data schemas of the first type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data object classes are Java classes.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein generating data object classes includes:

parsing each data schema of the first type;

creating a buffer for a data object class to be generated for the respective data schema of the first type;

loading a template code for the data object class to be created into the buffer;

for each element contained in a complex type of the respective data schema, determining whether the respective element is of simple type of complex type;

if the respective element is of simple type, determining whether the respective element can occur more than once; and

if the respective element can occur only once, converting the type of the respective element into a Java type and adding a property corresponding to the name of the respective element to the buffer.

10. The method of claim 1, which includes using domain models with support models to remotely link domain models in a distributed ontological system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the at least one domain models with an ontological system includes generating domain and support models in at least one alternate format without substantial loss of information, the alternate format being used to perform at least one of manipulation, string and transmitting the domain and the support models.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the domain is modeled using at least one of an XML Schema, a document type definition (DTD), an object produced for an object oriented language, and a relational table included in a relational database management system (RDMBS).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the support model is utilized to perform a search identifying a set of domain models which match search criteria.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the support model is processed like a domain model by another support model.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the ontological system notifies at least one of another ontological system and a user located at another ontological system upon occurrence of at least one of a condition and a state described by a plurality of support models.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the ontological system triggers a step in a workflow based on at least one of a condition and a state that is described by a plurality of support models.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein an at least one model is utilized by an at least one of a distributed ontological system and a non-distributed ontological system.

18. A system to process a domain, the system including:

a generation tool to model the domain by, generating domain models in the form of data schemas of a first type corresponding to data objects that represent the domain;

a selector generation tool to generate support models in the form of data schemas of a second type based on data schemas of the first type, the data schemas of the second type corresponding to data selectors to access the domain;

a code generation tool to generate programming source code based on the data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type; and

selectively, a table generation tool to generate database tables based on data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type.

19. A system to process a domain, the system including:

a first means to model the domain by, generating domain models in the form of data schemas of a first type corresponding to data objects that represent the domain;

a second means to generate support models in the form of data schemas of a second type based on data schemas of the first type, the data schemas of the second type corresponding to data selectors to access the domain;

a third means to generate programming source code based on the data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type; and

selectively, a fourth means to generate database tables based on data schemas of the first type and data schemas of the second type.

20. A machine readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

model the domain with at least one domain model;

generate support models for an ontological system to interact with and manipulate the domain models; and

use the support models to describe domain model states.