Method, apparatus, and system for data modeling and processing

• US 7,779,050 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2006
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shih, Leo, Adamson, Dan, Rappaport, Alain T.
• Primary Examiner(s): To; Baoquoc N
• Application Number:
  US11/398,505
• Publication Number:
  US 20070073762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,595 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/809
• 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 model a domain, the method including:

employing a processor to execute computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

modeling the domain with at least one domain model, 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, or a relational table included in a relational database management system (RDBMS), and wherein the at least one domain model is a data schema comprised of a plurality of data objects that represent the domain, each data object is one of a simple type or complex type;

generating support models for an ontological system to interact with and manipulate the at least one domain model, wherein at least one support model is a selector schema, the selector schema includes a selector object for each complex data object of the data schema and includes a criterion object for each simple data object, a criterion object defines selection criteria for an associated data object, a selector object is comprised of one or more criterion objects;

triggering a step in a workflow, wherein the workflow includes at least one workflow object, the step corresponding to a workflow object, the at least one workflow object includes at least one selector object associated with the step, the ontological system employs the at least one selector object to trigger the step corresponding to the workflow object; and

using the support models to describe domain model states.

2. The method of claim 1, further includes modeling the domain by:

generating programming source code based on the data schema and selector schema; and

selectively generating database tables based on the data schema and selector schema.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the selector schema includes:

parsing the data schema;

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

for each respective property that is a simple property type, adding a criterion object to the corresponding selector object of the selector schema.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the selector schema includes:

parsing the data schema into a document object model (DOM), the data schema including a complex type property; and

creating a DOM tree for the selector schema which corresponds to the complex type property.

5. The method of claim 4, further includes:

for each respective property type that is complex, adding a new selector object to the selector schema corresponding to the respective complex type property.

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

parsing each property contained in a complex type of the data schema; and

for each property 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, further includes:

generating data object classes based on the data schema.

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

9. The method of claim 7, wherein generating data object classes includes:

parsing the data schema;

creating a buffer for a data object class to be generated for the data schema;

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

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

for each property that is simple type, determining whether the property can occur once or more than once; and

for each property that can occur only once, converting the type of the property into a Java type and adding the Java type with a name corresponding to the name of the property to the buffer.

10. The method of claim 1, further 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 model with an ontological system includes generating domain and support models in at least one alternate format.

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

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one support model is processed as a domain model by another support model.

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

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the workflow comprises a plurality of steps, each step has an associated selector object.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one domain model is utilized by at least one of a distributed ontological system or a non-distributed ontological system.

17. A system to model a domain, the system including:

a memory having computer executable components stored thereon; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the computer executable components, the computer executable components comprising;

a generation component configured to model the domain by generating domain models in the form of data schemas corresponding to data objects that represent the domain, wherein each data object is one of a simple type or a complex type, and wherein the generation component is configured to model the domain using at least one of an XML Schema, a document type definition (DTD), an object produced for an object oriented language, or a relational table included in a relational database management system (RDBMS);

a selector generation component configured to generate a selector schema for a corresponding data schema, the selector schema includes a criterion object for a simple data object in the corresponding data schema and includes a selector object for a complex data object in the corresponding data schema, the selector object includes one or more criterion objects, at least one of the one or more criterion object define selection criteria for the simple data object corresponding to the criterion object, wherein the selector generation component is further configured to trigger a step in a workflow that includes at least one workflow object corresponding to the step, the at least one workflow object includes at least one corresponding selector object configured to trigger the step;

a code generation component configured to generate programming source code based on the selector schema and the corresponding data schema; and

a table generation component configured to generate database tables based on the selector schema and the corresponding data schema.

18. A computer-readable storage medium to model a domain, the computer-readable storage medium including:

computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions including instructions for causing at least one processor to perform the following acts;

generating domain models in the form of data schemas corresponding to data objects that represent the domain, wherein each data object is one of a simple type or a complex type, and wherein the domain models are modeled using at least one of an XML Schema, a document type definition (DTD), an object produced for an object oriented language, or a relational table included in a relational database management system (RDBMS);

generating a selector schema for a corresponding data schema, the selector schema includes a criterion object for a simple data object in the corresponding data schema and includes a selector object for a complex data object in the corresponding data schema, each the selector object includes one or more criterion objects, at least one of the one or more criterion object define selection criteria for the simple data object corresponding to the criterion object;

triggering a step in a workflow that includes at least one workflow object corresponding to the step, the at least one workflow object includes at least one corresponding selector object configured to trigger the step;

generating programming source code based on the selector schema and the corresponding data schema; and

generating database tables based on the selector schema and the corresponding data schema.

19. A machine readable storage 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, wherein the at least one domain model is a data schema comprised of a plurality of data objects that represent the domain, each data object is one of a simple type or complex type, and 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, or a relational table included in a relational database management system (RDBMS);

generate support models for an ontological system to interact with and manipulate the domain models, wherein at least one model is a selector schema, the selector schema includes a selector object for a corresponding complex data object of the data schema and includes a criterion object for a corresponding simple data object, wherein the criterion object defines selection criteria for an associated data object, and wherein the selector object is comprised of one or more criterion objects;

trigger a step in a workflow that includes at least one workflow object corresponding to the step, the at least one workflow object includes at least one corresponding selector object configured to trigger the step; and

use the support models to describe domain model states.