Configuration representation and modeling using configuration spaces

• US 7,953,779 B1
• Filed: 10/08/2002
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc. (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Trilogy Development Group Incorporated (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Inventors: Ragusa, Jeffrey W., Maag, Andrew J., Fearing, Douglas Stephen, Smith, Shawn A. P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus; Jean M
• Application Number:
  US10/266,308
• Time in Patent Office: 3,157 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-1041, 707/203, 707/956, 707/960, 707/962, 707/999.01, 707/999.102, 700/97, 717/121, 717/104
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/96 Object-relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/962 Entity-attribute-value
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Configuration spaces facilitate the useful presentation of data, particularly configuration data used for representing configured products. Products include features and common features can be grouped by families. For example, an automobile can include a transmission family. The transmission family could include features such as automatic transmission and 4-speed manual transmission. Configuration spaces can be achieved by consolidating selected data without loosing useful information. The degree of consolidation achieved can be significant enough to permit display of data using conventional display technology. Configuration spaces break down the “universe” of possible configurations into constituent spaces defined by groups of rules for a selected feature. Common dependencies between the selected feature and related features can be consolidated to produce a more minimal form of the data used for representing the selected features and related features. Configuration spaces can provide a useful graphical view of the breakdown of all rules written for a single feature or multiple features. The data present in this view can be analyzed to, for example, study the dependency paths of an existing configuration and better understand the impact of revising configuration relationships. Thus, configuration spaces aid in the creation and modification of configuration models.

Claims

1. A method of displaying configuration relationships of a product wherein families of product features are related to each other through dependencies, the method comprising:

selecting one of the product features;

for each family of product features, determining which of the selected product features have common child dependencies; and

displaying representations of the product features of one or more of the families that relate to the selected product feature, wherein the product features of a family that have common child dependencies are consolidated into a single representation.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying a representation of the selected product feature, wherein displaying representations of the product features including the selected product feature comprises:

displaying a table representing dependency paths containing the selected product feature, wherein the table comprises;

a family row for each of the families that related to the selected product feature;

a selected feature row for the selected product feature; and

cells in each family row for each representation of a displayed product feature.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the table comprises:

cells in the selected feature row populated with optionalities for each dependency path represented by the table.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the consolidated product features are polar sets.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

ordering families of the represented product features so as to minimize the number of dependency paths displayed.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a trie that represents the dependencies between the product features of one or more of the families that relate to the selected product feature and the selected product feature.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the product is a member of the group comprising vehicles, computers, financial services products, pharmaceutical products, construction industry products, and telecommunications products.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the dependencies are associated with rules governing the configuration relationships of the product, the method further comprising:

modifying the rules governing the configuration relationships of the product;

redisplaying the representations of the product features in accordance with the modified rules.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

generating a trie that represents the dependencies associated with the rules between the product features of one or more of the families that relate to the selected product feature and the selected product feature;

wherein redisplaying the representations of the product features in accordance with the rules further comprises;

redisplaying the representations in accordance with the generated trie.

10. The method of claim 1 where displaying representations of the product features further comprises:

displaying the representations of the product features in a hierarchical display so as to minimize the number of dependency paths displayed.

11. A method of modeling a configuration of a product, wherein the product includes families of features, the method comprising:

selecting a feature of the product;

selecting one or more additional features of the product;

associating the additional features with the selected feature using one or more configuration rules;

for each family of product features, determining which of the selected product features have common child dependencies; and

displaying a representation of the additional features organized in accordance with the configuration rules, wherein the additional features are grouped by family and organized into dependency relationships in accordance with the configuration rules, and additional features belonging to a common family and having common child-dependency paths are consolidated into respective feature superset representations.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein displaying the representation of additional features further comprises:

displaying the representation of additional features as a hierarchy with each family represented by a distinct level in the hierarchy and each feature and feature superset representation represented by respective nodes in the hierarchy.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein each configuration rule includes an optionality and displaying the representation of additional features further comprises:

displaying optionalities at a leaf level of the hierarchy.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

associating further additional features with the selected feature using one or more additional configuration rules.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

generating a trie data structure in accordance with the configuration rules.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

using a binary form of the trie data structure to consolidate the additional features belonging to a common family and having common child-dependency paths.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein displaying the representation of additional features further comprises:

ordering families in accordance with the frequency that a representative feature of a family is contained by the collective configuration rules.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the product is a member of the group comprising vehicles, computers, financial services products, and telecommunications products.

19. An apparatus comprising one more storage devices having stored therein:

a model, accessible by one or more processors, having a plurality of configuration rules, wherein each configuration rule relates a selected feature of a product to one or more additional features of the product via an optionality, wherein the product includes multiple families of features; and

a processing engine, executable by the one or more processors, to determine common child dependencies in dependency paths among the additional features and to display a representation of the additional features by family, wherein the product features of a family that have common child dependencies are consolidated into a single representation.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the one or more storage devices further store:

a trie data structure having levels and nodes to represent the features in the configuration rules, wherein each family is represented in a distinct level of the trie data structure and each respective feature representation is represented by a single node.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the trie data structure is represented in binary form.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the processing engine includes a minimizing module to minimize a number of nodes in the hierarchical representation of the additional features so as to maximize consolidation features having common child dependencies.

23. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein each configuration rule includes a left hand side, a right hand side, and an optionality relating the left hand side to the right hand side.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the left hand side of each configuration rule represents the selected feature.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the representation of the additional features is organized into levels with each family assigned to a distinct level and levels are arranged in descending order with a highest level being associated with the family having features occurring most often on the right hand side of the configuration rules.

26. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein optionalities include mandatory, standard, optional, restrictive, and no rule.

27. A computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions stored therein and executable by one or more processors for:

selecting one of the product features;

for each family of product features, determining which of the selected product features have common child dependencies; and

displaying representations of the product features of one or more of the families that relate to the selected product feature, wherein the product features of a family that have common child dependencies are consolidated into a single representation.

28. An apparatus comprising:

means for selecting one of a plurality of product features, wherein families of product features are related to each other through dependencies;

means for determining, for each family of product features, which of the selected product features have common child dependencies; and

means for displaying representations of the product features of one or more of the families that relate to the selected product feature, wherein the product features of a family that have common child dependencies are consolidated into a single representation.

29. An apparatus comprising:

means for selecting a feature of a product, wherein the product includes families of features;

means for selecting one or more additional features of the product;

means for associating the additional features with the selected feature using one or more configuration rules;

means for determining, for each family of product features, which of the selected features of the product have common child-dependency paths; and

means for displaying a representation of the additional features organized in accordance with the configuration rules, wherein the additional features are grouped by family and organized into dependency relationships in accordance with the configuration rules, and additional features belonging to a common family and having common child-dependency paths are consolidated into respective feature superset representations.