System and method for configurable trading system

• US 8,099,441 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 01/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Millennium IT (USA), Inc. (London Stock Exchange Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: Millennium IT (USA), Inc. (London Stock Exchange Group PLC)
• Inventors: Surasinghe, Lakshitha C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mahmoudi, Tony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Paul
• Application Number:
  US11/240,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20060075396A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,300 Days
• Field of Search: 707/803, 707/790, 707/802
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/51 for resellers, retailers or service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/54 Resellers-retail or service providers billing, e.g. agreements with telephone service operator, activation, charging/recharging of accounts

Abstract

A system dynamically integrates into an application program that implements rules for controlling business operations changes in the parameters and parameter groupings that are used by or in conjunction with the rules. The system includes a dynamic business logic rule integrator that provides business logic rules to the application software as executable routines, and a dynamic parameter manager that organizes and manages the parameters. The manager integrates changes to the parameters, groups and/or links the parameters, and makes the parameters available to the rules through a dynamically configurable system database—using a set of static database tables and related dynamically configurable database tables, in which certain database fields or sub-fields correspond to parameters that are used in the rules. The respective database tables and the various fields and sub-fields are established and linked together in accordance with user-defined categories and sub-categories, or “instances.” When parameters are added, edited, grouped, re-grouped, or deleted, the dynamic parameter manager updates, creates and/or removes database tables. The revised set of tables is then made available to the rules, and rules utilize the information in the various fields and sub-fields of the tables to control appropriate trading and associated reporting activities.

Claims

1. A system including one or more processors for dynamically managing parameters for use in business logic rules in an application program executed by one or more of the processors, the system including:

an application program executed by one or more of the processors for executing the business logic rules using system hardware and software;

a dynamically configurable database that includes fields and sub-fields that correspond to parameters that are associated with the business logic rules;

a dynamic parameter manager module for

providing to a user a mechanism to define the parameters using the fields and sub-fields of the dynamically configurable database and define groupings of parameters to define base entities, the base entities including categories that are associated with the respective groupings of the parameters, and correspond to respective rows in static database tables that are associated with the base entities, and the columns of the tables correspond to the fields and sub-fields that correspond to the groupings of the parameters that are associated with the respective base entities;

making the groupings of the parameters available to the business logic rules, and

providing the parameters to the application program,

the dynamic parameter module further creating dynamically configurable database tables for the respective categories, and including columns for the parameters that are included in the definitions of the respective categories,

associating the fields and sub-fields required for the definition of a new category of a given base entity with columns in the associated dynamically configurable database table,

incorporating into the dynamically configurable database table changes to the required fields and sub-fields,

associating additional fields and sub-fields with the new category definition by including new columns in the dynamically configurable database table,

incorporating the new category in the given base entity by adding a new row to the static database table associated with the base entity, and

linking the new category to related categories in other base entities.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the dynamic parameter manager module further provides, for selection of the fields and sub-fields to associate with the category, a list of all parameters that are defined under the associated base entity.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the dynamic parameter manager module lists for the respective fields the associated attributes.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the dynamic parameter manager module creates instances of the categories by adding rows to the associated dynamically configurable database tables and entering associated information in the columns of the added rows.

5. A method for dynamically managing parameters for use in business logic rules in an application program, the method comprising the steps of:

stating the business logic rules as expressions in a functional language that utilizes parameters that correspond to lookup fields in an associated dynamically configurable database;

creating static and related dynamically configurable database tables for user-defined parameters and groups of parameters using the fields and sub-fields of the dynamically configurable database to define base entities, categories of base entities and instances of the categories for use with the business logic rules, and

adding to the database tables the new fields and sub-fields of the dynamically configurable database,

re-grouping the parameters to correspond to changes in the business logic rules by changing the fields and sub-fields associated with respective database tables,

creating rows of the base entity database table for the respective categories, with the columns of the base entity table corresponding to the groupings of the fields and sub-fields that are associated with the respective base entities,

creating dynamically configurable database tables for the respective categories, the dynamically configurable database tables including columns for the parameters that are included in the definitions of the respective categories and

associating the fields and sub-fields required for the definition of a new category of a given base entity with columns in the associated dynamically configurable database table,

incorporating into the dynamically configurable database table changes to the required fields and sub-fields,

associating additional fields and sub-fields with the category definitions by including new columns in the dynamically configurable database table,

incorporating the new category in the given base entity by adding a new row to the database table associated with the base entity, and

linking the new category to related categories in other base entity data base tables, and

providing the database tables to the application.

6. The method of claim 5 further including providing, for selection of the fields and sub-fields to include in the category, a list of all parameters that are defined under the associated base entity.

7. The method of claim 6 further including listing for the respective fields associated attributes.

8. The method of claim 5 further including creating instances of the categories by adding rows to the associated dynamically configurable database tables and entering associated information in the columns of the added rows.