Ontological translation of abstract rules

• US 8,140,557 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dettinger, Richard D., Kulack, Frederick A., Wang, Xueyun S., Wenzel, Shannon E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOSER, BRUCE M
• Application Number:
  US11/748,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20080288235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,771 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/2, 707/4, 707/5, 707/104.1, 707/3, 707/999.002, 707/999.003, 707/999.004, 707/999.005, 707/999.1, 707/999.107, 707/756, 707/794, 707/760, 707/102, 707/999.102, 707/765, 707/694
• US Class Current: 707/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for selecting rule engines for processing abstract rules based on functionality and cost. In general, an abstract rule is analyzed to determine which functions are required to process the rule. The abstract rule is assigned to a rule engine by evaluating metadata describing the functions and costs of the rule engines. The abstract rule is then translated to the format required by the selected rule engine.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement, wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied, wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in a first data abstraction model, and wherein one or more field values from a query result set are used as one or more inputs to the abstract rule;

determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with a second data abstraction model; and

translating semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the second data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using a predefined ontology mapping that maps equivalent semantic concepts from a first ontology to a second ontology, where each equivalent semantic concept is represented using different terms in each of the respective ontologies.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule, and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept of the abstract rule.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concept of the second data abstraction model.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the logical field definitions defined in each data abstraction model include a reference to an access method selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of underlying physical data in a different manner.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

transforming the abstract rule into an executable rule;

processing the executable rule using a rule engine; and

upon determining that the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, returning the particular recommendation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein processing the executable rule comprises:

receiving the query result set; and

determining, from the query result set, one or more inputs against which the conditional statement is resolved, wherein the executable rule includes the one or more inputs.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein transforming the abstract rule into the executable rule comprises:

retrieving a specification of the abstract rule in a first computer-readable language; and

transforming the specification into a language which is accepted by the rule engine.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the predefined ontology mapping comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each data pair within a grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

9. A computer-readable storage medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation comprising:

receiving an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement, wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied, wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in a first data abstraction model, and wherein one or more field values from a query result set are used as one or more inputs to the abstract rule;

determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with a second data abstraction model; and

translating semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the second data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using a predefined ontology mapping that maps equivalent semantic concepts from a first ontology to a second ontology, where each equivalent semantic concept is represented using different terms in each of the respective ontologies.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule, and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept of the abstract rule.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concept of the second data abstraction model.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the logical field definitions defined in each data abstraction model include a reference to an access method selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of underlying physical data in a different manner.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

transforming the abstract rule into an executable rule;

processing the executable rule using a rule engine; and

upon determining that the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, returning the particular recommendation.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein processing the executable rule comprises:

receiving the query result set; and

determining, from the query result set, one or more inputs against which the conditional statement is resolved, wherein the executable rule includes the one or more inputs.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein transforming the abstract rule into the executable rule comprises:

retrieving a specification of the abstract rule in a first computer-readable language; and

transforming the specification into a language which is accepted by the rule engine.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the predefined ontology mapping comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each data pair within a grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

17. A system comprising:

an ontology mapping structure that relates equivalent meanings of a semantic concept defined from at least a first data abstraction model and a second data abstraction model;

an abstract rule translator; and

a processor configured to execute the abstract rule translator to;

receive an abstract rule having a conditional statement and a consequential statement, wherein the consequential statement defines a particular recommendation that is returned when the conditional statement is satisfied, wherein the conditional statement and the consequential statement are defined using logical field definitions defined in the first data abstraction model, and wherein one or more field values from a query result set are used as one or more inputs to the abstract rule;

determine that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model; and

translate semantic attributes of the abstract rule to make the abstract rule compatible with the second data abstraction model, wherein the translating is done using the ontology mapping structure that maps equivalent semantic concepts from a first ontology to a second ontology, where each equivalent semantic concept is represented using different terms in each of the respective ontologies.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model comprises analyzing metadata describing the abstract rule to identify one or more values corresponding to a semantic concept of the abstract rule, and wherein translating the semantic attributes of the abstract rule comprises accessing the predefined ontology mapping, using the one or more identified values, to identify a semantic equivalent to the semantic concept of the abstract rule.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein determining that the abstract rule is semantically incompatible with the second data abstraction model further comprises comparing the one or more identified values to metadata describing the semantic concept of the second data abstraction model.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the logical field definitions defined in each data abstraction model include a reference to an access method selected from at least two different types of access methods, each type of access method configured to expose a portion of underlying physical data in a different manner.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the ontology mapping structure comprises groupings of data pairs, wherein each data pair within a grouping shares a common meaning, wherein each data pair comprises a semantic concept identifier and a name of an ontology, and wherein the semantic concept identifier identifies a semantic concept that is part of the named ontology.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transform the abstract rule into an executable rule;

process the executable rule; and

upon determining that the conditional statement is resolved to true for the processed executable rule, return the particular recommendation.