International Business Machines Corporation

Barbara Jane Alspach McKee

David Lars Ehnebuske

Isabelle Marie Catherine Rouvellou

Louis Degenaro

Arun Kwangil Iyengar

Isabelle Marie Rouvellou

James Thomas Rayfield

Ian D Simmonds

Stewart Laundon Palmer

Robert Simon Goodman

Kevin Paul Rasmus

A means is provided for specifying, applying, and managing sets of temporary or permanent additions or modifications to the behavior of object-oriented programs without having to change the code of the program, by using externalized rules. The points at which the externalized rules may be applied is determined by the implementation object model, thus making their specification natural to the program developers who are familiar with the program's implementation object model. The concept of dynamic method-based trigger or control points is disclosed for identifying potential rule attachment points in objects and identifying the rules that are applicable to each dynamic control point. At least one control point is flagged on the basis of being active such that the at least one control point and its associated rule is only processed if the at least one control point is flagged as being active.

Method and apparatus for applying business rules in an object model driven context

A method and apparatus for performing general integrity checks using rules in an application running on a data processing system. A point is identified at which a unit of work is to complete. The unit of work includes a plurality of participants. Responsive to determining that the unit of work is to complete, rules associated with each participant in the unit of work are obtained. Responsive to obtaining the rules, the rules obtained for each of the participants are run. Responsive to running the rules, the general integrity of the application state with respect to the unit of work is determined. Responsive to determining the general integrity of the application state, the unit of work is completed by committing it or aborting it.

Apparatus and method for performing general integrity checks using integrity rule checking points in an enterprise application

A method and apparatus for personalizing information content for delivery to a requesting user is provided. With the method and apparatus, a set of actions needed to retrieve and organize requested content for a particular content request are selected and executed based on the concept of classifying the current situation, e.g., the requesting user attributes and the current system setting, along any number of predefined dimensions. The definition of what dimensions of classification there are and what distinctions are drawn during the process of classification is defined by the business application administrator. Once a classification definition is in place, it may be used and reused, along with other classifications, to be associated with actions that select the appropriate content. In order to describe what actions to take under a variety of business conditions, an administrator chooses a classifier to be used to assess the business situation, selects the relevant classifications and associates one or more actions with each classification to be invoked by a selector.

Method and apparatus for performing personalization based on classification

A means is provided for specifying, applying, and managing sets of temporary or permanent additions or modifications to the behavior of object-oriented programs without having to change the code of the program, by using externalized rules. The points at which the externalized rules may be applied is determined by the implementation object model, thus making their specification natural to the program developers who are familiar with the program's implementation object model. The concept of dynamic method-based trigger or control points is disclosed for identifying potential rule attachment points in objects and identifying the rules that are applicable to each dynamic control point.

A method and apparatus for providing a methodology and notation which enables an explicit distinction between those features of an object-oriented object model that are intended to be easily changed due to changing business needs, from those features which are fundamental to the object models. The methodology does this during the modeling process by capturing decisions to allow for business-driven variability as explicit diagram annotations called Control Points. The business variable portions of the system of interacting objects are simultaneously captured as objects called Business Rules.

Method and apparatus for annotating static object models with business rules

A system and method for managing cacheable sets of objects having explicit lifetime specifications, wherein a time-based cache manager maintains and updates one or more sets of objects stored in the cache. A cached set of objects comprises objects having start times and/or end times representing, respectively, times at which such objects become valid and expire. An update time is determined for a given cached set of objects based, in part, on the start times and end times of objects comprising the cached set of objects. When a request for the retrieval of an object from the given cached set of objects (or the entire cached set) is received, a determination is made if the cached set of objects is valid at the time of the request based on the update time. If the cached set of objects is not valid because, e.g., the update time has elapsed, the cached set of objects is updated (and any other cached sets, if necessary) by deleting and/or adding objects to the cached set of objects having start times and end times that meet predefined time criteria for inclusion in the cached set of objects.

System and method for caching sets of objects

A method and apparatus for specifying, applying and managing rules used by an application in a data processing system are provided. A set of classification categories are specified, each classification category representing a different purpose of classification. A set of classifications are specified, each classification representing a possible outcome of an act of classifying. A set of control point names are specified, each name being associated with one or more control points in the application. A set of classification rules are specified, each such rule being associated with a classification category and said rule being adapted to analyze the state of the application and classify it by returning one or more classifications. A set of decision rules are specified, each such rule being associated with a classification and a control point name, said rule being adapted to affect the behavior of the application by calculating a value or making a decision. A set of control points is specified and built into the application at those points in the application flow at which variability of behavior controlled by rules is desired, each such control point being associated with a control point name and one or more classification categories. During the running of the application, when a control point as described above is encountered, the control point's associated classification categories are used to select that set of classification rules associated with any of the classification categories and the selected classification rules are then run.

Method and data processing system for specifying and applying rules to classification-based decision points in an application system

A method of managing a set of rules used by a computer program, by defining jurisdictions adapted to exert authority over a decision to be made by the program, creating at least one control point for the decision, and mapping rules from the jurisdictions to the control point. Multiple control points may be created for a given decision, with different sets of rules being mapped to the respective control points. The business management system of the present invention preferably allows jurisdictions to assert exclusivity over decisions, and assigns different priority values to each jurisdiction for a given control point. Management of the rules is simplified by allowing quick identification of a subset of rules from the jurisdictions that apply to a given control point, and by further allowing identification of one or more rules in the subset of the rules that are affected by a change pertaining to the control point.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Barbara Jane Alspach McKee