Unisys Corporation

David A Goiffon

David R Johnson

Gerald E Hartmann

A process-driven object management system for managing data and code modules is disclosed. The object management system includes a repository that stores objects, wherein ones of the objects referred to as &ldquo;Asset elements&rdquo; each describe a respective code or data module. The object management system includes a set of scripted tools for performing renovation, transformation, and code development tasks on the code and data modules. According to one aspect of the invention, the tool invocation constructs are stored as objects in the repository, such that some of the same object management tools and automated repository interface functions used to manage the Asset element can also be used to manage and veiw the tool objects.

Process-driven tool interface for an object management system

A computer-implemented system and method for allowing users to interactively develop search queries is provided. The system performs query development utilizing a hierarchical concept tree stored in memory, wherein the nodes of the concept tree are concepts that describe various search topics. Parent/child relationships are created between the concepts, with children concepts describing sub-categories of a parent concept, and so on. Any concept at any level in the tree structure may be related to one or more character strings descriptive of the related concept. Query development is performed by traversing the various relationships in the hierarchical tree structure to selectively add related character strings to a potential query. According to one embodiment, the user is allowed to control the manner and extent of the traversal, and is further allowed to de-select any located concepts and character strings for further use in query development. According to another embodiment, traversal of the tree is completed according to user specification, with only limited user intervention required to select or de-select the various located character strings for inclusion in a query string. Yet another embodiment allows all query string development to be fully automated based on parameters specifying the extent of the concept tree traversal. After traversal of the tree structure is completed, the located character strings that remain selected based on user specifications are added to a query string. The query string may further be modified to include logical operations. The string may be used to manually or programmatically invoke a wide variety of tools for use in performing searches of text documents, file systems, or a collection of web pages. The system allows the contents and structure of the hierarchical concept tree to be modified by the user. Both the concepts and character strings included in the hierarchical tree may be edited by the user to include search terms tailored to specific search requirements. Additionally, relationships existing between two concepts, or between a concept and a character string, may be added, deleted, or modified to thereby allow the user to control the manner in which query development proceeds.

System and method for developing a selectably-expandable concept-based search

A system for maintaining an object repository within an object management system where the objects are software constructs and the system provides a set of tools for creating packages of the objects that can be reused as well as monitored as they are changed or recombined. The packages themselves become new objects for the repository to store. The set of relationships within a package is also stored as are any relationships between any of the objects within the object management system object repository.

System and method for defining and managing reusable groups software constructs within an object management system

A system and method is provided for allowing users to interactively modify a search index used in performing concept-based searches. The system includes a repository for storing a network of natural language concepts. The repository further stores associations between selected ones of the natural language concepts and other data items that are cataloged according to the natural language concepts, wherein the data items may be stored within the repository, or on one or more remote systems. A user provides one or more natural language concepts as a search query used to locate associated ones of the data items. Subsequent iterations of a search may be performed to modify the scope of the search. After successful search results are obtained, the user may create one or more new associations, wherein each association relates any of the one or more natural language concepts included within a query with any selected one of the data items located during any iteration of the search. Similarly, the user may delete selected associations existing between located ones of the natural language concepts and selected ones of the data items. This modification of the knowledge base allows the search index to evolve to reflect the needs of the user. According to one aspect of the invention, the network of natural language concepts includes relationships between concepts that organize the concepts according to generalizations and specifications. The user is allowed to create additional relationships between any of the natural language concepts that are located during any iteration of a search such that the organization of the concept network is tailored to user needs. The user is further allowed to store additional natural language concepts in the repository, and to relate the additional natural language concepts both to other concepts, and to selected ones of the data items. According to another aspect of the invention, a user display is provided to list, for all iterations of a search, all query terms specified by a user, all located concepts, and all located data items. The user creates and/or deletes associations between the displayed concepts and/or between concepts and data items using either a standard &ldquo;drag and drop&rdquo; interface, or using a sequence of &ldquo;copy and paste&rdquo; keystrokes.

Automated system and method for capturing and managing user knowledge within a search system

An object management system is providing for managing, cataloging, and discovering various potentially reusable code and data components that exist within an Information Technology (IT) platform, and which each have well-defined interfaces with other components. For each of these re-usable code and data components, an associated software object called an &ldquo;asset element&rdquo; is created that describes the associated component. Relationships are created between various asset elements to represent the relationships existing between the software components. Other software objects called &ldquo;locator elements&rdquo; are created that each describes an application concept or sub-concept. This application concept or sub-concept is associated with a problem solved by the code and data components within the IT platform. Relationships are created between the various locator elements to correlate the concepts and sub-concepts to software constructs represented by asset elements. The object management system further supports various object discovery tools capable of identifying locator elements associated with a particular concept. These locator elements and the associated relationships may then be efficiently traced to identify related asset elements and the associated software and code constructs. This provides an efficient concept-based search mechanism for the code constructs. Other tools are provided for creating, modifying, and deleting the elements. A model may be used to define the various types of relationships and elements that may exist within the system, thereby simplifying the various tools needed to support element creation, modification, deletion, and traversal.

Growing community of inventors

Shoreview, MN, United States of America

David A Goiffon