Data processing: artificial intelligence – Knowledge processing system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-28
2002-10-29
Black, Thomas (Department: 2122)
Data processing: artificial intelligence
Knowledge processing system
C706S047000, C706S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06473748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system and computer program product for implementing rules. The present invention relates more specifically to a method, system and computer program product for implementing rules by separating business rules from application logic.
2. Discussion of the Background
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (“CORBA”) is a specification developed by the Object Management Group (“OMG”) in 1992 in which software modules communicate with other software modules in other programs, even if the two programs are written in different programming languages and are running on different platforms. A software component is an individual modular software routine that has been compiled and dynamically linked, and is ready for use with other software components and programs. A software component has an intended purpose, which is to perform a specified function or functions. A software application is a collection of software components and an application facilitates the interaction between software components using the underlying communications infrastructure. A software module is a collection of software components and data structures that performs a particular task or implements a particular abstract data type. A software object, in object-oriented programming, is a variable comprising both software routines and data. The variable is treated as a discrete entity. Object-oriented programming is now well-known in patents. For a detailed discussion of basic object-oriented programming terminology, U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,264 is incorporated by reference herein.
A program is a sequence of instructions that can be executed by a computer. A program may include a collection of software modules and/or a collection of software components. A software application is a program designed to assist in the performance of a specific task, for example, word processing, accounting, inventory management, software module management, and network management of software applications. A data element is a single unit of data, for example, a single bit value representing a value of true or false or a numeric value of 0 or 1, a sequence of bits representing a name, a sequence of bits representing a numeric value, or a single unit of data including a combination of data elements. Systems information is data relating to the status of a software and/or hardware computer system, for example, data relating to whether a particular hardware or software component is functional or non-functional, and data relating to static or dynamic interfacing of various hardware and/or software components in a computer system or network. In this context, functional means that the software component is performing its intended function, and non-functional means that the software component is not performing its intended function. In this context, a static interface means an interface between software components that is predetermined on the computer system. In this context, predetermined means determined at the time of compilation of the code involving the software component. In this context, a dynamic interface means an interface between software components that is not determined at the time of compilation.
In a CORBA environment, a program makes a request for services of software modules through an Object Request Broker (“ORB”) and thus does not need to know the design and composition of the program which includes the software. In client/server applications, an ORB is an interface to which the client makes a request for service from a software object. The ORB then directs the request to the server hosting the software object and returns the resulting value(s) of the service to the client. In an object-oriented programming environment, a client is defined as a member of a class or group that uses the services of another class or group to which the client is not related by way of inheritance from a common class or group. More generally, a client is a software module that requests a service provided by another software module. The client uses the requested service without having to know any working details about the other software module or the service. In a network environment, a server is defined as a computer or program that responds to commands from a client. A more comprehensive discussion of CORBA may be found in Orfali, Harkey, and Edwards, Instant CORBA, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997. Exemplary U.S. patents relating to, and describing features of, CORBA include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,724,503; 5,787,437; 5,857,102; and 5,539,909.
In a large enterprise such as a corporation, enterprise computing is the use of computers in a network or series of interconnected networks that generally encompass a variety of different platforms, operating systems, protocols, and network architectures. Middleware is software which is invisible to a user, which takes two or more applications and makes them work seamlessly together. A user can design an ordinary component to provide its regular function, and then insert an appropriate middleware mix when the component is built or created at run time. CORBA is a middleware project which is the product of a consortium called the Object Management Group (“OMG”) that includes several hundred companies, representing the entire spectrum of the computer industry. The CORBA object bus defines the design of the resident components and how they communicate with one another. CORBA was designed to allow intelligent components to discover each other and interoperate on an object bus. However, CORBA goes beyond interoperability. CORBA also specifies an extensive set of bus-related services for creating and deleting software objects, accessing them by name, storing them in persistent stores, externalizing their states, and defining ad hoc relationships between them. Interface specifications are written in a neutral Interface Definition Language (“IDL”) that defines a component's boundaries, that is, its contractual interfaces with potential clients. Components written to IDL are accessible across languages, tools, operating systems, and networks.
CORBA software objects are components of intelligence that may reside anywhere on a network. They are packaged as binary components which remote clients may access via method invocations. Both the language and compiler used to create server software objects are transparent to clients. Clients have no need to know where the distributed software object resides or on what operating system it executes. The distributed software object may be in the same process or on a machine that sits across a large network. Additionally, clients have no need to know how a server software object is implemented. For example, a server software object may be implemented, for example, as a set of C++ classes, or it may be implemented as a large COBOL program—the client has no need to know the implementation details. The client only needs to know the interface its server software object publishes. The interface then serves as a binding contract between clients and servers.
IDL-specified methods can be written in and invoked from any language that provides CORBA bindings. Examples of such languages include C, C++, Ada and Smalltalk. Programmers interact with CORBA software objects using native language constructs. IDL provides operating system and programming language independent interfaces to all the services and components that reside on a CORBA bus. This allows client and server software objects written in different languages to communicate with one another. OMG IDL is utilized to specify a component's attributes, the parent classes from which the component inherits, the exceptions it raises, the typed events it emits, and the methods its interface supports, including the input and output parameters and their data types. The CORBA IDL allows component providers to specify in a standard definition language the interface infrastructure of the software objects they provide.
The Object Request Bro
Black Thomas
Holmes Michael B.
WorldCom, Inc.
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