A Framework to Specify Declarative Rules on Objects, Attributes and Associations in the Object Model

There are various mechanisms for creating an application object model. These mechanisms are used for modeling the application Meta model and the user models. Some of the mechanisms allow constraints to be specified on object entities. Constraints are expressions and evaluate to either true or false, and are used to specify invariants or act as guards on objects, their attributes or associations. However, they do not derive new states from existing states, nor do constraints create new objects or assert an association dynamically. Thus it becomes cumbersome to specify business rules during modeling, especially the kind of business rules that have an impact on the association between objects. We present a framework for specifying declarative rules on objects, attributes and associations in the object-model for a domain. Our framework permits the specification of an association which has related business rules, such that the rules are apparent during modeling, and also provides a mechani...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: JOT
• Authors: C. Anantaram
• Keywords: Application Meta Model, Business Rules, JOT 2007, Various Mechanisms