The data specified in the template provides a trend which in turn forms the basis for the system to generate solutions. The figure below shows an organization of objects in the generic framework for materials and corrosion problem solving. The values of each of the individual variables for the present situation are ranked based on the existing data. The variables are then combined based on their relative importance to give a cumulative meaning relevant to characterizing the state of the system. Two key concepts in the generic framework are templates and consultations .
Templates are domain specific applications and consultations are instances of the templates.
A template consists of related objects, specified so that they represent a specific area of problem-solving. Objects are characterized in terms of parameters. Value-rank pairs with relative importances define the quantitative contribution of a parameter towards the state of an object. A template can be used to define any number of objects. Objects can be specified anew or can be borrowed from an existing template.