Patent ID: 7577904

Claim:
A method for definition and distribution of business rules, said method comprising computer implemented steps of: receiving at a user terminal from a server a current set of business rules, the current set of business rules being a programming object, which are written in XML (Extensible Markup Language) with document schema files, wherein the server is remote to the user terminal, and wherein the current set of business rules reflects at least a portion of a valid set of business rules stored on the server when the current set of business rules is received; receiving login information at the user terminal to initiate an authentication process of a user; authenticating the user based at least in part on the received login information to determine whether the user is an authenticated user, wherein the authenticated user has privileges to modify the current set of business rules but does not have privileges to modify the valid set of business rules; modifying, when the user is the authenticated user, the current set of business rules based on received inputs from the authenticated user to obtain a new set of business rules; validating the new set of business rules against the valid set of business rules stored on the server; and replacing the current set of business rules with the new set of business rules on the server when the new set of business rules is valid, wherein the new set of business rules is created as a declarative object instead of a programming object.