Patent ID: 7631296

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon rules creation framework that facilitates data management by an end-user who is not a trained software developer, the rules creation framework comprising: a first application program interface for receiving decision point objects from an application, the decision point objects comprising both synchronous and asynchronous decision point objects, wherein each decision point object contains one or more rules to be applied to data on a computer system on which the rules creation framework is running to produce a set of results, wherein the one or more rules are provided to the application by a user to customize the functionality of the application, wherein if a decision point object is synchronous, the application, upon reaching the decision point and submitting the synchronous decision point object to the first application program interface, waits for the set of results before proceeding with execution, whereas if a decision point object is asynchronous, the application, upon reaching the decision point and submitting the asynchronous decision point object to the first application program interface, proceeds with execution without waiting for the set of results; a second application program interface for receiving rule logic objects, wherein each rule logic object contains one or more rules to be applied to data on the computer system wherein the one or more rules of each rule logic object customize the functionality of the operating system running on the computer system; and a user interface component through which a user specifies the one or more rules to be included within each rule logic object for customizing the functionality of the operating system.