Patent ID: 8078562

Claim:
A system for configuring an artifact whose constituting components and features are selectable via parameters in an interrelated set of parameters, a range of consistent configurations for the artifact being defined by a set of constraints restricting which variable values that are simultaneously selectable, the system comprising: a storage means arranged to store: a problem description in the form of a part-of hierarchy, and a list of step definitions, the part-of hierarchy including at least two different parts and each step definition including a pointer to a respective part in the part-of hierarchy, a processing means arranged to solve constraint satisfaction problems in response to input data designating parameter settings, and an application module arranged to create and execute step instances which are based on the list of step definitions, the step instances being executed sequentially and the execution of each step instance involving: creating a constraint satisfaction problem based on the part to which a pointer a corresponding step definition points and any descendents to this part, causing presentation of a range of variables wherein each variable has at least one selectable value assignable via a user-committed setting in the input data, ordering the processing means to solve the constraint satisfaction problem of the step instance based on the user-committed settings and any variable values resulting from any preceding step instances in said sequence, receiving from the processing means a set of resulting variable values, and causing presentation of the set of resulting variable values, the application module being arranged to repeatedly prompt a user to enter input data to represent user-committed settings until all the step instances in said sequence have been executed.