Patent ID: 7725416

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for rule location, ordering, and combining in a polyhierarchical environment, the polyhierarchical environment comprising at least one rule, at least one logical structure representable by a graph and a plurality of connections between one or more of the logical structures and a rule set evaluator (RSE), the method comprising: retrieving from a storage medium connected to the computer an assembly definition associated with the RSE, the assembly definition comprising a set assembly rule including an assembly rule policy, at least one location chain, and an evaluation completeness rule and defining a particular ordering, combination, or transformation of rules; retrieving from a storage medium connected to the computer the at least one location chain, wherein the retrieved location chain is associated with a connection to a logical structure; for each retrieved location chain, invoking a rule location policy for the retrieved location chain that returns either the null rule or one or more positive rules; and invoking the assembly policy upon the returned rules to produce a dataset that conforms to at least one ordering, combination, and transformation defined by the assembly definition.