Patent ID: 7562340

Claim:
A method for drafting business rule conditions, the method comprising: receiving business rule requirements of an intended recipient; graphically defining the business rule by implementing the business rule condition requirements in a business rule condition creation tool, the tool configured to operate within a build-time development environment and having a graphical condition builder comprising: an expression icon module configured to display a graphical expression function icon to a user, the graphical expression function icon comprising a description and an iconic symbol configured to convey the expression function to a non-technical user without knowledge of business rule programming and including at least one input connector icon and at least one output connector icon; a business attribute module configured to display a graphical business attribute icon to a user; a user interface module configured to display a staging canvas having a result icon, and to accept drag-and-drop user commands: to position the graphical expression function icon on the staging canvas; to position the graphical business attribute icon on the staging canvas; and to define a graphical representation of a condition within a business rule by relating the graphical expression function, the graphical business attribute icon, and the result icon; an expression definition module configured to translate the condition into a logical expression; and a source code module configured to convert the logical expression into source code having a syntax compatible with a target source code language; and making the source code available to the intended recipient, the source code configured to operate as part of a business rule processing module in a run-time environment, the run-time environment configured to operate simultaneous to the operation of the build-time development environment and configured to operate with a previous version of the business rule processing module.