Patent ID: 7366713

Claim:
A method for evaluating rules in a database system, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, at the database system and from a particular application, an evaluation context; wherein the evaluation context specifies a definition of a data object associated with the particular application; receiving, at the database system and from the particular application, a set of one or more rules; wherein each rule in the set of one or more rules includes at least one rule condition; wherein a particular rule in the set of one of more rules includes a particular rule condition that references said data object; within the database system, (a) selecting the evaluation context, from a plurality of available evaluation contexts, as the evaluation context to use to evaluate the particular rule, (b) using the evaluation context to determine the definition of the data object, and (c) evaluating the particular rule against the data object based on the definition of the data object, to determine whether the particular rule condition is satisfied; and sending, from the database system to the particular application, an indication of whether the particular rule condition is satisfied.