Patent ID: 7360071

Claim:
A method for validating a user configuration of a computer system being configured with a configuration system, the method comprising: receiving, through a user interface of the configuration system, a user configuration selection, wherein the user configuration selection modifies the configuration of the computer system; based on the user configuration selection, modifying one or more contexts in a collection of contexts, wherein each modified context represents a condition of the configuration of the computer system which is related to the user selection; applying the collection of contexts to part information for a part of the computer system to determine applicable part information for the modified configuration, wherein the part information comprises at least one of part data and part rules, wherein the part rules comprises one or more rules defining tests for determining the validity of the configuration and wherein the part data defines one or more necessary components for operation of the part; determining whether the configuration is valid based on the collection of contexts and the part information; and if the configuration is invalid, presenting an error message to the user, wherein: the error message specifies: the configuration is invalid; and at least one of the reasons that the configuration is invalid; and the error message comprises a suggested replacement message, comprising one or more suggested replacement parts; and a subsequent user configuration selection may modify the configuration such that the configuration is valid.