Abstract: An expert system is used to recommend a customized solution for a customer. The expert system includes a set of scenarios each of which includes default facts and is associated with a detailed rule base that when applied in isolation to the default facts fully determines a prototype solution. A particular scenario is selected from the set based at least on user input. A customized solution is generated by applying the detailed rule base associated with the particular scenario to facts based at least on the user input and any default facts of the particular scenario that complement and do not conflict with the facts that are based at least on the user input. The customized solution is iteratively refined.

Abstract: In order to use object-oriented models over the Internet for applications in different type systems it is necessary to marshal and unmarshal objects between Java, SQL and XML. Hand-writing specific code to do this is difficult. A computer-implemented method of generating serialization code for representing a model in a plurality of type systems is disclosed, the method comprising the steps of: i) producing an input file from the model for a given set of objects; and ii) providing a code generator for acting on the input file to generate the serialization code.