Associative object model for composite entity information

• US 10,049,144 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2012
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Laxminarayanan, Venkatesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Adams, Charles D
• Application Number:
  US13/450,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,309 Days
• Field of Search: 707792
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

An associative object model for presenting composite entity information is provided. More particularly, a system and method of linking various data related to an entity from isolated databases in a distributed enterprise is provided. The system and method presents composite information on the entity to different systems within the distributed enterprise. The method includes propagating a change of data of a first entity type to one or more related or associated entity types in an active associative object model (AOM) accessible by a subscribing system and a publishing system in an enterprise.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first entity type by associating data relating to an entity from a plurality of databases to represent a comprehensive state of the entity;

providing composite entity information (CEI) for the first entity type, the composite entity information comprising;

one or more objects in the first entity type; and

one or more attributes for each of the one or more objects;

providing at least one link through a pointer between the first entity type and one or more related or associated entity types;

associating at least one enterprise system subscriber to at least one of;

the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types;

providing a persistence database in a persistence associative object model (AOM) layer comprising the one or more attributes, the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and the at least one enterprise system subscriber;

updating a change to data of the one or more attributes in a single location in the persistence database;

inheriting the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the first entity type and the linked one or more related or associated entity types in an active AOM accessible by a subscribing system and a publishing system in an enterprise;

identifying the first entity type by a unique key which comprises a system key which is an attribute that uniquely identifies entities that publish or subscribe to information, a global key which uniquely identifies the entity across the enterprise, and an AOM key which is assigned to every uniquely identifiable entity by the AOM;

subscribing the at least one enterprise system subscriber to the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types; and

providing the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types provides the at least one enterprise system subscriber with the ability to customize their view of the data,

wherein the at least one system subscriber is a member of at least one of the subscribing system and the publishing system, and the active AOM receives the change to the data of the one or more attributes from the at least one system subscriber to immediately propagate the change to the data of the one or more attributes to the one or more related or associated entity types of the first entity type,

wherein the change to the data of the one or more attributes is inherited through the active AOM by virtue of reference to a point of change through the pointer such that the change to the data of the one or more attributes is immediately observed in a master view and the at least one enterprise system subscriber associated with the at least one of;

the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types inherits the change to the data of the one or more attributes by virtue of the reference to the point of change through the pointer and can observe the change to the data of the one or more attributes in the master view,

wherein the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the one or more objects, is inherited through the at least one link, which describes associations between the one or more objects, associations of the pointer between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and associations between the subscribing system and the publishing system and other subscribing systems and publishing systems in the enterprise between the linked entity types in the active AOM,

wherein the AOM comprises a live AOM layer which includes a run time compilation of the CEI for the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types and the persistence AOM layer which includes a database containing CEI data,

wherein the CEI is valid for a lifetime of a publishing action or a subscribing action,

wherein the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types is rearranged by the at least one enterprise system subscriber in order to customize associations between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types and a corresponding view of the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and

wherein the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types is further rearranged by the at least one enterprise system subscriber by changing directional arrows between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types in the AOM.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the first entity type changes the composite entity information of the first entity type and of the to one or more related or associated entity types;

the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the first entity type in any database of the enterprise affects the composite entity information comprehensively in the one or more related or associated entity types; and

the one or more related or associated entity types are configured to inherit changes therebetween.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

any of the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types are reusable; and

any of the one or more objects in the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types are reusable.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the one or more attributes to the first entity type or the one or more related or associated entity types;

adding new entity types; and

making at least one of one to one, one to many and many-to-many associations amongst different entity types in a same AOM schema.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 1 and is created, deployed, maintained and supported by a service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising preserving the one or more attributes in the active AOM.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is transformed from the subscribing system and the publishing system to the active AOM.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the active AOM is configured to publish a single, synchronized and integrated master view of any data change to at least the first entity type.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the active AOM is oblivious of an underlying industry specific schema such that the AOM spawns across multiple organizations with different industry standards.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a plurality of entity types by creating associations between parent objects and child objects of the active AOM, the plurality of entity types including the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types;

creating a plurality of associations between enterprise systems and the plurality of entity types so that composite entity information (CEI) of the plurality of entity types is linked to the enterprise systems; and

updating CEI of the first entity type in the live AOM layer with the change to the data of the one or more attributes;

putting the entity change in the persistence AOM layer via the live AOM layer, wherein putting the entity change in the persistence AOM layer inherits the change to the data of the one or more attributes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the change to the data of the one or more attributes is made in the live AOM layer and replicated in the persistence AOM layer based on a direct correlation between the live AOM layer and the persistence AOM layer; and

replicating the change in the persistence AOM layer inherits the change to the data of the one or more attributes between the linked entity types through the pointer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of entity types comprise the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and the subscribing the at least one enterprise system subscriber comprises the at least one enterprise system subscriber subscribing to at least one of or a combination of the plurality of entity types.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data comprises the one or more attributes of the first entity type;

the active AOM is a superset of all of the one or more attributes that the subscribing system and the publishing system can subscribe to or publish; and

the at least one enterprise system subscriber subscribes to any number of the one or more attributes associated with the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types that are subscribed to by the at least one enterprise system subscriber.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more objects are referenced by the pointer, which is a root of the comprehensive state of the entity, and each of the one or more objects comprises the one or more attributes.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique key further comprises a name of the one or more objects, a name of the one or more attributes for each of the one or more objects, and a path of the one or more objects and the one or more attributes.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising an extensible stylesheet language transformation layer which transforms data from the publishing system and the subscribing system to the data of the one or more attributes in the active AOM using the unique key and outputs a new document in HTML format based on the transformed data.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the AOM maps the system key to the entity, and each of the one or more objects has a corresponding database object in the persistence AOM layer.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable readable memory or device having readable program code embodied in the memory or device, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

provide a first entity type by associating data relating to an entity from a plurality of databases to represent a comprehensive state of the entity;

provide composite entity information (CEI) for the first entity type, the composite entity information comprising;

one or more objects in the first entity type;

one or more attributes for each of the one or more objects; and

provide at least one link through a pointer between the first entity type and one or more related or associated entity types;

associate at least one enterprise system subscriber to at least one of;

the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types;

provide a persistence database in a persistence associative object model (AOM) layer comprising the one or more attributes, the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and the at least one enterprise system subscriber;

updating a change to data of the one or more attributes in a single location in the persistence database;

inherit the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the first entity type and the linked one or more related or associated entity types in an active AOM accessible by a subscribing system and a publishing system in an enterprise;

identify the first entity type by a unique key which comprises a system key which is an attribute that uniquely identifies entities that publish or subscribe to information, a global key which uniquely identifies the entity across the enterprise, and an AOM key which is assigned to every uniquely identifiable entity by the AOM;

subscribe the at least one enterprise system subscriber to the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types; and

provide the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types further provides the at least one enterprise system subscriber with the ability to customize their view of the data,

wherein the at least one system subscriber is a member of at least one of the subscribing system and the publishing system, and the active AOM receives the change to the data of the one or more attributes from the at least one system subscriber to immediately propagate the change to the data of the one or more attributes to the one or more related or associated entity types of the first entity type,

wherein the change to the data of the one or more attributes is inherited through the active AOM by virtue of reference to a point of change through the pointer such that the change to the data of the one or more attributes is immediately observed in a master view and the at least one enterprise system subscriber associated with the at least one of;

the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types inherits the change to the data of the one or more attributes by virtue of the reference to the point of change through the pointer and can observe the change to the data of the one or more attributes in the master view,

wherein the change to the data of the one or more attributes of the one or more objects, is inherited through the at least one link, which describes associations between the one or more objects, associations of the pointer between the first entity type and the pointer of the one or more related or associated entity types, and associations between the subscribing system and the publishing system and other subscribing systems and publishing systems in the enterprise between the linked entity types in the active AOM,

wherein the AOM comprises a live AOM layer which includes a run time compilation of the CEI for the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types and the persistence AOM layer which includes a database containing CEI data,

wherein the CEI is valid for a lifetime of a publishing action or a subscribing action,

wherein the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types is rearranged by the at least one enterprise system subscriber in order to customize associations between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types and a corresponding view of the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types, and

wherein the at least one link between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types is further rearranged by the at least one enterprise system subscriber by changing directional arrows between the first entity type and the one or more related or associated entity types in the AOM.