Generation of synthetic context objects using bounded context objects

• US 10,152,526 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2013
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Adams, Samuel S., Friedlander, Robert R., Gerken, III, John K., Kraemer, James R., Varker, Philip R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu Nga
• Application Number:
  US13/861,058
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310313A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,070 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A processor-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product generates and utilizes synthetic context-based objects. A non-contextual data object is associated with a context object, which comports with a predetermined set of constraints, to define a synthetic context-based object, where the non-contextual data object ambiguously relates to multiple subject-matters, and where the context object provides a context that identifies a specific subject-matter, from the multiple subject-matters, of the non-contextual data object. The synthetic context-based object is then associated with at least one specific data store, which includes data that is associated with data contained in the non-contextual data object and the context object. A request for a data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object results in the return of at least one data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object.

Claims

1. A method for generating and utilizing synthetic context-based objects, the method comprising:

defining, by one or more processors, a context object, wherein the context object comports with at least one constraint that defines a scope and bound of the context object;

associating, by one or more processors, a non-contextual data object with the context object to define a synthetic context-based object, wherein the non-contextual data object ambiguously relates to multiple subject-matters, wherein the context object provides a descriptor of the non-contextual data object, wherein the descriptor is not part of the non-contextual data object, and wherein the context object provides a context that identifies a specific subject-matter, from the multiple subject-matters, of the non-contextual data object;

associating, by one or more processors, the synthetic context-based object with at least one specific data store, wherein said at least one specific data store is a data repository of data that is relevant to the context of the synthetic context-based object, wherein the specific subject-matter for said at least one specific data store in a data structure overlaps a subject-matter of another data store in the data structure, and wherein the synthetic context-based object is mapped to multiple data stores such that there is a one-to-many relationship between the synthetic context-based object and the multiple data stores;

receiving, from a requester, a request for data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object, wherein said at least one specific data store is within a database of multiple data stores; and

returning, to the requester, data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

data mining, by one or more processors, the data structure for the non-contextual data object and the context object, wherein said data mining locates said at least one specific data store that comprises data contained in both the non-contextual data object and the context object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific subject-matter for a particular data store in the data structure is exclusive to only said particular data store, and wherein said particular data store is mapped only to the synthetic context-based object such that there is a one-to-one relationship between the synthetic context-based object and said particular data store.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a text document, and wherein the method further comprises:

searching, by one or more processors, the text document for text data that is part of the synthetic context-based object; and

associating the text document that contains said text data with the synthetic context-based object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a video file, and wherein the method further comprises:

searching, by one or more processors, metadata associated with the video file for text data that is part of the synthetic context-based object; and

associating the video file having said metadata with the synthetic context-based object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a web page, and wherein the method further comprises:

searching, by one or more processors, the web page for text data that is part of the synthetic context-based object; and

associating the web page that contains said text data with the synthetic context-based object.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the request from the requester via a request pointer, wherein the request pointer points to a user-specified synthetic context-based object.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a set of objects that include object oriented programming (OOP) attributes and OOP methods, wherein the OOP attributes are from a group consisting of integers, strings, real numbers, and references to another object, etc., wherein the OOP methods are functions that define a behavior of an object, and wherein the method further comprises:

retrieving, by one or more processors, an object from said at least one specific data store that is relevant to the synthetic context-based object; and

executing, by one or more processors, the retrieved object.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a relational database, wherein the relational database is a collection of data items organized through a set of formally described tables, wherein a table is composed of one or more rows, wherein each row from the one or more rows is a tuple that shares a common attribute, wherein a foreign key is stored in a first tuple in the relational database, wherein the foreign key is an identifier of a second tuple in the relational database, wherein the second tuple is said at least one specific data store, and wherein the method further comprises:

associating, by one or more processors, the foreign key with the synthetic context-based object and said at least one specific data store;

retrieving, by one or more processors, the foreign key from the first tuple;

using, by one or more processors, the foreign key to identify said second tuple in order to retrieve said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the context object is from a plurality of context objects used to create synthetic context-based objects, and wherein the method further comprises:

applying, by one or more processors, a predefined ranking to each of the plurality of context objects used to create synthetic context-based objects; and

searching, by one or more processors, the data repository for synthetic context-based objects in order of the predefined ranking of context objects used to create the synthetic context-based objects.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the request for data, returning, by one or more processors, the multiple data stores to the requester.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the database of multiple data stores contains heterogeneous data structures, wherein the heterogeneous data structures include a text document, a medical image file, and a tuple from a relational database.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one specific data store is a collection of universal resource locators (URLs) that identify webpages.

8. A computer program product for generating and utilizing synthetic context-based objects, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

first program instructions to define a context object, wherein the context object comports with at least one constraint that defines a scope and bound of the context object;

second program instructions to associate a non-contextual data object with the context object to define a synthetic context-based object, wherein the non-contextual data object ambiguously relates to multiple subject-matters, wherein the context object provides a descriptor of the non-contextual data object, wherein the descriptor is not part of the non-contextual data object, and wherein the context object provides a context that identifies a specific subject-matter, from the multiple subject-matters, of the non-contextual data object;

third program instructions to associate the synthetic context-based object with at least one specific data store, wherein said at least one specific data store comprises data that is relevant to the context of the synthetic context-based object, wherein the specific subject-matter for said at least one specific data store in a data structure overlaps a subject-matter of another data store in the data structure, and wherein the synthetic context-based object is mapped to multiple data stores such that there is a one-to-many relationship between the synthetic context-based object and the multiple data stores;

fourth program instructions to receive, from a requester, a request for data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object; and

fifth program instructions to return, to the requester, data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object; and

wherein the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth program instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

sixth program instructions to data mine a data structure for the non-contextual data object and the context object, wherein said data mining locates said at least one specific data store that comprises data contained in the non-contextual data object and the context object; and

wherein the sixth program instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the specific subject-matter for a particular data store in the data structure is exclusive to only said particular data store.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein said at least one specific data store is a text document, and wherein the computer program product further comprises:

sixth program instructions to search the text document for text data that is part of the synthetic context-based object; and

seventh program instructions to associate the text document that contains said text data with the synthetic context-based object; and

wherein the sixth and seventh program instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

15. A computer system comprising:

a processor, a computer readable memory, and a computer readable storage medium;

first program instructions to define a context object, wherein the context object comports with at least one constraint that defines a scope and bound of the context object;

second program instructions to associate a non-contextual data object with the context object to define a synthetic context-based object, wherein the non-contextual data object ambiguously relates to multiple subject-matters, wherein the context object provides a descriptor of the non-contextual data object, wherein the descriptor is not part of the non-contextual data object, and wherein the context object provides a context that identifies a specific subject-matter, from the multiple subject-matters, of the non-contextual data object;

third program instructions to associate the synthetic context-based object with at least one specific data store, wherein said at least one specific data store comprises data that is relevant to the context of the synthetic context-based object, wherein the specific subject-matter for said at least one specific data store in a data structure overlaps a subject-matter of another data store in the data structure, and wherein the synthetic context-based object is mapped to multiple data stores such that there is a one-to-many relationship between the synthetic context-based object and the multiple data stores;

fourth program instructions to receive, from a requester, a request for data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object; and

fifth program instructions to return, to the requester, data from said at least one specific data store that is associated with the synthetic context-based object; and

wherein the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage medium for execution by the processor via the computer readable memory.