Metadata manager for analytics system

• US 10,275,409 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2016
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Tung, David, Chan, Hon Yuk, Bengali, Ketan, Patra, Sasmita, Chang, Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Stevens, Robert
• Application Number:
  US15/263,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20170004187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 707694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

A metadata management system receives metadata changes and automatically updates a metadata architecture which maps the data. The metadata changes may be received through a simple user interface by a user or administrator. Once received, the system may automatically update schemas and data transformation code to process data according to the new data mapping preference. The system may handle metadata updates in a multi-tenant system having one or more applications per tenant, and may update data for a single tenant and 1 or more tenant applications in a multitenancy.

Claims

1. A method for managing metadata, the method comprising:

maintaining data in a data collection store for each of a plurality of tenants, wherein the maintained data in the data collection store corresponds to metadata in a first format associated with at least one of a plurality of tenant applications at a client device;

receiving input from a first one of the plurality of tenants, the input further identifying one of the tenant applications;

identifying the maintained data that corresponds to the first tenant and to the identified tenant application, wherein the identified data is retrieved;

receiving a portion selection over a computer network interface from the client device, wherein the portion selection identifies at least one portion of the retrieved data and is selected via a user interface of the client device;

transforming the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the metadata in the first format into a second format according to the received input and the received portion selection, wherein the transformed data in the second format is stored in a data warehouse in association with the first tenant according to a schema that associates an object name to the transformed data in the second format; and

performing analytics specific to the first tenant and the identified tenant application, wherein the analytics are performed on the transformed data in the second format in accordance with the schema that is associated with the object name, wherein results of the analytics are output for display on the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received portion selection include changes in metadata selections.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format is performed in accordance with the changes in the metadata selections.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format includes splitting one column of data into multiple columns.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the analytics output for display on the user device is based on the multiple columns and includes at least one of a chart, a graph, and report data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format includes at least one of a transposition, a pivot, an aggregation, a sorting, a selection of a set of columns, a translation of coded values corresponding to the maintained data, or a derivation of new calculated values corresponding to the maintained data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the analytics output for display on the user device is based on at least one of the transposition, pivot, aggregation, sorting, selection of a set of columns, the translation, or the derivation, and includes at least one of a chart, a graph, or report data.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor for performing a method for managing metadata, the method comprising:

maintaining data in a data collection store for each of a plurality of tenants, wherein the maintained data in the data collection store corresponds to metadata in a first format associated with at least one of a plurality of tenant applications at a client device;

receiving input from a first one of the plurality of tenants, the input further identifying one of the tenant applications;

identifying the maintained data that corresponds to the first tenant and to the identified tenant application, wherein the identified data is retrieved;

receiving a portion selection over a computer network interface from the client device, wherein the portion selection identifies at least one portion of the maintained data and is selected via a user interface of the client device;

transforming the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the metadata in the first format into a second format according to the received portion selection, wherein the transformed data in the second format is stored in a data warehouse in association with the first tenant according to a schema that associates an object name to the data in the data second format; and

performing analytics specific to the first tenant and the identified tenant application, wherein the analytics are performed on the transformed data in the second format in accordance with the schema that is associated with the object name, wherein results of the analytics are output for display on the user device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the received portion selection include changes in metadata selections.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format is performed in accordance with the changes in the metadata selections.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format includes splitting a column of data into multiple columns.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the analytics output for display on the user device is based on the multiple columns and includes at least one of a chart, a graph, and report data.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format includes at least one of a transposition, a pivot, an aggregation, a sorting, a selection of a set of columns, a translation of coded values corresponding to the maintained data, or a derivation of new calculated values corresponding to the maintained data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the analytics output for display on the user device is based on at least one of the transposition, pivot, aggregation, sorting, selection of a set of columns, the translation, or the derivation, and includes at least one of a chart, a graph, or report data.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the transformation of the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the first format to the second format includes a translation of coded values corresponding to the maintained data or a derivation of new calculated values corresponding to the maintained data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the analytics output for display on the user device is based on the translation or derivation and includes at least one of a chart, a graph, or report data.

17. An apparatus for managing metadata, the apparatus comprising:

a memory that maintains data in a data collection store for each of a plurality of tenants, wherein the maintained data in the data collection store corresponds to metadata in a first format associated with at least one of a plurality of tenant applications at a client device, wherein input from a first one of the plurality of tenants is received, the input further identifying one of the tenant applications, and wherein the maintained data identified as corresponding to the first tenant and to the identified tenant application is retrieved;

a network interface that receives a portion selection from the client device associated with the first tenant application, wherein the portion selection identifies at one least portion of the retrieved data and is selected via a user interface of the client device; and

a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor;

transforms the at least one identified portion of the retrieved data from the metadata in the first format into a second format according to the received input and the received portion selection, wherein the transformed data in the second format is stored in a data warehouse in association with the first tenant according to a schema that associates an object name to the transformed data in the second format, and

performs analytics specific to the first tenant and the identified tenant application, wherein the analytics are performed on the transformed data in the second format in accordance with the schema that is associated with the object name, wherein results of the analytics are output for display on the user device.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the received portion selection include changes in metadata selections, and wherein the transformation of the at least one portion from the first format to the second format is performed in accordance with the changes in the metadata selections.