System and method for dynamic attribute table

• US 10,346,769 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Bagepalli, Vaidehi, Ramasubbu, Hari Harasudan, Bailey, Brian Paul, Cornelsen, Erik
• Primary Examiner(s): Koneru, Sujay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bains, Sarjit S
• Application Number:
  US14/214,262
• Time in Patent Office: 1,943 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management

Abstract

The present disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for generating attribute tables for holding attributes and modifying the table structure during run time by appending the record column file corresponding to the attribute table.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating attribute tables for holding attributes while a corresponding business plan is in an approval process over a computer network comprising:

storing a plurality of records in a distributed memory, the distributed memory comprising a plurality of nodes, each node comprising a local memory configured to store a local portion of the plurality of records, and a processor configured to perform an operation using the local portion of the plurality of records upon request;

receiving a request over a network to generate an attribute table corresponding to a business plan, wherein the business plan comprises at least one user input that describes a feature of the business plan;

generating at least one attribute corresponding to the at least one user input;

automatically generating an attribute table for storing attribute data therein that corresponds to the at least one attribute, the attribute table defined by a record column file including a data placement structure determining how the attribute table will be stored on the plurality of nodes;

transmitting a node-specific request to each node of the plurality of nodes, the node-specific request instructing the node to return attribute data corresponding to the fields of the attribute table based on the local portion of the plurality of records stored in the node in order to reduce the amount of network traffic and prevent unnecessary data transfer;

appending the record column file while at least one node is performing an operation to respond to the node-specific request with at least one Hive record columnar variable that was uncaptured by a schedule coordinator previously executing at least one Hive Query Language query, thereby changing the resulting attribute data to include the at least one previously uncaptured Hive record columnar variable;

concurrent with the appending of the record column file, automatically amending metadata associated with the at least one previously uncaptured Hive record columnar variable to reflect the changed attribute data, the metadata being available for a subsequent header read;

automatically aggregating the requested attribute data from the database;

automatically populating the fields within the table with the aggregated attribute data; and

generating a report conveying aggregated attribute information corresponding to the business plan.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a modification of the business plan from a user and appending the record column file in response to the modification of the business plan.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising appending the record column file in response to errors detected in the attribute data being stored in the table.

4. The method claim 1, further comprising aggregating attribute data from a plurality of databases.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising generating a plurality of requests for attribute data wherein each request corresponds to a database.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the requests for attribute data are generated to specifically correspond to each of the different databases such that the requests differ according to characteristics of the database receiving the request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising sanitizing attribute data for personal and sensitive information during aggregation of the attribute data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a hierarchy of attributes to analyze a first attribute differently than a second attribute.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a hierarchy of a plurality of database sources for use in attribute data conflict resolution.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a database source is a customer database comprising retail customer profiles and transaction histories corresponding to the retail customer profiles.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating derivative attributes and corresponding tables in a later iteration of the method that are derived at least in part from:

attributes input by a user as part of the business plan; and

attribute data received from a previous iteration of the method.

12. A system comprising one or more processors and computer-readable media comprising instructions causing the one or more processors to:

store a plurality of records in a distributed memory, the distributed memory comprising a plurality of nodes, each node comprising a local memory configured to store a local portion of the plurality of records, and a processor configured to perform an operation using the local portion of the plurality of records upon request;

receive a request over a network to create an attribute table corresponding to a business plan, wherein the business plan comprises at least one user input that describes a feature of the business plan;

generate at least one attribute corresponding to the at least one user input;

automatically generate an attribute table for storing attribute data therein that corresponds to the at least one attribute, the attribute table defined by a record column file including a data placement structure determining how the attribute table will be stored on the plurality of nodes;

transmit a node-specific request to each node of the plurality of nodes, the node-specific request instructing the node to return attribute data corresponding to the fields of the attribute table based on the local portion of the plurality of records stored in the node in order to reduce the amount of network traffic and prevent unnecessary data transfer;

append the record column file while at least one node is performing an operation to respond to the node-specific request with at least one Hive record columnar variable that was uncaptured by a schedule coordinator previously executing at least one Hive Query Language query, thereby changing the resulting attribute data to include the at least one previously uncaptured Hive record columnar variable;

concurrent with the appending of the record column file, automatically amend metadata associated with the at least one previously uncaptured Hive record columnar variable to reflect the changed attribute data, the metadata being available for a subsequent header read;

automatically aggregate the requested attribute data from the database;

automatically populate the fields within the table with the aggregated attribute data; and

generate a report conveying aggregated attribute information corresponding to the business plan.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises receiving a modification of the business plan from a user and appending the record column file in response to the modification of the business plan.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises appending the record column file in response to errors detected in the attribute data being stored in the table.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises aggregating attribute data from a plurality of databases.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system further comprises generating a plurality of requests for attribute data wherein each request corresponds to a different database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the requests for attribute data are

generated to specifically correspond to each of the different databases such that the requests differ according to characteristics of the database receiving the request.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises sanitizing attribute data for personal and sensitive information during aggregation of the attribute data.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises generating a hierarchy of attributes to analyze a first attribute differently than a second attribute.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises providing a hierarchy of a plurality of database sources for use in attribute data conflict resolution.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein a database source is a customer database comprising retail customer profiles and transaction histories corresponding to the retail customer profiles.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises generating derivative attributes and corresponding tables in a later iteration of the system that are derived at least in part from:

attributes input by a user as part of the business plan; and

attribute data received from a previous iteration of the system.