Embedding analytics within transaction search

• US 10,606,855 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2015
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Pattabhiraman, Balaji, Madhalam, Kalpana, Mahashabde, Rahul, Gupta, Virad, Gujjula, Venkata, Narayanan, Deepankar
• Primary Examiner(s): Gofman, Alex
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black, Linh
• Application Number:
  US14/710,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20160012111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,785 Days
• Field of Search: 707600, 707603, 707796-798, 707805
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases

Abstract

A system and method facilitating data search, analysis, and/or related actions or data modifications in an enterprise computing environment. An example method includes providing a first user option to specify a transaction search; providing a second user option to specify an analytic; and employing an integrated analytics and search framework to present one or more search results via the analytic in response to user selection of the first user option. In a more specific embodiment, the first user option further enables user specification of one or more dimensions of a data component used for a search, by manipulation of an analytics setting. A third user option enables user modification of search data returned as search results and/or may enable users to perform related actions, e.g., approval of expense reports. Additional controls may enable selective user access to functionality depending upon content of the search results.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating concurrent search and analysis performed by an integrated search and analytics runtime module in an enterprise computing environment, the enterprise computing environment including one or more client devices in communication with a server system, wherein the server system executes webpage software, wherein the webpage software provides webpage information accessible to the one or more client devices, wherein the integrated search and analytics runtime module includes an analytics generation module integrated with a search module, the method comprising the following performed by one of the client devices:

employing a first user interface display screen to display one or more search options to enable user initiation of a data search, wherein user activation of the one or more search options employs an analytic runtime component of the integrated search and analytics module to generate a tree structure of a data component being searched, wherein the tree structure is flattened into one or more temporary tables, wherein the temporary tables are used to generate queries resulting in a collection of one or more search results of the data search;

receiving the user activation of one of the search options;

in response to the user activation of one of the search options, generating analytics including predefined dimensions;

showing, on the display screen, the collection of the one or more search results of the data search in response to the user activation of one of the search options, wherein the one or more search results are shown via a first data visualization concurrently with the one or more search options, wherein the first data visualization includes a display of the one or more search results and the analytics;

setting an analytics settings control in a first state with respect to the predefined dimensions;

varying the analytics settings control to a second state in accordance with the one or more search results, with respect to the predefined dimensions;

in response to the varying of the analytics settings control to the second state with respect to the predefined dimensions, changing dimensions of the one or more search results;

in response to a user initiated adjustment to the first data visualization, utilizing the analytics settings control in a third state associated with the user initiated adjustment to automatically adjust displayed search results and a pivot grid in response to the user initiated adjustment;

in response to selecting a first row in the set of one or more search results, providing a first set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the first row, wherein in response to selecting a second row in the set of one or more search results, providing a second set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the second row, wherein the second set of selectable user options is different than the first set of selectable user options, based on the item represented by the row; and

in response to selecting analytics in the first data visualization associated with the first row in the set of one or more search results, changing the first set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results to a third set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results, wherein the third set of selectable user options includes a user option to drag and drop a dimension onto the pivot grid associated with the first data visualization and the analytics settings control, resulting in an updated second data visualization in response thereto.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data search includes a transaction search, and wherein the one or more search results include indications of one or more transactions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein data associated with the one or more search results includes data of a computing object associated with a particular search result selected by the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the functional manipulation includes one or more software actions.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more software actions include approval of an expense report associated with the computing object.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the varying of the analytics settings controls comprises selecting a drill-down action via a menu or control incorporated in the first data visualization, wherein the drill-down action is based on a portion of an analytic identified by user selection via the portion.

7. The method of claim 6, further including automatically selecting a data dimension, facet, filter, or search term in response to the drill-down action, and displaying data associated with the selection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data search includes a filtering operation performed upon a first set of data.

9. The method of claim 8, further including maintaining said first set of data in a relational database.

10. The method of claim 9, further including employing one or more Structured Query Language (SQL) constructs to selectively access data in the relational database in response to a user initiated query implemented via user selection of the one or more search options.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more SQL constructs include an SQL construct adapted to perform an approximately real time SQL query against the database during implementation of a data search or refresh of data displayed via the first user interface display screen.

12. The method of claim 1, further including:

wherein the first set of selectable user options and the second set of selectable user options are actuatable via one or more user interface controls; and

selectively altering display of the one or more user interface controls in accordance with the one or more search results.

13. The method of claim 1, further including

providing a set of selectable user search options to specify a transaction search;

providing a set of selectable user analytic options to specify an analytic coupled to the analytics settings control;

refining the tree structure in response to user selection of set of selectable user tree options; and

using an integrated analytics and search framework to present one or more search results via the analytic in response to the user selection of the user tree options.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user search option further includes one or mechanisms enabling user specification of one or more dimensions of a data component used for a search, by manipulation of an analytics setting, and wherein the method further includes adjusting a display of the one or more search results to include one or more user interface controls for enabling user access to functionality, the functionality dependent upon content of the one or more search results.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to selection of the first or second row, the first and second set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data are displayed in an overlay of the set of one or more search results.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein functional manipulation of data associated with the first row or the second row further comprises one or more selected from the group of:

modifying data associated with a respective row; and

employing the data associated with the respective row to perform a software action.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a digital processor coupled to a display and to a processor-readable storage device, wherein the processor-readable storage device includes one or more instructions executable by the digital processor to perform the following acts;

employing a first user interface display screen to display one or more search options to enable user initiation of a data search, wherein user activation of the one or more search options employs an integrated search analytics module that comprises an analytic runtime component to generate a tree structure of a data component being searched, wherein the tree structure is flattened into one or more temporary tables, wherein the temporary tables are used to generate queries resulting in a collection of one or more search results of the data search;

receiving the user activation of one of the search options;

in response to the user activation of one of the search options, generating analytics including predefined dimensions;

showing, on the display screen, the collection of the one or more search results of the data search in response to the user activation of one of the search options, wherein the one or more search results are shown via a first data visualization concurrently with the one or more search options, wherein the first data visualization includes a display of the one or more search results and the analytics;

setting an analytics settings control in a first state with respect to the predefined dimensions;

varying the analytics settings control to a second state in accordance with the one or more search results, with respect to the predefined dimensions;

in response to the varying of the analytics settings control to the second state with respect to the predefined dimensions, changing dimensions of the one or more search results;

in response to a user initiated adjustment to the first data visualization, utilizing the analytics settings control in a third state associated with the user initiated adjustment to automatically adjust displayed search results and a pivot grid in response to the user initiated adjustment;

in response to selecting a first row in the set of one or more search results, providing a first set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the first row, wherein in response to selecting a second row in the set of one or more search results, providing a second set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the second row, wherein the second set of selectable user options is different than the first set of selectable user options, based on the item represented by the row; and

in response to selecting analytics in the first data visualization associated with the first row in the set of one or more search results, changing the first set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results to a third set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results, wherein the third set of selectable user options includes a user option to drag and drop a dimension onto the pivot grid associated with the first data visualization and the analytics settings control, resulting in an updated second data visualization in response thereto.

16. A processor-readable non-transient storage device including instructions executable by a digital processor, the processor-readable storage device including one or more instructions for:

employing a first user interface display screen to display one or more search options to enable user initiation of a data search, wherein user activation of the one or more search options employs an integrated search and analytics module that comprises an analytic runtime component to generate a tree structure of a data component being searched, wherein the tree structure is flattened into one or more temporary tables, wherein the temporary tables are used to generate queries resulting in a collection of one or more search results of the data search;

receiving the user activation of one of the search options;

in response to the user activation of one of the search options, generating analytics including predefined dimensions;

showing, on the display screen, the collection of the one or more search results of the data search in response to the user activation of one of the search options, wherein the one or more search results are shown via a first data visualization concurrently with the one or more search options, wherein the first data visualization includes a display of the one or more search results and the analytics;

setting an analytics settings control in a first state with respect to the predefined dimensions;

varying the analytics settings control to a second state in accordance with the one or more search results, with respect to the predefined dimensions;

in response to the varying of the analytics settings control to the second state with respect to the predefined dimensions, changing dimensions of the one or more search results;

in response to a user initiated adjustment to the first data visualization, utilizing the analytics settings control in a third state associated with the user initiated adjustment to automatically adjust displayed search results and a pivot grid in response to the user initiated adjustment;

in response to selecting a first row in the set of one or more search results, providing a first set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the first row, wherein in response to selecting a second row in the set of one or more search results, providing a second set of selectable user options to implement functional manipulation of data associated with the second row, wherein the second set of selectable user options is different than the first set of selectable user options, based on the item represented by the row; and

in response to selecting analytics in the first data visualization associated with the first row in the set of one or more search results, changing the first set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results to a third set of selectable user options associated with the first row in the set of the one or more search results, wherein the third set of selectable user options includes a user option to drag and drop a dimension onto the pivot grid associated with the first data visualization and the analytics settings control, resulting in an updated second data visualization in response thereto.