System for organizing an annotation structure and for querying data and annotations

• US 20030018632A1
• Filed: 09/12/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schwarz, Peter Martin, Rice, Julia Elizabeth, Horn, Hans Werner, Haas, Laura Myers, Bays, Alan Ronald, Swope, William Clarence
• Granted Patent: US 7,013,307 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A method and apparatus for capturing annotations about database material in a way that allows queries with conditions or predicates on both the database material and the annotations. Database material may be text, computer programs, graphics, audio, spreadsheets, or any other material which may be stored and indexed. Database material may be in one or multiple sources, and annotations may be stored together with the original material or in a separate store. Annotations can be used to capture information such as additional facts about the database material, the opinions and judgments of experts about the database material, and/or links to other related material. Annotations may be captured in a structured form to enhance queryability and semantic interpretation.

Claims

1. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for storing annotations according to the annotation structure; and

a device for simultaneously querying for particular data and annotations and for retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any;

wherein an organization of the annotation structure depends on an identification of an annotatable data item, and wherein the annotatable data item includes an attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced by any one or more of;

an index, a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schema object.

2. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the annotatable data item includes the entire entity.

3. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

4. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein the annotation structure further includes a context for an annotation author.

5. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the attribute of the entity includes one or more attributes from any one or more of:

a table, a spreadsheet, a view, a row within a table, an object, a set of rows from one table, a set of rows from different tables, a file, a computer program, a graphics collection, or an audio collection.

6. The computer program product according to claim 1, further including a data integration engine for selecting a plurality of annotatable data items originating from at least two sources.

7. The computer program product according to claim 1, further including a data integration engine for selecting an annotatable data item originating from at least two sources.

8. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes context for an annotation author.

9. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes a category of information to be captured about each data item.

10. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes an existing a category of information.

11. The computer program product according to claim 9, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes an annotation structure which is defined from the selected category.

12. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes a new category structure.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes two or more assembled categories.

14. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes a transforming loop.

15. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes an annotation propagation loop.

16. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure further includes one or more contexts for an annotation author.

17. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure which is associated with the annotatable data item.

18. The computer program product according to claim 10, wherein the annotations are inputted by selecting the data item to be annotated and entering the annotation content corresponding to the annotation structure.

19. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the particular data and annotations, if any, are retrieved by retrieving the annotations in the context of the data.

20. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the particular data and annotations are retrieved by further transforming the annotations prior to display.

21. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the device for simultaneously querying for particular data and annotations generates a query of the annotations in the context of the data by selecting a data collection of interest and by entering annotation query predicates for annotations on the data item in the selected data collection.

22. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the device for simultaneously querying for particular data and annotations generates a query of the annotations exclusively.

23. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the device for simultaneously querying for particular data and annotations generates a query of the annotations in the context of the data by selecting a data collection of interest and by entering annotation query predicates based on the selected annotation category.

24. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the device for simultaneously querying and retrieving the particular data and annotations integrates annotations residing in multiple sources.

25. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the organization of the annotation structure includes two or more annotation structures for the same annotatable data item for use by different author contexts.

26. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the annotations include multiple annotations on a single annotatable data item.

27. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the annotations include annotations from different authors.

29. The computer program product according to claim 28, wherein an organization of the annotation structure includes an annotatable data item to be annotated by selecting a data item from any one or more of:

a table, a view, a cell, a row, a column, an entity referenced by an index, an attribute of the entity, or a set comprised of any two or more of;

the table, the view, the cell, the column, the row, the entity referenced by the index, or the attribute of the entity.

30. The computer program product according to claim 28, wherein the annotation structure further includes annotations in a source where the data resides.

31. The computer program product according to claim 28, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

28. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for inputting annotations in a source separate from the data, using a data integration engine; and

a device for simultaneously querying for particular data and annotations by generating a query, and, in response to the query, retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any.

32. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for storing annotations according to the annotation structure; and

a device for querying for particular annotations in the context of data and for retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any;

wherein an organization of the annotation structure depends on an identification of an annotatable data item, and wherein the annotatable data item includes an attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced by any one or more of;

an index, a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schema object.

33. The computer program product according to claim 32, wherein the annotatable data item includes the entire entity.

34. The computer program product according to claim 32, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

35. The computer program product according to claim 32, wherein the annotation structure further includes a context for an annotation author.

36. The computer program product according to claim 32, further including a data integration engine for selecting a plurality of annotatable data items originating from at least two sources.

38. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein an organization of the annotation structure includes an annotatable data item to be annotated by selecting a data item from any one or more of:

a table, a view, a cell, a row, a column, an entity referenced by an index, an attribute of the entity, or a set comprised of any two or more of;

the table, the view, the cell, the column, the row, the entity referenced by the index, or the attribute of the entity.

39. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein the annotation structure further includes annotations in a source where the data resides.

40. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

37. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for inputting annotations in a source separate from the data, using a data integration engine; and

a device for querying for particular annotations in the context of data by generating a query, and, in response to the query, retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any.

41. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for storing annotations according to the annotation structure; and

a device for querying for particular data in the context of annotations by selecting an annotation category of interest, and by entering a data query predicate based on a selected annotation category, and for retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any;

wherein an organization of the annotation structure depends on an identification of an annotatable data item, and wherein the annotatable data item includes an attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced by any one or more of;

an index, a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schema object.

42. The computer program product according to claim 41, wherein the annotatable data item includes the entire entity.

43. The computer program product according to claim 41, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

44. The computer program product according to claim 41, wherein the annotation structure further includes a context for an annotation author.

45. The computer program product according to claim 41, further including a data integration engine for selecting a plurality of annotatable data items originating from at least two sources.

47. The computer program product according to claim 46, wherein an organization of the annotation structure includes an annotatable data item to be annotated by selecting a data item from any one or more of:

a table, a view, a cell, a row, a column, an entity referenced by an index, an attribute of the entity, or a set comprised of any two or more of;

the table, the view, the cell, the column, the row, the entity referenced by the index, or the attribute of the entity.

48. The computer program product according to claim 46, wherein the annotation structure further includes annotations in a source where the data resides.

49. The computer program product according to claim 46, wherein the annotation structure includes two or more categories.

46. A computer program product for managing information containing data, comprising:

a device for organizing an annotation structure;

a device for inputting annotations in a source separate from the data, using a data integration engine; and

a device for querying for particular data in the context of annotations by selecting an annotation category of interest, and by entering a data query predicate based on a selected annotation category, and, in response to the query, retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any.