Database management system

• US 20030088584A1
• Filed: 11/06/2001
• Published: 05/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Lau, Yun-Tung, Poon, Peter, Kuchipudi, Kiran, Chipman, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 6,976,036 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/949 Inventory
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The present invention is related to a database management system that is capable of autonomous dynamic ontology management through soft classing. The present invention is further related to a method of database management by dividing attribute data, e.g., price=10 dollars, into class elements containing data, e.g., attribute name=price, type=numeric, default units=dollars, and entry elements containing data, e.g., attribute value=10, to permit dynamic ontology management and evolution in the database through soft classing.

Claims

1. A method for autonomous electronic creation of a database by an ontology database management system comprising:

dividing incoming attribute data into a class element comprising data and an entry element comprising data, wherein the class element data comprises an attribute name, the entry element data comprises an attribute value and the attribute value is related to the attribute name;

creating at least one attribute heading with the class element data; and

adding the entry element data as at least one entry field under the attribute heading.

2. The method of claim 1 farther including the step of obtaining incoming attribute data by scanning a bar code, entering data, traversing web page content, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the ontology database management system prompts for human intervention before creating the at least one attribute heading.

4. The method of claim 1 farther comprising the steps of

after creating at least one attribute heading, dividing subsequent incoming attribute data into a subsequent class element containing data and a subsequent entry element containing data, wherein the subsequent class element data comprises the subsequent attribute name, the subsequent entry element data comprises the subsequent attribute value and the subsequent attribute value is related to the subsequent attribute name;

comparing the subsequent attribute name to the at least one attribute heading already existing in the database;

if the subsequent attribute name is identical to any of the at least one attribute heading already existing, adding the subsequent entry element data under the identical attribute heading;

if the subsequent attribute name is not identical to any of the at least one attribute heading already existing in the database, comparing the subsequent class element data and the subsequent entry element data to existing data in the database to determine whether the subsequent attribute name is the equivalent of the at least one attribute heading already existing in the database;

if the subsequent attribute name is the equivalent of one of the at least one attribute heading, entering the subsequent entry element data under the equivalent attribute heading;

if the subsequent attribute name is not equivalent to one of the at least one attribute heading, creating a new attribute heading with the subsequent attribute name, discarding the subsequent incoming data, holding collected subsequent incoming data in reserve until a certain number of identical attribute names are obtained then creating a new attribute heading with the subsequent attribute name, prompting for human intervention to determine whether to create a new attribute heading with the subsequent attribute name, or holding collected data in reserve until a certain number of identical attribute names are obtained then prompting for human intervention to determine whether to create a new attribute heading with the subsequent attribute name.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of searching the created database by querying the ontology database management system using attribute names, attribute values, or a combination thereof in the query.

6. A method for dynamically managing the ontology of a database, the method comprising

dividing incoming attribute data into a class element containing data and an entry element containing data, wherein the class element data comprises an attribute name, the entry element data comprises an attribute value and the attribute value is related to the attribute name;

comparing the attribute name to an at least one attribute heading already existing in the database;

if the attribute name is not identical to any of the at least one attribute heading already existing in the database, comparing the class element data and the entry element data to existing data in the database to determine whether the attribute name is the equivalent of at least one attribute heading already existing in the database;

if the attribute name is the equivalent of one of the at least one attribute heading already existing in the database, entering the entry element data into the database under the equivalent attribute heading;

if the attribute name is not equivalent to one of the at least one attribute heading, creating a new attribute heading with the attribute name, discarding the incoming attribute data, holding collected incoming attribute data in reserve until a certain number of identical attribute names are obtained then creating a new attribute heading with the attribute name, prompting for human intervention to determine whether to create a new attribute heading with the attribute name, or holding collected data in reserve until a certain number of identical attribute names are obtained then prompting for human intervention to determine whether to create a new attribute heading with the attribute name.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

if the attribute name is the equivalent of one of the at least one attribute heading, replacing the one of the at least one attribute heading with the attribute name, discarding the attribute name, holding the class element data in reserve until a certain number of same attribute names are obtained then replacing the one of the at least one attribute heading with the attribute name, prompting for human intervention to determine whether to replace the one of the at least one attribute heading with the attribute name, or holding the class element data in reserve until a certain number of same attribute names are obtained then prompting for human intervention to determine whether to replace the one of the at least one attribute heading with the attribute name.

8. A database management system which is capable of dynamic ontology management of a database, the system comprising an electronic database administrator which manages incoming data by dividing the incoming data into a class element and an entry element, thereby permitting continuous evolution of the database through soft classing.

9. The database management system of claim 8 further capable of autonomously creating a database from data that is entered into the system by scanning a bar code, manual entry of numerical data, or scanning web page content.