Content management system and methodology employing a tree-based table hierarchy which accommodates opening a dynamically variable number of cursors therefor

• US 20030204478A1
• Filed: 04/23/2002
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Le, Khanh M., Hu, Tawei, Liang, Lily L., Perry, Edward J., Zhang, Howard
• Granted Patent: US 6,938,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2438 Embedded query languages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A content management system is provided including a plurality of tables forming a tree-based hierarchy for storing information such as item information. An information retrieval interface is provided to facilitate retrieval of information from the tree-based table hierarchy. The number of cursors employed for retrieving information is dynamically variable with the number of tables in the hierarchy. Advantageously, the content management system permits tables to be added or appended to the initial tree-based table hierarchy after the database is created. The number of cursors is dynamically varied to accommodate the additional cursors needed to query the additional table or tables.

Claims

1. A method of organizing information in a content management system comprising the steps of:

creating a database including a root table and at least one child table together forming a tree;

declaring in source code a unique cursor for a table in the tree;

defining in source code an open cursor instruction for the cursor thus declared;

compiling the source code of the declaring and defining steps into a compiled query assist code structure; and

repeating the declaring, defining and compiling steps for the remaining tables of the tree until a compiled query assist code structure is provided for each table of the tree.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the compiled query assist code structure is a dynamic link library (DLL).

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the compiled query assist code is a shared library.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising appending an additional child table to the tree.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising repeating the declaring, defining and compiling steps to provide a compiled query assist code structure associated with the additional child table.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a retrieval interface including a compiled query assist code structure for each table of the database.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing an item ID to the retrieval interface to initiate a query of the database for items in the database matching that item ID.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising loading, in response to the query, the respective query assist code structures corresponding to each table of the tree.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising declaring and opening cursors in each table of the tree in response to the query assist code structures being loaded.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising fetching information matching the item ID in the query from the respective cursors associated with each table in the tree.

11. A computer program product for organizing information in a content management system, the computer program product including a plurality of computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium, wherein the instructions, when executed by the content management system, cause the system to perform the steps of:

creating a database including a root table and at least one child table together forming a tree;

declaring in source code a unique cursor for a table in the tree;

defining in source code an open cursor instruction for the cursor thus declared;

compiling the source code of the declaring and defining steps into a compiled query assist code structure; and

repeating the declaring, defining and compiling steps for the remaining tables of the tree until a compiled query assist code structure is provided for each table of the tree.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer readable medium is an optical disk.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer readable medium is a magnetic disk.

14. The content management system of claim 13 further comprising means for providing an item ID to the retrieval interface to initiate a query of the database for items in the database matching that item ID.

15. The content management system of claim 14 further comprising loading means for loading, in response to the query, the respective query assist code structures corresponding to each table of the tree.

16. The content management system of claim 15 further comprising declaring and opening means for declaring and opening cursors in each table of the tree in response to the query assist code structures being loaded.

17. The content management system of claim 16 further comprising fetching means for fetching information matching the item ID in the query from the respective cursors associated with each table in the tree.

13-1. A content management system comprising

an information storage facility including a database having a root table and at least one child table together forming a tree;

a retrieval interface, coupled to the information storage facility, including a plurality of compiled query assist code structures, the compiled query assist codes structure being associated with respective tables of the tree, the compiled query assist code structures including compiled declare cursor and compiled open cursor instructions.