Dynamic content generation/regeneration for a database schema abstraction

• US 20030220893A1
• Filed: 05/23/2002
• Published: 11/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stevens, Richard Joseph, Dettinger, Richard Dean
• Granted Patent: US 7,096,229 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A method, system and article of manufacture for generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising: providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor; accessing the physical entity of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors; and linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item.

Claims

1. A method of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising:

providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors; and

linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the linking of each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item comprises replacing the sub-field descriptor designating a corresponding specification sub-field with the determined data item.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of specification sub-fields comprises at least one dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor, the method further comprising:

accessing the physical entity of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

linking the at least one dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining a plurality of logical fields in at least one data repository abstraction adapted for use by a software application for accessing the physical entity of data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing comprises querying the physical entity of data using a Structured Query Language (SQL) query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-field descriptors comprises at least one of a category name indicating the category of the logical field, a logical field name designating the logical field, an access method specifying at least a method for accessing the physical entity of data, a logical field identifier uniquely identifying the logical field and a logical field description describing the content of the logical field.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the access method specifies a location for accessing the physical entity of data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing comprises determining a structure of the physical entity of data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining of a structure comprises launching one of a C, a C++ and a JAVA parsing procedure.

10. A method of providing access to a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising:

providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors;

linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item to generate the logical field; and

providing, for a requesting entity, a query specification comprising a plurality of logical fields comprising at least one generated logical field for defining an abstract query.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

issuing the abstract query by the requesting entity according to the query specification;

transforming the abstract query into a query consistent with a particular physical data representation of the data; and

accessing a data repository comprising the physical entity of data.

12. The method of claim 11, where the query consistent with the particular physical data representation is one of a SQL query, an XML query and a procedural request.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein transforming the abstract query into the query consistent with the particular physical data representation comprises partitioning the abstract query into sub-queries grouped according to access method types.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the access method types are selected from a group comprising an SQL query type, an XML query type and a procedural request type.

15. A method of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising:

providing a logical field specification comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor and at least one specification sub-field representing a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

linking the dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the linking of each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item comprises replacing the sub-field descriptor designating a corresponding specification sub-field with the determined data item.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

combining a plurality of logical fields in at least one data repository abstraction adapted for use by a software application for accessing the physical entity of data.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the accessing comprises querying the physical entity of data using a Structured Query Language (SQL) query.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of sub-field descriptors comprises at least one of a category name indicating the category of the logical field, a logical field name designating the logical field, an access method specifying at least a method for accessing the physical entity of data, a logical field identifier uniquely identifying the logical field and a logical field description describing the content of the logical field.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the access method specifies a location for accessing the physical entity of data.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the accessing comprises determining a structure of the physical entity of data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the determining of a structure comprises launching one of a C, a C++ and a JAVA parsing procedure.

23. A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors; and

linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the linking of each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item comprises replacing the sub-field descriptor designating a corresponding specification sub-field with the determined data item.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the plurality of specification sub-fields comprises at least one dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor, the operation further comprising:

accessing the physical entity of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

linking the at least one dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, the operation further comprising:

combining a plurality of logical fields in at least one data repository abstraction adapted for use by a software application for accessing the physical entity of data.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the accessing comprises querying the physical entity of data using a Structured Query Language (SQL) query.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the plurality of sub-field descriptors comprises at least one of a category name indicating the category of the logical field, a logical field name designating the logical field, an access method specifying at least a method for accessing the physical entity of data, a logical field identifier uniquely identifying the logical field and a logical field description describing the content of the logical field.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the access method specifies a location for accessing the physical entity of data.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the accessing comprises determining a structure of the physical entity of data.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the determining of a structure comprises launching one of a C, a C++ and a JAVA parsing procedure.

32. A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of providing access to a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors;

linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item to generate the logical field; and

providing, for a requesting entity, a query specification comprising a plurality of logical fields comprising at least one generated logical field for defining an abstract query.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, the operation further comprising:

issuing the abstract query by the requesting entity according to the query specification;

transforming the abstract query into a query consistent with a particular physical data representation of the data; and

accessing a data repository comprising the physical entity of data.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, where the query consistent with the particular physical data representation is one of a SQL query, an XML query and a procedural request.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein transforming the abstract query into the query consistent with the particular physical data representation comprises partitioning the abstract query into sub-queries grouped according to access method types.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein the access method types are selected from a group comprising an SQL query type, an XML query type and a procedural request type.

37. A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

providing a logical field specification comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor and at least one specification sub-field representing a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

accessing the physical entity of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor;

linking the dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the linking of each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item comprises replacing the sub-field descriptor designating a corresponding specification sub-field with the determined data item.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, the operation further comprising:

combining a plurality of logical fields in at least one data repository abstraction adapted for use by a software application for accessing the physical entity of data.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the accessing comprises querying the physical entity of data using a Structured Query Language (SQL) query.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the plurality of sub-field descriptors comprises at least one of a category name indicating the category of the logical field, a logical field name designating the logical field, an access method specifying at least a method for accessing the physical entity of data, a logical field identifier uniquely identifying the logical field and a logical field description describing the content of the logical field.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the access method specifies a location for accessing the physical entity of data.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the accessing comprises determining a structure of the physical entity of data.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, wherein the determining of a structure comprises launching one of a C, a C++ and a JAVA parsing procedure.

45. A data structure in a storage medium representing a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the logical field specification comprising:

a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor; and

at least one specification sub-field representing a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor.

46. The data structure of claim 45, wherein the dynamic sub-field descriptor is adapted to designate a range of values.

47. The data structure of claim 45, wherein the plurality of sub-field descriptors comprises at least one of a category name indicating the category of the logical field, a logical field name designating the logical field, an access method specifying at least a method for accessing the physical entity of data, a logical field identifier uniquely identifying the logical field and a logical field description describing the content of the logical field.

48. The data structure of claim 47, wherein the access method specifies a location for accessing the physical entity of data.