Modeling of order data

• US 20040193510A1
• Filed: 11/05/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Garg, Shailendra, Sundararajan, Ramaswamy, Catahan, Nardo B. Jr., Kale, Shekhar P., Barnes Leon, Maria Theresa
• Granted Patent: US 8,762,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An order class is defined which includes multiple data elements that are common to various order types. The order class identifies relationships of an order with various entities related to the order.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for representing a class definition, the method comprising:

defining an order class including a plurality of data elements that are common to a plurality of order types, the order class identifying a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of order types comprises two or more order types selected from the group consisting of a sales order, an order return, an order credit memo, an order debit memo, an order cancellation, a quote order, and an order contract.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of relationships of the order is selected from the group consisting of relationships with billing terms, relationships with shipping terms, relationships with pricing terms, relationships with payment terms, relationships with parties responsible for the order, relationships with parties participating in the order, and relationships with inventory locations.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the order class is to be used by any application handling order data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said any application is not industry specific.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising defining an order line sub-class derived from the order class, the order line sub-class representing an order line within the order.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the order line sub-class includes a set of data elements from the order class and a set of additional data elements to provide detailed information about the order line.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the order class includes a custom data element for defining one or more custom data fields for the order class.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more custom data fields of the order class are specific to an application.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the set of additional elements comprises a custom data element for defining one or more custom data fields for the order line.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

instantiating the order class; and

initializing data elements of the instantiated order class.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

transforming data received from a source application into a common format of the order class;

transforming the data from the common format into a target format of a target application; and

sending the data in the target format to the target application.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein transforming the data received from the source application into the common format of the order class comprises:

mapping the received data to the data elements of the instantiated order class;

determining that the received data includes information pertaining to one or more order lines within the order;

instantiating an order line sub-class for each of the one or more order lines;

initializing data elements of each instantiated order line sub-class;

copying data from the data elements of the instantiated order class to corresponding data elements of each instantiated order line sub-class; and

overwriting the copied data with the information pertaining to the one or more order lines when the copied data differs from the information pertaining to the one or more order lines.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein a definition of the order class is represented as an XML schema.

15. A method for data transformation, the method comprising:

receiving order data from a source application; and

transforming the order data into a common format provided by an order class,

wherein the order class includes a plurality of data elements common to a plurality of order types order and identifies a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of order types comprises two or more order types selected from the group consisting of a sales order, an order return, an order credit memo, an order debit memo, an order cancellation, a quote order, and an order contract.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of relationships of the order is selected from the group consisting of relationships with billing terms, relationships with shipping terms, relationships with pricing terms, relationships with payment terms, relationships with parties responsible for the order, relationships with parties participating in the order, and relationships with inventory locations.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein:

each of the source application and target application is any application handling order data, independent of an industry.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the order class has an order line sub-class derived from the order class, the order line sub-class representing an order line within the order.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the order line sub-class includes a set of data elements from the order class and a set of additional data elements to provide detailed information about the order line.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein the order class includes a custom data element for defining one or more custom data fields for the order class.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the plurality of order types comprises two or more order types selected from the group consisting of a sales order, an order return, an order credit memo, an order debit memo, an order cancellation, a quote order, and an order contract.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the plurality of relationships of the order is selected from the group consisting of relationships with billing terms, relationships with shipping terms, relationships with pricing terms, relationships with payment terms, relationships with parties responsible for the order, relationships with parties participating in the order, and relationships with inventory locations.

22. A machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause a machine to perform a method comprising:

defining an order class including a plurality of data elements that are common to a plurality of order types, the order class identifying a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

25. A machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause a machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving order data from a source application; and

transforming the order data into a common format provided by an order class,

wherein the order class includes a plurality of data elements common to a plurality of order types order and identifies a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the plurality of order types comprises two or more order types selected from the group consisting of a sales order, an order return, an order credit memo, an order debit memo, an order cancellation, a quote order, and an order contract.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the plurality of relationships of the order is selected from the group consisting of relationships with billing terms, relationships with shipping terms, relationships with pricing terms, relationships with payment terms, relationships with parties responsible for the order, relationships with parties participating in the order, and relationships with inventory locations.

28. A system comprising:

a memory; and

at least on processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a set of instructions which cause the processor to define an order class including a plurality of data elements that are common to a plurality of order types, the order class identifying a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

29. A system comprising:

a memory; and

at least on processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a set of instructions which cause the processor to

receive order data from a source application, and

transform the order data into a common format provided by an order class,

wherein the order class includes a plurality of data elements common to a plurality of order types order and identifies a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

30. An apparatus for representing a class definition, the apparatus comprising:

means for defining an order class including a plurality of data elements that are common to a plurality of order types, the order class identifying a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.

31. An apparatus for data transformation, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving order data from a source application; and

means for transforming the order data into a common format provided by an order class,

wherein the order class includes a plurality of data elements common to a plurality of order types order and identifies a plurality of relationships of an order with a plurality of entities related to the order.