Database structure and front end

• US 20050114206A1
• Filed: 11/25/2003
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Carhamm Limited LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hu, Dan, Bennett, Dominic
• Granted Patent: US 8,170,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.550
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method of analyzing online advertising information includes the steps of receiving consumer data from client computers, creating a database based on the consumer data, receiving user selected values from a front end, and extracting data from the database based on the user selected values. The front end may have a selection area with user selectable values that change depending on an initially selected value. In one embodiment, the database comprises an online analytical processing (OLAP) database.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing online advertising information, the method comprising:

receiving consumer data from client computers;

creating a database based on the consumer data;

receiving user selected values from a front end, the front end having a selection area with user selectable values that change depending on an initially selected value; and

extracting data from the database based on the user selected values.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of hierarchical tables comprises dimensions and facts, and wherein the facts are partly from the consumer data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumer data comprise a number of impressions of an advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumer data comprise a number of clicks on an advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the database comprises an online analytical processing (OLAP) database.

6. A front end for a database, the front end comprising:

a first selection area for selecting a first value from a first set of values; and

a second area for selecting a second value from a second set of values, the second set of values being automatically provided by the front end in the second selection area based on the first value, wherein the first and second values refer to values stored in a database.

7. The front end of claim 6 wherein the database comprises an online analytical processing (OLAP) database.

8. The front end of claim 6 wherein the first set of values are obtained from a hierarchy table of an online analytical processing (OLAP) database.

9. The front end of claim 6 wherein the first set of values and the second set of values comprise dimensions of an online analytical processing (OLAP) database.

10. The front end of claim 6 wherein the database comprises consumer data collected by a client program in a client computer.

11. The front end of claim 10 wherein the consumer data comprise a number of impressions of an advertisement.

12. The front end of claim 10 wherein the consumer data comprises a number of mouse clicks on an advertisement.

13. A method of generating a report, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of selected dimensions of a database from a front end, the front end having selection areas that are driven by tables of the database;

determining a hierarchy table among a plurality of hierarchy tables of the database, the hierarchy table including all of the selected dimensions;

extracting data from the hierarchy table to generate extracted data;

filtering the extracted data using filter parameters received from the front end to generate filtered data; and

providing the filtered data to a client computer running the front end.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein filtering the extracted data includes performing conditional operations on the extracted data.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the hierarchy table includes data obtained from client programs monitoring a consumer online activity.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the consumer online activity includes clicking on an advertisement.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein each of the plurality of hierarchy tables contains at least one dimension related to online advertising.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the hierarchy table includes a fact relating to a number of impressions of an advertisement.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the hierarchy table includes a fact relating to a number of clicks on an advertisement.

20. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

using the filtered data to generate a report in the client computer.