Methods, apparatus, and data structures for annotating a database design schema and/or indexing annotations
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Abstract
An authoring tool (or process) to facilitate the performance of an annotation function and an indexing function. The annotation function may generate informational annotations and word annotations to a database design schema (e.g., an entity-relationship diagram or “ERD”). The indexing function may analyze the words of the annotations by classifying the words in accordance with a concordance and dictionary, and assign a normalized weight to each word of each of the annotations based on the classification(s) of the word(s) of the annotation. A query translator (or query translation process) to (i) accept a natural language query from a user interface process, (ii) convert the natural language query to a formal command query (e.g., an SQL query) using the indexed annotations generated by the authoring tool and the database design schema, and (iii) present the formal command query to a database management process for interrogating the relational database.
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21. An apparatus for generating annotations indexed to components of a database design schema, the apparatus comprising:
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a) an authoring tool to annotate the components of the database design schema thereby generating annotations; and
b) an indexer for indexing the annotations, which are generated by the authoring tool, responsive to a plurality of classifications that are based on information contained in a dictionary and concordance. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification