Categorizing an object

• US 20060059157A1
• Filed: 08/30/2004
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Kuntz-Mayr, Christiane, Martinez, Juan Carlos, Heusermann, Knut, Bruss, Ingo
• Granted Patent: US 8,862,578 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

An object may be categorized upon distribution of the object from a sender system to a recipient system. The object may be assigned to at least one recipient category in a recipient category hierarchy according to a first predefined mapping from a sender category hierarchy to the recipient category hierarchy. The object is initially assigned to a sender category in the sender category hierarchy. There is applied to the object a second predefined mapping from the recipient category hierarchy to the sender category hierarchy. It is determined whether the first and second predefined mappings converge. If the first and second predefined mappings do not converge, there may be executed a rule-based reassignment algorithm to make the first and second predefined mappings converge.

Claims

1. A method of categorizing an object upon distribution of the object from a sender system to a recipient system, the method comprising:

assigning an object to at least one recipient category in a recipient category hierarchy according to a first predefined mapping from a sender category hierarchy to the recipient category hierarchy, the object having been assigned to a sender category in the sender category hierarchy; and

applying to the object a second predefined mapping from the recipient category hierarchy to the sender category hierarchy; and

determining whether the first and second predefined mappings converge.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sender category comprises a grouping of properties for the object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the object corresponds to one selected from the group consisting of:

a product, a technical asset, a contact, a partner, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second predefined mappings do not converge, further comprising executing a rule-based reassignment algorithm to make the first and second predefined mappings converge.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the rule-based reassignment algorithm comprises determining whether there exists an object-specific category in the recipient category hierarchy that is a specialization of the recipient category.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the object-specific category exists, further comprising assigning the object to the object-specific category.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the recipient category is an empty set, and wherein the rule-based reassignment algorithm comprises determining whether the second predefined mapping includes a mapping to a specialization sender category of the sender category.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second predefined mapping includes the mapping to the specialization sender category, further comprising assigning the object to a specific recipient category that the second predefined mapping maps to the specialization sender category.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein it is determined using the rule-based reassignment algorithm that the object is assigned to two recipient categories at different levels of the recipient category hierarchy.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising assigning the object to one selected from the group consisting of:

a more general category of the two recipient categories and a less general category of the two recipient categories.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the rule-based reassignment algorithm comprises determining whether the object is assigned to several first-level specialization categories of a specific recipient category.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein it is determined that the object is assigned to the several first-level specialization categories, further comprising assigning the object to the specific recipient category.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the recipient category belongs to a labeled hierarchy that applies to the sender system and to the recipient system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein it is determined that the recipient category belongs to the labeled hierarchy and wherein there exists a rule-based reassignment algorithm to make the first and second predefined mappings converge, further comprising ensuring that the object remains assigned to the recipient category belonging to the labeled hierarchy.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether there exist several assignments of the object to the recipient category.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the several assignments exist, further comprising removing all but one of the several assignments.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating at least one of the first and second predefined mappings.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first predefined mapping includes a mapping from the sender category to the recipient category, and wherein the creation includes ensuring that the second predefined mapping includes at least one selected from the group consisting of:

1) a mapping from the recipient category to the sender category and

     2) a mapping from the recipient category to a specialization category of the sender category.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein there exists a specialization category of the sender category and there are several recipient category hierarchies, and wherein the creation includes ensuring that the first predefined mapping does not map the specialization category and the sender category to different ones of the several recipient category hierarchies.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the creation includes ensuring linear mapping in the first and second predefined mappings.

21. A computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

assign an object to at least one recipient category in a recipient category hierarchy according to a first predefined mapping from a sender category hierarchy to the recipient category hierarchy, the object having been assigned to a sender category in the sender category hierarchy; and

apply a second predefined mapping from the recipient category hierarchy to the sender category hierarchy on the object; and

determine whether the first and second predefined mappings converge.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein it is determined that the first and second predefined mappings do not converge, and wherein the operations further comprise:

execute a rule-based reassignment algorithm to make the first and second predefined mappings converge.