System and method for organizing data
First Claim
1. A method for retrieving data from a database corresponding to a search term comprising:
- organizing the data, based on relationships among the data, into a network including at least one predecessor group and a plurality of descendant groups;
locating an occurrence of the search term in one of said plurality of descendant groups;
traversing said network from said occurrence in said one of said plurality of descendant groups to related data in said at least one predecessor group using said relationships among the data; and
building a context including said occurrence and said related data thereby retrieving data from the database corresponding to the search term.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for organizing and retrieving data is provided. The present invention replicates existing data in a format that is representative of naturally occurring relationships associated with the elements in the data. The data is organized into groups which represent a collection of information including one or more data fields. These groups are organized into a hierarchy based on relationships in the underlying data referred to as mappings. The hierarchy provides an organizational structure that is flexible in terms of traversing, organizing, searching, and presenting data. This organization structure is also conducive for extracting a portion of the database relevant to a particular purpose and replicating that portion elsewhere, such as on a palmtop computer, personal data apparatus (“PDA”), etc. Data is extracted from the database in a context that includes all information relevant to an item of data at a top, or parent, level of the hierarchy. The context provides a useful way for a user to analyze data within each of the various contexts in which that item of data exists.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A method for retrieving data from a database corresponding to a search term comprising:
-
organizing the data, based on relationships among the data, into a network including at least one predecessor group and a plurality of descendant groups;
locating an occurrence of the search term in one of said plurality of descendant groups;
traversing said network from said occurrence in said one of said plurality of descendant groups to related data in said at least one predecessor group using said relationships among the data; and
building a context including said occurrence and said related data thereby retrieving data from the database corresponding to the search term. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A context of a database comprising:
-
an occurrence of data located in the database corresponding to a search term;
an instance of a first group related to said occurrence, wherein said first group includes data corresponding to at least one data field located in the database; and
at least one instance of at least one second group related to said instance of said first group, wherein said at least one second group includes data corresponding to at least one other data field located in the database.
-
-
22. A context of a database comprising:
-
an occurrence of data located in the database corresponding to a search term;
an instance of a predecessor group related to said occurrence, wherein said predecessor group includes data corresponding to at least one data field located in the database; and
at least one instance of at least one descendant group related to said instance of said predecessor group, wherein said at least one descendant group includes data corresponding to at least one other data field located in the database. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A method for retrieving information from a database comprising:
-
locating an occurrence of a search term in a data field of the database;
identifying first data directly related to said occurrence; and
identifying second data indirectly related to said occurrence and directly related to said first data.
-
Specification