Midware system 10 and method

• US 20060080313A1
• Filed: 09/19/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: First American Financial Corporation
• Original Assignee: First American Data Co. LLC (First American Financial Corporation)
• Inventors: Freire, Adriano
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing

Abstract

A method and system for users to connect, extract, query and transform data from multiple databases, independent of their format, type, and location. The system comprises a setup portion, a meta database, and a user portion. The setup portion establishes datasets for use by the system with the user portion. The meta database stores the datasets. The user portion allows a user to input a query and processes the query to gather information from at least one data source and generate a response.

Claims

1. A method for managing data comprising:

developing a dataset upon which a query may be run;

receiving a user request;

transforming the user request into a dataset request based on the dataset, wherein transforming the user request comprises combining the request with an API request;

communicating the dataset request to at least one data source; and

managing data with the at least one data source based on the dataset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein developing datasets comprises gathering and structuring meta data of the underlying data sources.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the gathered meta data is stored in a meta database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein developing datasets comprises importing a dataset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein developing datasets comprises developing a datasets tree.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user request is transformed into a system request and the system request is transformed into the dataset request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein managing data with the at least one data source comprises extracting data from the at least one data source to create a response.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transforming the response.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein managing data with the at least one data source comprises writing data to the at least one data source.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one data source comprises a plurality of disparate data sources.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the data sources communicates in a different language and wherein the user request is processed into a plurality of dataset requests, each dataset request being configured for communicating with a different data source.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating with a different data source is done with an adapter configured to communicate in the language of the data source.

13. A system for managing data comprising:

a setup portion configured for building a dataset;

a meta database for storing the dataset; and

a user portion for receiving and processing a user request, the user portion comprising a communication system and a data processing component wherein the data processing component comprises at least one adapter for transforming the user request into a dataset query based on the dataset and managing data with an at least one data source based on the dataset.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the setup portion comprises a configuration tool.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the communication system receives the user request and generates a response via interaction with the data processing component.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one adapter is configured for communicating with a specific type of data source.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one adapter retrieves data from the data source.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a transformation manager for transforming the retrieved data into a response.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one adapter comprises a query builder.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the data processing component further comprises an adapter factory and wherein the adapter factory receives the request and returns an adapter from the at least one adapter associated with a data source for the request.