Tracking usage of data elements in electronic business communications

• US 20060106746A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Stuhec, Gunther
• Granted Patent: US 7,711,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/944 Business related

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products for tracking usage of business data elements include receiving an electronic document that includes instances of business data elements and identifying an instance of a particular business data element in the electronic document. A counter associated with the particular business data element is incremented based on the identified instance. The electronic document has a format defined by a business communication schema, and the business communication schema includes a set of predefined business data elements for use in transacting electronic business.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive an electronic document comprising instances of business data elements, the electronic document having a format corresponding to a business communication schema, wherein the business communication schema includes a set of predefined business data elements for use in transacting electronic business;

identify an instance of a particular business data element in the electronic document; and

increment a counter associated with the particular business data element in response to identifying an instance of the particular business data element.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the electronic document comprises instances of a plurality of business data elements from the set of predefined business data elements, each of the plurality of business data elements having an associated counter, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

identify an instance of each of the plurality of business data elements in the electronic document; and

increment a counter associated with each business data element for the identified instances.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the electronic document is received from a translation module, the translation module operable to translate the electronic document into the format corresponding to the business communication schema from a different communication schema format.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein one of the format corresponding to the business communication schema or the different communication schema format comprises a format compatible with Core Components Technical Specification.

5. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein one of the different communication schema format or the format corresponding to the business communication schema comprises an intermediary format in a business document translation infrastructure, the intermediary format comprising a format used for translating electronic documents from a format corresponding to a first communication schema into a format corresponding to a second communication schema, with the first communication schema and the second communication schema selected from a set of available communication schemas.

6. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein the computer program product is operable to cause data processing apparatus to translate the electronic document from the format corresponding to the business communication schema into a different communication schema format.

7. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein the counters associated with the plurality of business data elements are used by the translation module in selecting business data elements for translating electronic documents.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the translation module uses the counters to determine preferences among similar business data elements for translating electronic documents.

9. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the counters are used to perform one of modeling a business communication schema or modifying a business communication schema.

10. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the counters associated with the plurality of business data elements are used to identify business data elements as candidates for deletion from the business communication schema.

11. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the computer program product is operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

compare a counter associated with at least one of the plurality of business data elements with a threshold value; and

notify a user if the counter is less than the threshold value.

12. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the counter associated with the particular business data element is incremented once in response to identifying one or more instances of the particular business data element.

13. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the computer program product is operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

identify, in the electronic document, a plurality of instances of the particular business data element; and

increment the counter associated with the particular business data element for each identified instance.

14. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the counters are used to identify usage trends of business data elements.

15. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to store a date for the electronic document in response to identifying an instance of the particular business data element, wherein the stored date is associated with the particular business data element.

16. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the electronic document comprises a message defined in the business communication schema and the message includes the particular business data element, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to store an identifier for the message in response to identifying an instance of the particular business data element, wherein the stored identifier for the message is associated with the particular business data element.

17. A system for tracking usage of business data elements, the system comprising:

means for identifying instances of business data elements in electronic documents, each electronic document having a format corresponding to a business communication schema, wherein the business communication schema includes a set of predefined business data elements for use in transacting electronic business; and

means for tracking usage of the business data elements in the set of predefined business data elements in response to identifying instances of the business data elements.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein each electronic document has a format corresponding to one of a plurality of available business communication schemas and each available business communication schema has a corresponding set of predefined business data elements.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising means for translating each electronic document at least from a first one of the plurality of available business communication schemas to a second one of the plurality of available business communication schemas, wherein the means for tracking usage of the business data elements tracks usage of business data elements for at least one of the first one of the plurality of available business communication schemas or the second one of the plurality of available business communication schemas.

20. The system of claim 17 further comprising means for monitoring the tracked usage of the business data elements.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein the tracked usage of the business data elements is used in selecting among business data elements in the set of predefined business data elements during a translation of an electronic document from a first one of a plurality of available business communication schemas to a second one of the plurality of available business communication schemas.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the means for tracking usage comprises means for tracking usage trends.

23. A method for tracking usage of business data elements, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic document comprising instances of business data elements, the electronic document having a format corresponding to a business communication schema, wherein the business communication schema includes a set of predefined business data elements for use in transacting electronic business;

identifying an instance of a particular business data element in the electronic document; and

incrementing a counter associated with the particular business data element in response to identifying an instance of the particular business data element.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising comparing the counter associated with the particular business data element with a threshold value to determine whether the counter is less than the threshold value.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising translating the electronic document into the format corresponding to the business communication schema from a different communication schema format.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein one of the different communication schema format or the format corresponding to the business communication schema comprises an intermediary format in a business document translation infrastructure, the intermediary format comprising a format used for translating electronic documents from a format corresponding to a first communication schema into a format corresponding to a second communication schema, with the first communication schema and the second communication schema selected from a set of available communication schemas.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the computer program product is operable to cause data processing apparatus to translate the electronic document from the format corresponding to the business communication schema into a different communication schema format.

28. The method of claim 25 further comprising using the counter in selecting between business data elements for translating electronic documents.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein the counter is used to identify usage trends of business data elements.