Systems and methods for dynamic querying

• US 20060173832A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Woollen, Rob, White, Seth, Shinn, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 7,587,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A user can generate queries dynamically at runtime without having to redeploy the appropriate EJB or hard-code the query into the user application. A properties object can be generated to accept the query settings from the user. These settings can be extracted at runtime when the appropriate finder method is invoked, such that the desired query statement, such as a SQL statement, can be generated and executed against the database. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.

Claims

1. A system for dynamically generating a query to be executed on a database, comprising:

a properties object adapted to contain settings for a query as specified by a user;

a finder method for initiating the query; and

a server capable of querying the database, the server capable of receiving a call from the finder method and reading the settings from the properties object in order to generate the appropriate SQL query statements to be sent to the database.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface adapted to allow a user to specify the settings in the property object.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a client containing the properties object and the finder method.

4. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a bean associated with the database upon which the finder method can be invoked.

5. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an element in a deployment descriptor for enabling dynamic querying.

6. A system for generating dynamic queries, comprising:

a client computer that provides a properties object which contains settings for a query specified by a user;

a server computer adapted to communicate with the client computer and a database, the server computer providing a bean associated with the database; and

a finder method that specifies the query to be executed against the database, the finder method invoked on the bean provided by the server computer;

wherein upon invocation of the finder method, the server computer extracts the settings contained in the properties object and parses the finder method in order to dynamically generate the query to be sent to the database.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein the finder method is declared in a query home interface on the client and server computers.

8. A system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a user interface on the client computer for allowing the user to specify the settings contained in the properties object.

9. A system according to claim 6 wherein the bean is an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) and the size of the EJB deployment descriptor is reduced by dynamically generating the query.

10. A system according to claim 6 wherein the settings specify at least one of:

the resulting set of objects returned by the query, the maximum number of elements that should be returned by the query, the return type of the finder method, whether updates made during the current transaction must be reflected in the result of the query and whether a new transaction should be started for the execution of the query.

11. A system according to claim 6 wherein the query is a structured query language (SQL) statement executed against the database.

12. A system according to claim 6, further comprising:

an element included in a deployment descriptor of the bean for enabling the use of dynamic queries.

13. A system according to claim 6 further comprising:

a properties key containing entries wherein each entry specifies a setting for the query.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by one or more processors cause a system to:

provide a client computer having a properties object and a server computer in communication with the client computer, the server computer capable of executing a query against a database;

populate the properties object with settings for the query as received from a user;

invoke a finder method call from the client to the server, the finder method specifying the query; and

parse the finder method and read the settings from the property object in order to dynamically generate the query.

15. A computer-readable medium according to claim 14 wherein the finder method is declared in a query home interface on the client and server computers.

16. A computer-readable medium according to claim 14, further comprising instructions that cause the system to:

provide a user interface on the client computer for allowing the user to specify the settings contained in the properties object.

17. A computer-readable medium according to claim 14, further comprising instructions that cause the system to:

provide an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) on the server and associate the EJB with the database such that the finder method can be invoked on the home interface of the EJB.

18. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17 wherein the size of the EJB deployment descriptor is reduced by dynamically generating the query.

19. A computer-readable medium according to claim 14 wherein the settings specify at least one of:

the resulting set of objects returned by the query, the maximum number of elements that should be returned by the query, the return type of the finder method, whether updates made during the current transaction must be reflected in the result of the query and whether a new transaction should be started for the execution of the query.

20. A computer-readable medium according to claim 14 wherein the query is a structured query language (SQL) statement executed against the database.