Configuring data structures

• US 20060190844A1
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Binder, Claudia P., Goring, Thomas, Weigelt, Gerhard, Bezrukov, Vladislav, Deutesfeld, Andreas
• Granted Patent: US 7,363,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

Methods and systems, including computer program products, implementing techniques for configuring data structures. The techniques include receiving a description of a logical structure of a data model, the logical structure comprising a first set of elements; displaying a first display structure in a graphical user interface (GUI), the first display structure being a graphical representation of the description of the logical structure, the first display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the logical structure; generating a data structure based on one or more user-selected visual representations of the elements of the logical structure, the data structure comprising a second set of elements; and displaying a second display structure in the GUI, the second display structure being a graphical representation of the data structure, the second display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the data structure.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a description of a logical structure of a data model, the logical structure comprising a first set of elements;

displaying a first display structure in a graphical user interface (GUI), the first display structure being a graphical representation of the description of the logical structure, the first display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the logical structure;

generating a data structure based on one or more user-selected visual representations of the elements of the logical structure, the data structure comprising a second set of elements; and

displaying a second display structure in the GUI, the second display structure being a graphical representation of the data structure, the second display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from a user an input action that selects one or more visual representations of the elements of the logical structure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user input action comprises a drag-and-drop operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each element comprises a data type characteristic.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein an element having a complex data type characteristic comprises one or more sub-elements or one or more attributes.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein an element having a simple data type characteristic comprises one or more attributes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from a user an input action that identifies an element of the data structure;

redefining the data structure based on the user-identified element; and

altering, in the second display structure, the visual representation of the user-identified element based on the redefined data structure.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein altering the visual representation of the user-identified element comprises removing the visual representation of the user-identified element from the second display structure.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein altering the visual representation of the user-identified element comprises applying an indicia to the visual representation of the user-identified element.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein:

redefining the data structure based on the user-identified element comprises modifying a relationship between the user-identified element and another element in the second set of elements; and

altering the visual representation of the user-identified element comprises moving the visual representation of the user-identified element to a different location in the second display structure.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein:

redefining the data structure based on the user-identified element comprises applying a control level to the user-identified element; and

altering the visual representation of the user-identified element comprises providing the user-identified element as part of a hierarchical structure within the second display structure.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from a user an input action that identifies an enhancement module to be added to the data structure; and

redefining the data structure based on the user-identified enhancement module, the redefined data structure comprising the enhancement module for use in enhancing data at run-time.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of elements is a subset of the first set of elements.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of elements is a superset of the first set of elements.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a description of the data structure according to a schema.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the description of data structure is an extensible Markup Language (XML) document.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing data from a data source according to the data structure.

18. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations comprising:

receiving a description of a logical structure of a data model, the logical structure comprising a first set of elements;

displaying a first display structure in a graphical user interface (GUI), the first display structure being a graphical representation of the description of the logical structure, the first display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the logical structure;

receiving from a user an input action that selects one or more of the visual representations of the elements of the logical structure;

generating a data structure based on the one or more user-selected visual representations of the elements of the logical structure, the data structure comprising a second set of elements; and

displaying a second display structure in the GUI, the second display structure being a graphical representation of the data structure, the second display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the data structure.

19. The article of claim 18, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations comprising:

receiving from the user an input action that identifies an element of the data structure;

redefining the data structure based on the user-identified element; and

altering, in the second display structure, the visual representation of the user-identified element based on the redefined data structure.

20. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a description of a logical structure of a data model, the logical structure comprising a first set of elements;

means for displaying a first display structure in a graphical user interface (GUI), the first display structure being a graphical representation of the description of the logical structure, the first display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the logical structure;

means for receiving from a user an input action that selects one or more of the visual representations of the elements of the logical structure;

means for generating a data structure based on the one or more user-selected visual representations of the elements of the logical structure, the data structure comprising a second set of elements; and

means for displaying a second display structure in the GUI, the second display structure being a graphical representation of the data structure, the second display structure comprising visual representations of the elements of the data structure.