Universal drill-down system for coordinated presentation of items in different databases

• US 20060294098A1
• Filed: 08/28/2006
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects SA (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Peticlerc, Martin, Thomson, Neil, Chow, Gordon, Gould, Dave, Paiement, Andre, Donnelly, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,257 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A system for capturing the context of, and translating, or mapping, from data in an originating database presentation, or in an originating format, to data in a target database presentation, or target format. The translation uses the context of the originating report/query in terms of the originating database as a basis for the translation. The originating context is translated to the target context and is used to accurately map data from one presentation to another. By using a context and a translation map, which define specifics of the translation between contexts against different data sources, the invention is able to achieve a mapping engine that can efficiently map data between databases of different types. The translation map includes rules set automatically by the system, or set by a human administrator. The rules permit special treatment of different mapping scenarios. For example, specified types of mappings can be prevented so that selected users will be denied the ability to access restricted target information. Member exceptions are used that permit mapping between different data models, as, for example, where rows or columns in an originating data source (e.g. OLAP) are not present in a target data source (e.g. Relational). Other aspects of the invention include using supplemental member translations, translating items in an OLAP level to more than one translation object, delegating data items in cases where there is little or no correspondence between data models, translating a data item to a plurality of data items, translating a data item to a range, and additional aspects. An administrator interface is provided to create, modify, monitor and manage a mapping system.

Claims

1-32. -32. (canceled)

33. A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

receive context information specifying dimensional criteria defining a first value in a first data source;

generate a context transfer to a second value in a second data source based upon the dimensional criteria of the context information, wherein the context transfer is performed in accordance with a translation model with a translation map and rules for mapping between multiple data sources; and

supply the second value.

34. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the context information is user specified.

35. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the context information is automatically generated.

36. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the first data source and the second data source are selected from an OLAP data source and a relational data source.

37. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the first value is qualified by one or more parent objects.

38. The computer readable storage medium of claim 37 further comprising executable instructions to:

designate a selected parent object; and

generate a parent translation object from the selected parent object.

39. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the executable instructions to generate include executable instructions to generate a context transfer to a plurality of values.

40. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the executable instructions to generate include executable instructions to generate a context transfer to a range of values.

41. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 further comprising executable instructions to specify an administrator interface to configure context transfer operations.

42. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 further comprising executable instructions to generate a context transfer between a first report and a second report.

43. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 further comprising executable instructions to generate a context transfer between a first query and a second query.