Semantic model development and deployment

• US 20070033212A1
• Filed: 08/04/2005
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fifield, Davin, Andersen, Larry, Macias, Marcos, Baker, Edmund
• Granted Patent: US 7,505,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method of deploying a business application and generating a business intelligence semantic model corresponding to the business application comprises retrieving application metadata. The method also comprises deploying the business application using the application metadata to write a definition of the business application to an application database. The method also comprises automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata.

Claims

1. A method of deploying a business application and generating a business intelligence semantic model corresponding to the business application, the method comprising:

retrieving application metadata;

deploying the business application, wherein deploying the business application comprises using the application metadata to write a definition of the business application to an application database; and

automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model further comprises:

automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata and the application database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model further comprises:

using a semantic model generator to automatically generate the business intelligence semantic model in response to deployment of the business application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein using the semantic model generator to automatically generate the business intelligence semantic model in response to deployment of the business application further comprises:

automatically synchronizing the semantic model to at least one business intelligence server computer.

5. The method of claim 3, and further comprising:

changing the application metadata to revise the business application;

redeploying the business application, wherein redeploying the business application comprises using the changed application metadata to write a new definition of the business application to an application database; and

automatically regenerating the business intelligence semantic model using the changed application metadata.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model further comprises:

using the semantic model generator to automatically generate a plurality of language specific semantic models in different languages in response to deployment of the business application.

7. The method of claim 3, and further comprising:

creating the application metadata such that it includes both metadata for deploying the business application and metadata for generating the business intelligence semantic model.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein creating the application metadata further comprises:

controlling content of the semantic model by setting properties of an application object tree to control which tables and fields are to be shown when a user interacts with the business intelligence semantic model.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein creating the application metadata further comprises including currency field translating logic in the metadata such that, in the generated business intelligence semantic model, currency values in different currencies are automatically converted to a single currency.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model further comprises:

automatically identifying tables and fields in the semantic model that do not contain data, that contain null data, or that contain empty data; and

automatically removing the tables and fields from the semantic model that have been identified as not containing data, as containing null data or as containing empty data.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein automatically generating the business intelligence semantic model further comprises:

identifying tables and fields for which business intelligence semantic model specific properties have not been set in the application metadata; and

controlling the visibility of the identified tables and fields based upon heuristic criteria.

12. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for implementing the steps of claim 1.

13. An integrated business application development and deployment system, the system comprising:

a metadata store storing application metadata;

an application deployment component configured to use the application metadata to write a definition for a business application to an application database; and

a semantic model generating component configured to automatically generate a business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the semantic model generating component is configured to automatically generate the business intelligence semantic model in response to the application deployment component writing the definition for the business application to the application database.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the application metadata includes both metadata for deploying the business application and metadata for generating the business intelligence semantic model.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the application metadata further comprises an application object tree, and wherein properties of the application object tree control which tables and fields are to be shown when a user interacts with the business intelligence semantic model.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic model generating component is configured to generate the business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata such that the business intelligence semantic model includes currency field translating logic such that currency values in different currencies are automatically converted to a single currency.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic model generating component is configured to generate the business intelligence semantic model using the application metadata such that tables and fields in the semantic model that do not contain data are automatically identified and removed.

19. The system of claim 15 and further comprising at least one business intelligence server, the semantic model generating component being further configured to automatically synchronizing the business intelligence semantic model to the at least one business intelligence server.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic model generating component is further configured to automatically generate the business intelligence semantic model using the application database.