Method for Indexing File Structures in an Enterprise Data System

• US 20070038592A1
• Filed: 08/01/2006
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Krantz, Myrle, Helpenstein, Helmut, Romainczyk, Stefan, Deininger, Ralf, Krantz, Andreas, Haub, Andreas
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A method and system is presented which provides a TDM framework for managing self-describing measurement data. The TDM framework provides applications with a central platform for accessing measurement data across an entire enterprise system. By means of individual plug-ins, which are specific to a given data file format, meta-data for each data store in the enterprise may be indexed in a unified manner. The unified indexing, in turn, provides the ability to browse and query the indexed measurement data without requiring the opening or reading from a source data file.

Claims

1. A method for indexing measurement data comprising:

storing measurement data in a data file in an enterprise system, wherein said storing measurement data includes storing meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data;

identifying one or more plug-ins associated with a file type of the data file; and

for each respective one of the one or more plug-ins;

performing an attempt to extract the meta-data from the data file using the respective plug-in, wherein a successful attempt comprises receiving the meta-data from the respective plug-in; and

associating a first plug-in from said plurality of plug-ins with the data file based on said performing, in response to a successful attempt.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an unsuccessful attempt comprises receiving an error message from the respective plug-in.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the file type is at least determined by a file extension.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plug-in is associated with the file type of the data file based on said performing, in response to a successful attempt.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the data file type for the data file, wherein the data file type is determined by the data file type associated with the selected plug-in.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the descriptive information from the meta-data of the data file by the indexing data plug-in; and

storing the descriptive information in a meta-data database index by the indexing data plug-in.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the descriptive information from the meta-data of the data file by the indexing data plug-in; and

storing the descriptive information in a meta-data text index by the indexing data plug-in.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of plug-ins are associated with the data file, in response to a respective plurality of successful attempts.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a successful attempt includes validating the file type of the data file, wherein the contents of the data file are read by the one of the one or more plug-ins.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the file type is at least determined by a file extension.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first plug-in is associated with the file type of the data file based on said performing, in response to a successful attempt.

10. A computer system comprising:

a memory;

a processor; and

computer-readable code stored on said memory and processable by said processor, said computer-readable code including instructions for causing said processor to;

store measurement data in a data file in an enterprise system, wherein said storing measurement data includes storing meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data;

identify one or more plug-ins associated with a file type of the data file; and

for each respective one of the one or more plug-ins;

perform an attempt to extract the meta-data from the data file using the respective plug-in, wherein a successful attempt comprises receiving the meta-data from the respective plug-in; and

associate a first plug-in from said plurality of plug-ins with the data file based on said performing, in response to a successful attempt.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein an unsuccessful attempt comprises receiving an error message from the respective plug-in.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said computer-readable code further includes instructions for causing said processor to:

identify the data file type for the data file, wherein the data file type is determined by the data file type associated with the selected plug-in.

15. A memory medium comprising program instructions executable to:

store measurement data in a data file in an enterprise system, wherein said storing measurement data includes storing meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data;

identify one or more plug-ins associated with a file type of the data file; and

for each respective one of the one or more plug-ins;

perform an attempt to extract the meta-data from the data file using the respective plug-in, wherein a successful attempt comprises receiving the meta-data from the respective plug-in; and

associate a first plug-in from said plurality of plug-ins with the data file based on said performing, in response to a successful attempt.

16. The memory medium of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable to:

identify the data file type for the data file, wherein the data file type is determined by the data file type associated with the selected plug-in.

17. The memory medium of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable to:

retrieve the descriptive information from the meta-data of the data file by the indexing data plug-in; and

store the descriptive information in a meta-data database index by the indexing data plug-in.

18. The memory medium of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable to:

retrieve the descriptive information from the meta-data of the data file by the indexing data plug-in; and

store the descriptive information in a meta-data text index by the indexing data plug-in.

19. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein a plurality of plug-ins are associated with the data file, in response to a respective plurality of successful attempts.

20. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein a successful attempt includes validating the file type of the data file, wherein the contents of the data file are read by the one of the one or more plug-ins.