Apparatus and method for routing composite objects to a report server

• US 20070244848A1
• Filed: 04/12/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects SA (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Chu, Cheong-Wei
• Granted Patent: US 7,555,495 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A computer readable medium stores computer executable instructions to receive a collection of composite objects. An aggregate dataset that includes a portion of the contents of object instances in the collection of objects is created. The aggregate dataset is passed to a report server. A report that includes data from the aggregate dataset is accepted.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

receive a collection of composite objects;

create an aggregate dataset that includes a portion of the contents of object instances in the collection of objects;

pass the aggregate dataset to a report server; and

accept a report that includes data from the aggregate dataset.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the portion of the contents includes a simple data type.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to generate the portion of the contents of object instances in the collection of composite objects by reflection.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 further comprising executable instructions to:

perform a reflection operation on a representative object instance in the collection of composite objects;

construct a template for the aggregate dataset, wherein the aggregate dataset stores the contents of each simple data type found in the representative object in the collection of composite objects;

duplicate the template for object instances in the collection of composite objects; and

populate each duplicate template with the value of each simple data type found in object instances in the collection of composite objects.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to serialize the aggregate dataset.

6. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

receive a dataset, wherein the dataset comprises an aggregation of data types from a plurality of objects;

receive a report schema;

query the dataset to retrieve data;

process the data into a report in accordance with the report schema; and

format the data in the report in accordance with the report schema.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6 further comprising executable instructions to return the report.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein the executable instructions to receive the dataset include executable instructions to push the dataset to a report server.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 6 further comprising executable instructions to query a datasource to retrieve additional data.

10. A computer implemented method, comprising:

creating an aggregate dataset from a collection of composite objects, wherein the aggregate dataset includes a portion of the contents of object instances in the collection of objects;

pushing the aggregate dataset and a report identifier to a report server;

retrieving a report schema corresponding to the report identifier;

querying the aggregate dataset to retrieve data; and

processing the data into a report in accordance with the report schema.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising formatting the data in the report per the report schema.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating a digital signal embodied in a carrier wave that includes the aggregate dataset.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising serializing the aggregate dataset.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating a digital signal embodied in a carrier wave that includes a report with the aggregate dataset as the source data for the report.

15. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

include a first function to an application interface, wherein the first function receives a collection of objects and creates an aggregate dataset that includes a portion of the contents of object instances in the collection of objects; and

provide a second function that pushes the aggregate dataset to a report server and receives from the report server a report with data from the aggregate data set.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising executable instructions to provide a third function to the application interface, wherein the third function serializes the aggregate dataset.