Apparatus and method for supplying report content within collaborative frameworks

• US 20070266105A1
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects SA (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Than, Hlaing, Wu, Ju, Cheng, Patrick Yee Cheuk, Haines, Jared Elliot
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

A computer readable medium includes executable instructions to monitor the exchange of messages between a first computer and a second computer in a network. Context from the messages is assembled. The context is used to form a query. The query is applied to one or more report documents.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

gathering a first plurality of messages between a first computer and a second computer;

mining the first plurality of messages for context;

executing a query based on the context; and

displaying the results of the query, wherein the results of the query include at least one report.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a report from the results of the query; and

gathering a second plurality of messages between the first computer and the second computer that reference the report.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising, creating a log of the first plurality of messages.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 wherein, mining the first plurality of messages for context occurs before the log of the first plurality of messages is created.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 3 further comprising mining the log of the first plurality of messages for context of a collaborative working environment.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein natural language processing is used in mining the first plurality of messages for context of a collaborative working environment.

7. A computer readable medium including executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

facilitate an instant messaging conversation between a first computer and a second computer on a network;

process text from the instant messaging conversation;

extract context of the instant messaging conversation;

use the context to form a query; and

apply the query to a plurality of report documents.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 further comprising executable instructions to:

identify a selected report document from the plurality of report documents; and

extract context from an interaction with the selected report document.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the interaction includes at least one of:

drilling down in the selected report document, rolling up in the selected report document, clicking through to a sub-report document, backing out of the selected report document, filtering the selected report document, providing a parameter to the selected report document, refreshing the selected report document, paging up in the selected report document, paging down in the selected report document, opening the selected report document, and closing the selected report document.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 7 further comprising executable instructions to associate a term from a section of text with a view of a report document wherein the view is obtained by providing a parameter to the report document.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 7 wherein the executable instructions to use the context to form a query include executable instructions to:

count the occurrence of nouns and noun phrases in a section of text; and

use the occurrences of nouns and noun phrases in the section of text to form the query.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 7 further comprising executable instructions to permit a first user at the first computer and a second user at the second computer to alter the query.

13. A computer readable medium including executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

monitor the exchange of messages between a first computer and a second computer in a network;

assemble context from the messages;

use the context to form a query; and

apply the query to one or more report documents.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising executable instructions to permit a first user at the first computer and a second user at the second computer to alter the query.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising executable instructions to:

generate query results; and

display the query results at the first computer and at the second computer.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising executable instructions to:

assemble context from a set of interactions that a first user at the first computer and a second user at the second computer has with a selected report document.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first computer and the second computer are operative in one of an instant messaging framework, an internet forum, and an email exchange.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the query is selected from an ad hoc query, a structured data source query, and a series of concatenated search terms.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising executable instructions to refresh the contents of a window displayed on an output device of the first computer and the second computer, wherein the contents of the window is refreshed with a change of context.