DATABASE REPORT GENERATION

• US 20080126326A1
• Filed: 11/02/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cognos Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Potter, Charles Michael, Seeds, Glen Michael, Cazemier, Henk
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,783 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A system and method of producing a business report from data contained in a computer based business intelligence system, is provided. The method includes defining one or more macro functions, and producing a report layout containing one or more macrotized database language expressions. The macrotized database language expression having at least one of the macro functions. The method includes produce one or more valid database language expressions for a database query by modifying the one or more macrotized database language expressions in dependence upon the return value of the at least one of the macro functions, and applying the one or more valid database language expressions to one or more database to produce the business report.

Claims

1. A method of producing a business report from data contained in a computer based business intelligence system, the method comprising the steps of:

defining one or more macro functions;

producing a report layout containing one or more macrotized database language expressions, the macrotized database language expression having at least one of the macro functions;

produce one or more valid database language expressions for a database query by modifying the one or more macrotized database language expressions in dependence upon the return value of the at least one of the macro functions; and

applying the one or more valid database language expressions to one or more database to produce the business report.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of defining comprises:

defining the macro function to accept from a user one or more user inputs.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

defining a parameter map having one or more keys and one or more field names, the one or more keys being associated with the one or more field names;

the at least one of the macro functions being associated with the parameter map.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the step of producing comprises:

selecting an entry from the parameter map based on the evaluation of the at least one of the macro functions.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of applying comprises:

retrieving the data from the one or more databases based on the one or more valid database language expressions.