EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF AN ANNOTATION TO AN ENTITY LEVEL

• US 20080126329A1
• Filed: 02/04/2008
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cale T. Rath, Richard D. Dettinger, Richard J. Stevens
• Original Assignee: Cale T. Rath, Richard D. Dettinger, Richard J. Stevens
• Inventors: DETTINGER, RICHARD D., Rath, Cale T., Stevens, Richard J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata

Abstract

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for creating and sharing an annotation associated with a data object other than the particular data object described by the annotation are provided. The annotation may be associated with an entity, even though the annotation may describe only a particular data object encompassed by the entity. By associating the annotation with the entity, the annotation may be made available to other users viewing information related to the entity, even if the particular data object described by the annotation is not displayed in the information being viewed.

Claims

1. A system for sharing information via annotations, comprising:

a set of one or more model entity definitions, each specifying one or more fields encompassed by a corresponding model entity;

a query building interface allowing a first user to build a first query and view first query results received in response to issuing the query; and

an annotation system allowing the first user to create an annotation for a data object selected from the query results and associate the annotation with a first model entity encompassing a field related to the selected data object.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected data object is an instance value of the field related to the selected data object.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the query building interface allows the first user to select the first model entity, wherein a focus of the query is set by including one or more of the fields encompassed by the first model entity in a results list of the query.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the annotation system is configured to associate the annotation with the first model entity by storing the annotation with a reference to the first model entity.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the reference to the first model entity is a primary key associated with the selected data object.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the annotation system is accessible to the first user via the query building interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the query building interface is configured to allow a second user to view second query results, wherein at least a portion of the second query results are associated with the first model entity;

and

displaying, to the second user, an indication of the annotation created for the selected data object.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the annotation system is configured to provide an indication of the annotation created for the selected data object regardless of whether the second query results contain the selected data object.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the annotation system is further configured to, in response to input from the second user, display the annotation to the second user.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the annotation system is further configured to display, to the second user, the selected data object.