Representation of multiplicities for Docflow reporting

• US 20080162550A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Fey, Harald
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,895 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/103R
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

A method and system for representing and deducing a multiplicity of predecessor relationships between a plurality of first objects and a second object in an OLAP system comprises configuring an extraction system to extract information for a plurality of sub-objects of the first and second objects and using the extracted information to deduce predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object.

Claims

1. A method for representing a multiplicity of predecessor relationships between a plurality of first objects and a second object in an OLAP (“

Online Analytics Processing”

) system comprising;

configuring an extraction system to extract first information for a plurality of third objects, the first information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the third objects and one of the first objects;

configuring the extraction system to extract second information for a plurality of fourth objects, the second information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the fourth objects and the second object;

configuring the extraction system to extract third information, the third information indicating a predecessor relation between each of a plurality of the third objects and each of a plurality of the fourth objects; and

performing an extraction process based on the configuration of the extraction system.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising deducing a plurality of predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object based upon the first information, the second information and the third information.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising deducing a plurality of predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object further comprises determining a plurality of first objects having sub-objects that have a predecessor relation with a sub-object of the second object.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein configuring an extraction system to extract first information, second information and third information further comprises providing a data source to the extraction system, the data source specifying at least one of an extraction structure and a function module for performing an extraction process.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising performing analytic functions on the first objects and second object using the deduced predecessor relationships.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the objects are associated through an object tree in an online transaction processing (“

OLTP”

) system, the object tree comprising a plurality of tables representing objects and relations.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein performing the extraction process further comprises reading a first table corresponding to the first information and the second information and a second table corresponding to the third information.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first and second objects are documents and the third object is an item, wherein the first table stores a relation between a document and an item.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the second table stores a relation between a first item and a second item.

10. A system for representing a multiplicity of predecessor relationships between a plurality of first objects and a second object in an OLAP system comprising:

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

configure an extraction system to extract first information for a plurality of third objects, the first information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the third objects and one of the first objects;

configure the extraction system to extract second information for a plurality of fourth objects, the second information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the fourth objects and the second object;

configure the extraction system to extract third information, the third information indicating a predecessor relation between each of a plurality of the third objects and at each of a plurality of the fourth objects; and

perform an extraction process based on the configuration of the extraction system.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to deduce a plurality of predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object based upon the first information, the second information and the third information.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further adapted to determine a plurality of first objects having sub-objects that have a predecessor relation with a sub-object of the second object.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to configure the extraction system based upon received data, the data source specifying at least one of an extraction structure and a function module for performing an extraction process.

14. A method for deducing a plurality of predecessor relationships between a plurality of first objects and a second object comprising:

determining a plurality of sub-object relations between each of a plurality of third objects and each of the first objects;

determining a sub-object relation between each of a plurality of fourth objects and the second object;

determining a predecessor relation between each of a plurality of the third objects and each of a plurality of the fourth objects; and

deducing a plurality of predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object based upon the sub-object relations between the third and first objects, the sub-object relation between the fourth objects and second object and the predecessor relation between the third objects and fourth objects.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein deducing a plurality of predecessor relationships between the first objects and the second object further comprises:

determining a plurality of first objects having sub-objects that have a predecessor relation with a sub-object of the second object.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

using the deduced predecessor relations between the first objects and the second objects to provide analytic reporting for DocFlow in an OLTP (“

Online Transaction Processing”

) system.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the deduced predecessor relations between the first objects and second objects are predecessor relations between a plurality of quotations and a sales order.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein using the deduced predecessor relations further comprises:

determining first items from a first invoice that are associated with second items in the sales order; and

determining third items in a second invoice that are associated with fourth items in the sales order and reporting results based upon the associations.

19. A system comprising:

a relation extractor, the relation extractor configured to;

extract first information for a plurality of first objects, the first information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the first objects and one of a second object,

extract second information for a plurality of third objects, the second information indicating a sub-object relation between each of the third objects and a fourth object,

extract third information, the third information indicating a predecessor relation between each of a plurality of the third objects and each of a plurality of the first objects, and

initiate an extraction process based on the configuration of the extraction system; and

a sequence deduction unit, the sequence deduction unit configured to;

determine a plurality of sub-object relations between each of the first objects and at least one of the second objects based upon the first information;

determine a sub-object relation between each of the third objects and the fourth object based upon the second information;

determine a predecessor relation between each of a plurality of the third objects and each of a plurality of the first objects using the third information; and

deduce a plurality of predecessor relationships between the second objects and the fourth object based upon the first, second and third information.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the sequence deduction unit is further configured determine a plurality of second objects having sub-objects that have a predecessor relation with a sub-object of the fourth object