METADATA SERVICE EMPLOYING COMMON DATA MODEL

• US 20080183725A1
• Filed: 01/31/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Adya, Atul, Muralidhar, Subramanian, Pather, Shyamalan, Yang, Xiaosong, Blakeley, Jose A., Mandadi, Srikanth, Melnik, Sergey, Patel, Pratik, Mallalieu, Timothy I., Fung, Brahmnes Tsz Foon, Dosen, Daniel G., Bedi, Kawarjit
• Application Number:
  US11/669,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20080183725A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning

Abstract

A data processing and storage system is provided. The system includes an aggregator component that stores metadata from at least two disparate data domains. A framework component encapsulates the metadata according to an abstraction model that describes the disparate data domains.

Claims

1. A metadata processing and storage system, comprising:

an aggregator component that stores metadata from at least two disparate data domains; and

a framework component that encapsulates the metadata according to a common abstract meta-model capable of representing the metadata from the disparate data domains.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an application programming interface to interact with the aggregator component.

3. The system of claim 1, the framework component is associated with an entity data model.

5. The system of claim 1, the disparate data domains are associated with one or more item collections.

6. The system of claim 5, the item collections are self-populated from several persistent data sources.

7. The system of claim 1, the aggregator component further comprising a query component to access data from the aggregator component.

8. The system of claim 6, the item collections encapsulate loading logic, serialization logic, or validation logic.

9. The system of claim 1, the aggregator component is associated with a metadata workspace that provides a registration service to register item collections.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a conceptual model, a database model, a client mapping component, an object mapping component, or a primitive type mapping component.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query service or a type resolution service to operate with metadata.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that exposes data structures that are based at least in part as model instances and relationships between model instances.

13. The system of claim 11, type resolution service supports primitive types that serve as markers to translate a model across type systems.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a workspace component that provides cross-domain services.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to provide consumer specific extensibility or provider specific extensibility.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a metadata perspectives component to provide transparent translations from one primitive type system to another.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to project a conceptual model onto a target type system.

4. The system of claim 4, the disparate data domains are associated with an Object Models, Relational Models, Service Contracts, Process Contracts, Conceptual Models, Reporting Models, or Analytical Models.

18. A method to store and process metadata, comprising:

defining an abstract language for a plurality of metadata forms;

retrieving a plurality of item collections associated with the metadata forms; and

aggregating the item collections in accordance with the abstract language.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising providing an application programming interface to query the aggregated item collections.

20. A metadata aggregation system, comprising:

means for aggregating metadata from one or more metadata domains; and

means for representing the metadata according to a common metadata model, where the represented metadata applies as a generic form across the metadata domains.