Batch Management of Metadata in a Business Intelligence Architecture

• US 20080195651A1
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avt Technology Solutions LLC. (TD SYNNEX Corp.)
• Original Assignee: BSP Software LLC (Avnet Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rachmiel, Andrew G., Danielewski, Dariusz, Morgan, Neil P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,863 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A metadata management system is described for a business intelligence architecture having a metadata repository for content that defines a user environment of the business intelligence architecture. The metadata management system includes a user interface generator to display information regarding a plurality of objects in the metadata repository and to facilitate selection of a group of the plurality of objects, a content editor to evaluate the content stored in the metadata repository for each object of the selected group and to modify in a batch job the content for each object of the selected group for storage of the modified content in the metadata repository, and a communication manager to issue instructions for the storage of the modified content in the metadata repository, the instructions being configured in accordance with a communication protocol of the business intelligence architecture utilized to control the metadata repository.

Claims

1. A metadata management system for a business intelligence architecture having a metadata repository for content that defines a user environment of the business intelligence architecture, the metadata management system comprising:

a user interface generator to display information regarding a plurality of objects in the metadata repository and to facilitate selection of a group of the plurality of objects;

a content editor to evaluate the content stored in the metadata repository for each object of the selected group and to modify in a batch job the content for each object of the selected group for storage of the modified content in the metadata repository; and

a communication manager to issue instructions for the storage of the modified content in the metadata repository, the instructions being configured in accordance with a communication protocol of the business intelligence architecture utilized to control the metadata repository.

2. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the content editor is configured to modify the content for each object in the selected group to reflect a change to a metadata name referenced in the object.

3. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator is configured to facilitate the selection of all reports of the user environment of the business intelligence architecture such that the content editor is configured to modify the content of each report of the user environment impacted by the change to the metadata name.

4. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator is configured to identify a metadata expression to be found in the content for each object of the selected group, and wherein the content editor is configured to replace each found instance of the metadata expression with an updated metadata expression.

5. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator is configured to identify respective metadata expressions within each object of the selected group, and wherein the content editor is configured to associate the respective metadata expressions with each object of the selected group, each respective metadata expression being configured to generate a message to be displayed in association with the corresponding object during rendering of the corresponding object within the user environment of the business intelligence architecture.

6. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator is configured to identify respective security metadata for each object of the selected group, and wherein the content editor is configured to associate the respective security metadata with the corresponding object of the selected group.

7. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator is configured to identify a further object in the metadata repository to be associated with each object of the selected group in the batch job.

8. The metadata management system of claim 7, wherein the selected group corresponds with a user role, a user class, or a user name of the user environment of the business intelligence architecture, and wherein the metadata object specifies metadata for user displays of the user environment associated with the user role, the user class, or the user name of the selected group, after implementation of the batch job.

9. The metadata management system of claim 7, wherein the selected group corresponds with a number of report specifications of the user environment of the business intelligence architecture, and wherein the metadata object specifies metadata for a report specification element to be incorporated into the report specifications upon implementation of the batch job.

10. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the content editor is configured to evaluate syntax of the content for each object of the selected group and to update a validation flag of each object when the syntax is valid.

11. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the content stored in the metadata repository for each object of the selected group is set forth in an extensible markup language such that the content editor is configured to modify metadata set forth in the extensible markup language to modify the content.

12. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the communication manager is further configured to issue further instructions in accordance with the communication protocol to extract from the metadata repository the content stored in connection with each object in preparation for evaluation by the content editor.

13. The metadata management system of claim 12, wherein the content editor is configured to store a backup copy of the extracted content outside of the metadata repository before modification in the batch job.

14. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the communication manager is configured to package the instructions in one or more simple object access protocol (SOAP) envelopes.

15. The metadata management system of claim 1, wherein the communication manager is configured to issue the instructions via a communication path of the business intelligence architecture utilized to control the metadata repository, and wherein the communication path includes conversion of the modified content into binary large objects (BLOBS) to be stored in the metadata repository.

16. A computer-readable medium adapted to store computer-executable instructions for supporting a business intelligence architecture having a metadata repository for content that defines a user environment of the business intelligence architecture, wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise computer code to:

display information regarding a plurality of objects in the metadata repository;

facilitate selection of a group of the plurality of objects;

evaluate the content stored in the metadata repository for each object of the selected group;

modify in a batch job the content for each object of the selected group for storage of the modified content in the metadata repository; and

issue instructions for the storage of the modified content, the instructions being configured in accordance with a communication protocol of the business intelligence architecture utilized to control the metadata repository.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to modify the content comprises code to modify the content of each object in the selected group to reflect a change in a metadata name referenced in the object.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to facilitate the selection of the group comprises code to include all report specifications of the user environment of the business intelligence architecture in the selected group.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to facilitate the selection of the group comprises code to identify a metadata expression to be found in the content for each object of the selected group, and wherein the computer code to modify the content comprises code to replace each found instance of the metadata expression with an updated metadata expression.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to facilitate the selection of the group comprises code to identify respective metadata expressions for each object of the selected group, and wherein the computer code to modify the content comprises code to associate the respective metadata expressions with each object of the selected group, each respective metadata expression being configured to generate a message to be displayed in association with the corresponding object during rendering of the corresponding object within the user environment of the business intelligence architecture.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to facilitate the selection of the group comprises code to identify respective security metadata for each object of the selected group, and wherein the computer code to modify the content comprises code to associate the respective security metadata with the corresponding object of the selected group.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise code to identify a metadata object in the metadata repository to be distributed to each object of the selected group in the batch job.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer code to evaluate the code comprises code to evaluate syntax of the content for each object of the selected group, and wherein the computer code to modify the content comprises code to update a validation flag of each object when the syntax is valid.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise further computer code to extract from the metadata repository the content stored in connection with each object in preparation for evaluation of the content.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise further computer code to store a backup copy of the extracted content outside of the metadata repository before modification in the batch job.