APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONSTRUCTING AND USING A SEMANTIC ABSTRACTION FOR QUERYING HIERARCHICAL DATA

• US 20080243767A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects SA (SAP SE)
• Inventors: NAIBO, Alexis-Jean Laurent, HASSENFORDER, Marcel
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/86 Mapping to a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive hierarchical data. A schema for the hierarchical data is also received. An entity relationship model for the hierarchical data is generated. A semantic abstraction associated with the entity relationship model is defined. An abstract term representing an underlying data element within the hierarchical data represented by the semantic abstraction is also defined.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

receive hierarchical data;

receive a schema for the hierarchical data;

generate an entity relationship model for the hierarchical data;

define a semantic abstraction associated with the entity relationship model; and

define an abstract term representing an underlying data element within the hierarchical data represented by the semantic abstraction.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to associate the entity relationship model with a set of specific data elements within the hierarchical data by storing a path reference to the data elements within the set of specific data elements.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the path reference is stored as an Xpath reference.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 further comprising executable instructions to associate the path reference with the abstract term within the semantic abstraction.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the abstract term representing an underlying data element aggregates multiple underlying data elements within the hierarchical data.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein the abstract term is a calculated value that is calculated based on applying logical calculations to one or more underlying data elements within the hierarchical data.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical data is selected from eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Standard General Markup Language (SGML) extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and web service data.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the schema for the hierarchical data is received as a separate file.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions specifying the schema for the hierarchical data.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the entity relationship model stores connection information for accessing a hierarchical data source associated with the hierarchical data.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the connection information is selected from a connection string, a user ID, a user password, and a parameter value used to select the correct information.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate the entity relationship model comprises executable instructions to define join relationships to represent parent child relationships.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate the entity relationship model further comprise executable instructions to define join relationships to represent reference keys in the hierarchical data schema.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate the entity relationship model further comprise executable instructions to optimize the entity relationship model to simplify the logical table structure by merging tables.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate the entity relationship model comprise executable instructions to parse the schema for one or more relationships selected from parent child, inheritance, recurrence, and substitution.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to define an abstract term representing an underlying data element within the hierarchical data represented by the semantic abstraction further comprise a graphical user interface to facilitate defining the abstract term.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising a graphical user interface for creating a report query based on the defined abstract term.

18. A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

receive a query specification;

receive a semantic abstraction associated with the query specification;

compute an execution plan including;

data source entities to be retrieved;

relationships between the data source entities;

grouped data source entities based on compatibility of data source entities;

process operation instructions;

execute the execution plan by;

retrieving a data flow from a data source driver and

assembling the data flows into a result set; and

provide the result set.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the semantic abstraction further comprises an entity relationship model definition.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the entity relationship model definition stores connection information for accessing a hierarchical data source associated with the hierarchical data.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein the connection information is selected from a connection string, a user ID, a user password, and a parameter value used to select the correct information.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the executable instructions to define the process operation instructions further comprise executable instructions to define one of a synchronization, joins filtering, or aggregation logic.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the executable instructions to receive a semantic abstraction associated with the query further comprises executable instructions to parse the query to determine which semantic abstraction to retrieve and to retrieve the semantic abstraction.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the executable instructions to receive an entity relationship model associated with the query further comprise executable instructions to parse the query to determine which entity relationship model to retrieve and to retrieve the entity relationship model.

23. The computer readable storage medium of 18 wherein the executable instructions to provide the result set further comprise executable instructions to return the results in a report format.

24. The computer readable storage medium of 18 wherein the executable instructions to compute an execution plan further comprise executable instructions to determine which operations can be pushed to a data source driver.

25. The computer readable storage medium of 18 wherein the executable instructions to compute an execution plan further comprise executable instructions to determine which operations will be processed after data is retrieved.

26. The computer readable storage medium of 18 wherein the executable instructions to compute an execution plan further comprise executable instructions to optimize the execution plan based on the capacities of data drivers and query engines.

27. The computer readable storage medium of 18 wherein the executable instruction to identify data source entities further comprise executable instructions to identify the location of the entity within the entity relationship model definition.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27 further comprising executable instructions to use a path location to identify the location of the entity within the entity relationship model definition.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the executable instructions to group data source entities into sets include executable instructions to group entities into groups based on the path location of the entity within the entity relationship model definition.