DATA INTEGRATION APPARATUS, DATA INTEGRATION METHOD, AND COMPUTER PRODUCT

• US 20080281849A1
• Filed: 07/16/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Mineno, Kazuo
• Granted Patent: US 8,280,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/256 in federated or virtual databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

When collecting and integrating data present in separately managed information sources, data are collected from the information sources through a physical model of the information sources. Integration is executed by a process of converting a data configuration (mapping) into a logical model predefined for each utilization-side application and a process of converting and conforming values (cleansing); and the result thereof is provided as a view (logical model) for each application to the utilization-side application.

Claims

1. A data integration apparatus collecting and integrating data in a plurality of information sources managed in different systems, comprising:

a data collecting unit that directly collects, from each of the information sources, the data as a physical model of each of the information sources;

a data integration engine that converts at least a data configuration or a data value such that the data collected by the data collecting unit are formed into a logical model preliminarily defined for each utilization-side application utilizing the data; and

a data providing unit that provides the data converted by the data integration engine to the utilization-side application.

2. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data collecting unit collects data in real time based on a request from the utilization-side application.

3. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a virtual integration database generating unit that generates a virtual integration database based on meta-information of the data limited to publishing among the data stored in master databases provided in the systems, wherein

the data integration engine converts based on the meta-information included in the virtual integration database.

4. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

a replicated-database generating unit that generates a replicated database including the data limited to publishing among the data stored in the master databases; and

a replicated-database updating unit that updates the replicated database according to an update of the master databases, wherein

the data collecting unit collects data from the replicated database.

5. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least a table name, a data sequence name, and a data value type are defined as meta-information indicative of the physical model or the logical model.

6. The data integration apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

for the meta-information, a type attribute is defined to indicate details of the data value type as an attribute, and

the data integration engine, when the type attribute is different upon converting the data value, executes a process of conforming the type attribute.

7. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a data sequence constraint is defined for meta-information indicative of the physical model or the logical model.

8. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the data integration engine defines an intermediate table for data conversion between the physical model and the logical model, and

the data collected as the physical model are converted through the intermediate table and a result thereof is integrated with the logical model.

9. The data integration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the data integration engine to convert the data value, executes at least any one of

a character code system conversion process of converting a difference between character code systems,

a character string conversion process of performing normalization of character strings including removal of spaces and two-byte/one-byte conversion,

a unit conversion process of converting a difference between units of characters or numbers,

a year notation conversion process of converting a difference between notation of a year according to a Western calendar system and a Japanese calendar system,

a Chinese numeral notation conversion process of converting a difference in numeric expression between a Chinese numeral/Arabic numeral/Roman numeral and a numeric value,

a significant figure number conversion process of conforming a number of significant figures of a numeric value, and

a conversion process between data types.

10. The data integration apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

meta definition includes the physical model that is a definition for an information source side, the logical model that is a definition required by a utilization side, and a mapping definition that correlates data items between the physical model and the logical model.

11. A data integration method of a system including a data integration apparatus collecting and integrating data in a plurality of information sources managed in different systems, the data integration method comprising:

collecting directly from each of the information sources, the data as a physical model of each of the information sources;

converting at least a data configuration or a data value such that the data collected at the data collecting are formed into a logical model preliminarily defined for each utilization-side application utilizing the data; and

providing the data converted at the data converting to the utilization-side application.

12. The data integration method according to claim 11, wherein

the data in each of the information sources are master data and among the master data, the data to be published from one of the systems to another one of the systems are registered in the data integration apparatus, and

the utilization-side application, among the data registered in the data integration apparatus, preliminarily defines the data to be used as the logical model, references the data registered in the data integration apparatus as the logical model when necessary by searching the logical model, and when the data are updated in another system, makes an update request to the other system managing the data as the master data.

13. A computer-readable recording medium storing therein a data integration program that is for a data integration apparatus collecting and integrating data in a plurality of information sources managed in different systems and that causes a computer to execute:

collecting directly from each of the information sources, the data as a physical model of each of the information sources;

converting at least a data configuration or a data value such that the data collected at the data collecting are formed into a logical model preliminarily defined for each utilization-side application utilizing the data; and

providing the data converted at the data converting to the utilization-side application.