Linking of Parent-Child Data Records in a Legacy software Modernization System

• US 20100057759A1
• Filed: 08/28/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT DATA Canada, Inc. (NTT DATA Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: MAKE Technologies, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: White, Michael E.F., Cotichini, Christian, Green, David John
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2272 Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

A system and method for linking parent and child data records during data migration is disclosed. One embodiment comprises sequentially receiving a plurality of data records from an arbitrary source of records without running a query on the source of records, generating a destination store of records that contains the plurality of data records, and locating any records in the destination store of records that has a dangling key. In this way, the embodiment may correct dangling keys to generate a destination store of records with referential integrity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sequentially receiving a plurality of data records from an arbitrary source of records without running a query on the source of records;

generating a destination store of records that contains the plurality of data records;

locating at least one record in the destination store of records that has a dangling key; and

correcting dangling keys to generate a destination store of records with referential integrity, wherein correcting dangling keys includes at least one of deleting the record with the dangling key or changing the dangling key in the record to create a valid foreign key.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging the records with dangling keys prior to correcting the dangling keys.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising generating a report containing the logged records.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the arbitrary source is a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the arbitrary source is a flat file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the arbitrary source is a network stream.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising migrating a parent record independent of a child record.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising simultaneously migrating a series of parent records and corresponding child records in parallel.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a destination store of records that contains the plurality of data records further comprises generating a surrogate key for each natural key in the plurality of data records.

10. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions being executable by a modernization system to:

sequentially receive a plurality of data records from an arbitrary source of records without running a query on the source of records;

generate a destination store of records that contains the plurality of data records;

locate at least one record in the destination store of records that has a dangling key; and

correct dangling keys to generate a destination store of records with referential integrity, wherein correcting dangling keys includes at least one of deleting the record with the dangling key or changing the dangling key in the record to create a valid foreign key.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable to log the records with dangling keys prior to correcting the dangling keys.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions executable to generate a report containing the logged records.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the arbitrary source is a database.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the arbitrary source is a flat file.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the arbitrary source is a network stream.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable to migrate a parent record independent of a child record.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable to simultaneously migrate a series of parent records and corresponding child records in parallel.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein generating a destination store of records that contains the plurality of data records further comprises generating a surrogate key for each natural key in the plurality of data records.