METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF MULTIPLE DATABASES

• US 20100192057A1
• Filed: 01/19/2010
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Majidian, Andrei
• Granted Patent: US 8,959,428 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

A computer system 1 is operable to receive a plurality of XML (or other marked-up) documents associated with heterogeneous databases 20, 30 and to process these to generate a virtual integrated view presenting a seemingly merged view of the database structures. The computer system includes an input interface for receiving a plurality of marked-up documents, a document object model generation module operable to generate a tree-structured document object model of each marked-up document; an intermediate structure generation module operable to traverse each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprising a list of lists of elements and sub-elements; a syntax tree generation module for generating a syntax tree representation of the intermediate structure; and a virtual integrated view module operable to generate a view of the syntax tree representation which may be conveniently displayed to the user on a graphical display, wherein by providing the system with a plurality of marked-up documents reflecting the structures of a plurality of databases, the virtual integrated view module is operable to provide a virtual integrated view of the plurality of databases.

Claims

1. A method of generating a syntax tree representation of a plurality of marked-up documents, the method including:

in respect of each of the plurality of marked-up documents, generating a tree-structured document object model of the marked-up document;

traversing each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprising a list of lists of elements and sub-elements; and

generating a syntax tree representation of the intermediate structure.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which the step of traversing each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprises, each time a node is encountered which does not have the same name as any previously encountered node, creating a new list in the intermediate structure referencing the node in question and, each time a node is encountered which does have the same name as any previously encountered node, comparing its child and attribute lists with those of the or each previously encountered node having the same name and, if there is a match, not making a reference to the newly encountered node, but if there is a mismatch, then making a new reference to the newly encountered node within the same list as the previously encountered node of the same name.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the marked-up documents are documents marked-up according to the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standard.

4. A method of generating a virtual integrated view of a combination of databases comprising:

generating a syntax tree representation of a plurality of marked up documents which reflect the structures of the databases, according to the method of claim 1 and

generating a virtual integrated view of a combination of the databases based on the syntax tree representation.

8. A computer program or suite of computer programs for causing a computer or computers to carry out the method or method steps of claim 1 during execution.

9. A carrier medium carrying the computer program or programs of claim 8.

5. A computer system (1) for generating a syntax tree representation of a plurality of marked-up documents, the system including:

an input interface (162) for receiving a plurality of marked-up documents,

a document object model generation module (1210) operable to generate a tree-structured document object model of each marked-up document;

an intermediate structure generation module (1220) operable to traverse each document object model to generate an inter mediate structure comprising a list of lists of elements and sub-elements; and

a syntax tree generation module (1230) for generating a syntax tree representation of the intermediate structure.

6. A computer system according to claim 5 wherein the intermediate structure generation module (1220) is operable to generate an intermediate structure by traversing each document object model and, each time a node is encountered which does not have the same name as any previously encountered node, creating a new list in the intermediate structure referencing the node in question, and, each time a node is encountered which does have the same name as any previously encountered node, comparing its child and attribute lists with those of the or each previously encountered node having the same name and, if there is a match, not making a reference to the newly encountered node, but if there is a mismatch, then making a new reference to the newly encountered node within the same list as the previously encountered node of the same name.

7. A computer system according to claim 5 further comprising a virtual integrated view module (1240) operable to generate a view of the syntax tree which may be conveniently displayed to the user on a graphical display, wherein by providing the system with a plurality of marked-up documents reflecting the structures of a plurality of databases, the virtual integrated view module is operable to provide a virtual integrated view of the plurality of databases.