EXTENSIBLE FRAMEWORK FOR DATA IMPORT AND EXPORT

• US 20100274813A1
• Filed: 04/23/2009
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lu, Bin, Shah, Mehul Y.
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/792
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application

Abstract

A modular framework for data import/export in an application that allows modules/components to be independently developed for importing and exporting data related to specific entities, including the handling of dependencies between entities. The framework is metadata driven which allows new entities to be introduced in the application with new modules for importing/exporting data related to those entities, without updating modules for exporting existing entities. Each type of entity is defined with a schema that represents the logical entity such that the entity is agnostic as to how the entity data is stored in database tables. A master configuration file is created for the application that lists each entity that can be imported or exported by the application, and defines how the framework imports or exports the business entity. Additionally, dynamic batching is provided to divide large datasets into multiple batches for suitable consumption by consumers of the exported data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented data system, comprising:

a definition component for defining exchange of data between entities of an application and data locations of a database, the exchange defined in a configuration file; and

a modular interface component for processing one or more modules that facilitate the exchange of the data between the entities and data locations based on the configuration file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the definition component and modular interface component are part of a business framework that handles business data between the database and a business application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the entities are processed according to an ordered sequence defined in the configuration file.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration file includes entity dependencies that are processed according to an ordered sequence.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the entities is associated with a corresponding entity schema that defines entity dependencies and an import/export operation.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more modules includes at least one of import logic or export logic for data of a specific entity.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration file is extensible for defining new entities and new schemas for data import/export between the application and the database.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a batch component for dividing exported data into batches suitable for consumption by consumers of the exported data.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface for interacting with the definition component to edit the configuration file and entities, and interacting with the modular interface component to insert a new module or remove an existing module for import and export of the data.

10. A computer-implemented data system, comprising:

an extensible definition component for defining exchange of business data between entities of a business application and a data locations of a business database, the exchange defined in a configuration file by entity definitions and entity schemas; and

a modular interface component for processing one or more modules that facilitate the exchange of the business data between the entities and data locations based on the configuration file, the one or more modules include at least one of import or export logic for a specific data entity.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the entities are processed according to an ordered sequence and entity dependencies both defined in the configuration file.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a batch component for dividing the configuration file into subfiles suitable for consumption by consumers during export of the data.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the extensible definition component receives new entity information for definition in the configuration file and the modular interface component receives one or more new modules for processing import or export of data of new entities according to the new entity information.

14. A computer-implemented method of data processing, comprising:

accessing a master configuration file of entity information for processing data between entities of an application and data locations of a database;

identifying data entities from the master configuration file based on the entity information;

loading entity-specific modules based on the identified data entities; and

invoking at least one of an import function or an export function for a corresponding module for each of the entities to process the corresponding data between the application and the database based on the identified entities.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising defining entity execution sequence and entity dependencies in the configuration file.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising processing entity dependencies based on the entity information of the configuration file.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising processing the entities according to an entity order defined by the entity information of the configuration file.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising dynamically dividing the exported data into batches suitable for consumption by consumers of the exported data.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising associating a schema definition with each of the entities that defines a schema of the associated entity.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising validating a schema of an entity record in the configuration file against a schema definition that defines the schema in which the data of the entity is imported or exported.