APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY DEFINING INDUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OBJECTS IN A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20100281068A1
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, Albert C., Hussey, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for defining inductive relationships between content objects in a content management system. The system includes a content engine server that stores at least two content objects having a set of attributes. An attribute selection module selects an attribute of the content objects for identification of an inductive relationship. A comparison module compares the attribute value of the attribute selected of a first content object with the attribute value of a second content object. An inductive relationship module dynamically defines an explicit relationship between the first content object and the second content object in response to the first attribute value and the second attribute value satisfying a match criteria. The explicit relationship is preserved in an inductive relationship database. User-defined content management rules may then be applied to the inductively related content objects such as records management, retention, or launching business processes.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code executable to perform operations for defining inductive relationships between content objects in a content management system, the operations of the computer program product comprising:

storing at least two content objects on a content engine server comprising a processor and a memory, each content object stored in a repository, each repository configured to store content in one or more of a database, a file system and a WORM device, each content object comprising a set of attributes, the set of attributes comprising one or more of an attribute value, a content object type, a taxonomy location, a content object format, a location in a business process, and a content object lifecycle state;

selecting an attribute of the at least two content objects for identification of an inductive relationship;

comparing a first attribute value of an attribute of a first content object to a second attribute value of a corresponding attribute of a second content object;

dynamically defining an explicit relationship between the first content object and the second content object in response to the first attribute value and the second attribute value satisfying a match criteria, the explicit relationship defined exclusively by the computer program product based on the inductive relationship, the explicit relationship configured for use in user-defined content management operation rules for the at least two content objects;

preserving the dynamically defined explicit relationship in an inductive relationship database of the content engine server; and

making the inductive relationship database available for applying the user-defined content management operation rule to a set of content objects defined by the dynamically defined explicit relationship.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the match criteria comprises an exact match of the first attribute value and the second attribute value.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the match criteria comprises a predefined range of values for the first attribute value and a predefined range of values for the second attribute value.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations of the computer program product further comprises applying the user-defined content management operation rule to the content objects defined within the dynamically defined inductive relationship.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the user-defined content management operation rule is one or more of applying records management controls, applying legal holds, launching a business process, setting attributes, and modifying a folder location on related objects.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the user-defined content management operation rules are applied to one or more of a user-defined relationship and the dynamically defined explicit relationship defined by the computer program product.

7. An apparatus for defining inductive relationships between objects in a content management system, the apparatus comprising:

a content engine server comprising a processor and a memory that stores at least two content objects, each content object stored in a repository, each repository configured to store content in one or more storage systems, the one or more storage systems comprising one or more of a database, a file system and a WORM device, each content object comprising a set of attributes, the set of attributes comprising one or more of an attribute value, a content object type, a taxonomy location, a content object format, a location in a business process, and a content object lifecycle state;

an attribute selection module that selects an attribute of the at least two content objects for identification of an inductive relationship;

a comparison module that compares a first attribute value of an attribute of a first content object to a second attribute value of a corresponding attribute of a second content object;

an inductive relationship module that dynamically defines an explicit relationship between the first content object and the second content object in response to the first attribute value and the second attribute value satisfying a match criteria, the explicit relationship defined exclusively by a computer program product based on the inductive relationship, the explicit relationship configured for use in user-defined content management operation rules for the at least two content objects, the user-defined content management operation rules applied to one or more of a user-defined relationship and the dynamically defined explicit relationship defined by the computer program product;

an inductive relationship database that preserves the dynamically defined explicit relationship on the content engine server; and

a user interface that makes the inductive relationship database available for applying the user-defined content management operation rule to a set of content objects defined by the dynamically defined explicit relationship.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the match criteria comprises an exact match of the first attribute value and the second attribute value.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the match criteria comprises a predefined range of values for the first attribute value and a predefined range of values for the second attribute value.