CREATING DATA IN A DATA STORE USING A DYNAMIC ONTOLOGY

• US 20110213791A1
• Filed: 05/12/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akash Jain, Nathan Gettings, Robert J. Mcgrew
• Original Assignee: Akash Jain, Nathan Gettings, Robert J. Mcgrew
• Inventors: Jain, Akash, Gettings, Nathan, McGrew, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,489,623 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/755
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/213 with details for schema evolution support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2219 Large Object storage; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/226 Validation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises creating and storing an ontology for a data store in response to receiving first user input defining the ontology, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of data object types and a plurality of object property types; creating one or more parser definitions in response to receiving second user input defining the parser definitions, wherein each of the parser definitions specifies one or more sub-definitions of how to transform first input data into modified input data that is compatible with one of the object property types; and storing each of the one or more parser definitions in association with one of the plurality of object property types.

Claims

1. A machine-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions comprising instructions for generating a graphical user interface, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause:

generating an expression pattern field, of the graphical user interface, that is configured to accept user input specifying a transformation expression pattern that specifies how to transform first input data into modified input data;

generating parser sub-definition fields, of the graphical user interface, that are configured to accept user input specifying one or more parser sub-definitions, wherein for each parser sub-definition the parser sub-definition fields include;

a first field configured to accept user input specifying a portion of the transformation expression pattern;

a second field configured to accept user input specifying one of a plurality of object property types of an ontology of a data store;

wherein each object property type, of the plurality of object property types, includes a data type of data that is associated with said each object property type;

wherein each parser sub-definition, of the one or more parser sub-definitions, specifies how to transform a portion of the first input data into a portion of the modified input data that is to be stored in a component of one of the object property types.

2. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause generating the parser sub-definition fields of the graphical user interface further comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause generating for each parser sub-definition an attribute field that is configured to receive user input specifying an attribute of that parser sub-definition.

3. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause generating the parser sub-definition fields of the graphical user interface further comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause generating for each parser sub-definition a constraint field that is configured to receive user input specifying a constraint on the portion of modified input data that is to be stored in a property of the specified object property type.

4. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause generating the parser sub-definition fields of the graphical user interface further comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause generating for each parser sub-definition a default field that is configured to receive user input specifying a default value to substitute for a missing component of the modified input data.

5. A method comprising:

receiving first input data;

accessing an ontology for a data store, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of data object types and a plurality of object property types;

wherein each object property type, of the plurality of object property types, includes a data type of data that is associated with said each object property type;

determining whether the first input data matches one of parser sub-definitions that are specified in one or more parser definitions, wherein each of the parser sub-definitions specifies how to transform a portion of the first input data into a portion of modified input data that is compatible with one of the object property types of the ontology for the data store;

using a matching one of the parser sub-definitions, creating and storing the portion of the modified input data in a property of the object property type that is associated with the matching one of the parser sub-definitions;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computer systems.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more parser definitions comprise one or more transformation expressions, wherein each of the transformation expressions comprises one or more syntactic patterns and a property type identifier associated with each of the syntactic patterns, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the first input data matches one of the syntactic patterns;

using a matching one of the syntactic patterns, creating and storing the modified input data in a property of the object property type that is identified by the property type identifier associated with the matching one of the syntactic patterns.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein creating and storing the portion of the modified input data comprises:

using a transformation expressed in the matching one of the parser sub-definitions to transform the portion of the first input data into the portion of the modified data that is compatible with said one object property type of the ontology for the data store;

storing the portion of the modified input data in the property of the object property type that is associated with the matching one of the parser sub-definitions.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more parser definitions are associated with one or more program code modules, wherein each of the program code modules comprises computer program code which when executed causes transforming the first input data into the modified input data.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more parser definitions are associated with one or more regular expressions, wherein each of the regular expressions when executed causes transforming the first input data into the modified input data.

10. A method comprising:

receiving first input data;

accessing an object-property mapping associated with an ontology for a data store, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of data object types and a plurality of object property types;

wherein each object property type, of the plurality of object property types, includes a data type of data that is associated with said each object property type;

based on the object-property mapping, identifying a data object type, of the plurality of data object types, that is associated with input data rows in the first input data;

transforming the input data rows into data object instances of the identified data object type by using one or more parser definitions, wherein each of the one or more parser definitions specifies one or more sub-definitions of how to transform data values from the input data rows into modified data values that are each compatible with one of the plurality of the object property types of the ontology for the data store;

storing the data object instances in the data store;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computer systems.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transforming the input data rows into the data object instances further comprises creating a particular data object instance for a particular data row of the input data rows by performing steps comprising:

reading one or more data values from the particular data row;

for each particular data value of the one or more data values, performing;

determining a matching one of the one or more parser definitions for the particular data value;

creating a property instance of an object property type that is associated with a matching one of the one or more sub-definitions specified in the matching one of the one or more parser definitions; and

storing the particular data value in a property of the property instance that is associated with the matching one of the one or more sub-definitions;

instantiating the particular data object instance of the identified data object type for the particular data row;

associating the particular data object instance with the property instances created for the one or more data values from the particular data row.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the matching one of the one or more parser definitions for the particular data value comprises:

iterating through the one or more parser definitions in one or more iterations;

at each of the one or more iterations, applying a corresponding one of the one or more parser definitions to the particular data value to determine whether there is a match;

selecting, as the matching one of the one or more parser definitions, that one parser definition which results in the match to the particular data value.

13. A machine-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause:

receiving first input data;

accessing an ontology for a data store, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of data object types and a plurality of object property types;

wherein each object property type, of the plurality of object property types, includes a data type of data that is associated with said each object property type;

determining whether the first input data matches one of parser sub-definitions that are specified in one or more parser definitions, wherein each of the parser sub-definitions specifies how to transform a portion of the first input data into a portion of modified input data that is compatible with one of the object property types of the ontology for the data store;

using a matching one of the parser sub-definitions, creating and storing the portion of the modified input data in a property of the object property type that is associated with the matching one of the parser sub-definitions.

14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more parser definitions comprise one or more transformation expressions, wherein each of the transformation expressions comprises one or more syntactic patterns and a property type identifier associated with each of the syntactic patterns, and wherein the one or more sequences of instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:

determining whether the first input data matches one of the syntactic patterns;

using a matching one of the syntactic patterns, creating and storing the modified input data in a property of the object property type that is identified by the property type identifier associated with the matching one of the syntactic patterns.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions that cause creating and storing the portion of the modified input data comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:

using a transformation expressed in the matching one of the parser sub-definitions to transform the portion of the first input data into the portion of the modified data that is compatible with said one object property type of the ontology for the data store;

storing the portion of the modified input data in the property of the object property type that is associated with the matching one of the parser sub-definitions.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more parser definitions are associated with one or more program code modules, wherein each of the program code modules comprises computer program code which when executed causes transforming the first input data into the modified input data.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more parser definitions are associated with one or more regular expressions, wherein each of the regular expressions when executed causes transforming the first input data into the modified input data.

18. A machine-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause:

receiving first input data;

accessing an object-property mapping associated with an ontology for a data store, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of data object types and a plurality of object property types;

wherein each object property type, of the plurality of object property types, includes a data type of data that is associated with said each object property type;

based on the object-property mapping, identifying a data object type, of the plurality of data object types, that is associated with input data rows in the first input data;

transforming the input data rows into data object instances of the identified data object type by using one or more parser definitions, wherein each of the one or more parser definitions specifies one or more sub-definitions of how to transform data values from the input data rows into modified data values that are each compatible with one of the plurality of object property types of the ontology for the data store;

storing the data object instances in the data store.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions that cause transforming the input data rows into the data object instances further comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause creating a particular data object instance for a particular data row of the input data rows by performing:

reading one or more data values from the particular data row;

for each particular data value of the one or more data values, performing;

determining a matching one of the one or more parser definitions for the particular data value;

creating a property instance of an object property type that is associated with a matching one of the one or more sub-definitions specified in the matching one of the one or more parser definitions; and

storing the particular data value in a property of the property instance that is associated with the matching one of the one or more sub-definitions;

instantiating the particular data object instance of the identified data object type for the particular data row;

associating the particular data object instance with the property instances created for the one or more data values from the particular data row.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions that cause determining the matching one of the one or more parser definitions for the particular data value comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:

iterating through the one or more parser definitions in one or more iterations;

at each of the one or more iterations, applying a corresponding one of the one or more parser definitions to the particular data value to determine whether there is a match;

selecting, as the matching one of the one or more parser definitions, that one parser definition which results in the match to the particular data value.