MASS MODIFICATION OF ATTRIBUTE VALUES OF OBJECTS

• US 20120166495A1
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Pieruschka, Peter, Chandran, Nikhil
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/805
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems and methods for mass modification of attribute values of objects are described. The methods include systematically analyzing attributes assigned to multiple objects, displaying the results to the user, enabling mass modification functionality in the user interface, and providing the user a comprehensive variety of options on how to proceed with mass editing.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture including a tangible computer readable storage medium to physically store instructions, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a selection of a set of objects from a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects displayed in a user interface;

receive a selection of at least one attribute value from a plurality of attribute values to be edited for the set of objects;

determine statistical distribution of the attribute value on the set of objects;

identify one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values from the set of objects in response to the determined statistical distribution; and

enable a mass modification functionality for the one or more subsets of objects in the user interface upon identifying the one or more subsets of objects.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

organize the one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values in one or more groups; and

display the one or more groups in the user interface.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 2, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

receive at least one new attribute value for a group from the displayed one or more groups; and

apply the new attribute value to all objects in the group.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to activate the mass modification functionality in response to the received selection of the attribute value to be edited.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 2, wherein the mass modification functionality is enabled based on a threshold that specifies that the objects from the set of objects are more in quantity than the organized one or more groups.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 5, wherein the threshold is a customizable setting that represents a proportion of the organized one or more groups to the objects in the set of objects.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 6, wherein the organized one or more groups are less in quantity than the objects from the set of objects when values of at least one attribute from the plurality of attribute values are less in quantity than the objects from the set of objects.

8. A computerized method comprising:

receiving a selection of a set of objects from a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects displayed in a user interface;

receiving a selection of at least one attribute value from a plurality of attribute values to be edited for the set of objects;

determining statistical distribution of the attribute value on the set of objects;

identifying one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values from the set of objects in response to the determined statistical distribution; and

enabling a mass modification functionality for the one or more subsets of objects in the user interface upon identifying the one or more subsets of objects.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

organizing the one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values in one or more groups; and

displaying the one or more groups in the user interface.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving at least one new attribute value for a group from the displayed one or more groups; and

applying the new attribute value to all objects in the group.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising activating the mass modification functionality in response to the received selection of the setting to be edited.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the mass modification functionality is enabled based on a threshold that specifies that the objects from the set of objects are more in quantity than the organized one or more groups.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the threshold is a customizable setting that represents a proportion of the organized one or more groups to the objects in the set of objects.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the organized one or more groups are less in quantity than the objects from the set of objects when values of at least one attribute from the plurality of attribute values are less in quantity than the objects from the set of objects.

15. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing;

a database storage unit for storing a plurality of objects;

a modification engine including a set of user interfaces to display the plurality of objects for selection of a set of objects from the plurality of objects, the set of objects to be edited based on a selected setting from the set of user interfaces, the setting including a plurality of attribute values;

an analysis engine to determine statistical distribution on the plurality of attribute values of the set of objects according to the selected setting and to identify one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values from the set of objects in response to the determined statistical distribution; and

an analysis customizing component to store a threshold based on which a mass modification functionality is enabled for the one or more subsets of objects in the set of user interfaces upon identifying the one or more subsets of objects.

16. The computing system of claim 15, further comprising one or more groups of objects, each group including a subset of objects from the one or more subsets of objects with equal attribute values.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the one or more groups of objects are less in quantity than the objects from the plurality of objects when values of at least one attribute from the plurality of attribute values are less in quantity than the objects from the plurality of objects.

18. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the mass modification functionality is activated in the modification engine in response to the selected setting from the set of user interfaces.

19. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the one or more groups of objects are displayed in the set of user interfaces.

20. The computing system of claim 16, wherein all objects in the subset of objects are updated with a new attribute value upon editing an attribute value from the selected setting in the modification engine.