COUPLING ANALYTICS AND TRANSACTION TASKS

• US 20120198369A1
• Filed: 01/31/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Sorin, Alexander, Sawant, Sandesh, Shiroor, Kedar, Makanawala, Prerna
• Application Number:
  US13/018,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20120198369A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A set of data objects is identified satisfying a search query associated with an application adapted to perform a set of transactions on the data objects. A plurality of common attributes are identified, each shared by at least two objects in the set of data objects. A graphical analytics viewer is dynamically selected from a plurality of viewers each adapted to present a representation of data objects according to a corresponding analytics scheme. The selected viewer is selected for presentation in a graphical user interface based on identifying that the viewer has an analytics scheme related to one of the common attributes. Presentation of the selected viewer includes a selectable graphical representation of each data object in the set of data objects. At least one of the graphical representations is selected and a transaction from the set of transactions initiated on the data object corresponding to the selected graphical representation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying, in at least one machine-readable storage device, a set of data objects in a corpus of data objects, wherein a particular software application is adapted to perform a set of transactions on data objects in the corpus of data objects;

identifying a plurality of common attributes, each common attribute shared by at least two data objects in the set of data objects;

sending data configured to present an interactive menu of a set of attributes in the identified plurality of common attributes in a first portion of a graphical user interface of a computing device;

dynamically selecting, from a plurality of graphical analytics viewers maintained in at least one machine-readable storage device, at least one particular graphical analytics viewer for presentation in a second portion of the graphical user interface of the computing device, each graphical analytics viewer in the plurality of graphical analytics viewers adapted to present a representation of data objects according to a particular analytics scheme of the graphical analytics viewer, wherein the particular at least one graphical analytics viewer is identified as having an analytics scheme related to at least one attribute included in the set of attributes;

providing, using at least one computing device, a presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer including a graphical representation of each data object in the set of data objects according to the analytics scheme of the particular graphical analytics viewer, wherein each representation of a data object is selectable by a user through the graphical user interface;

receiving data identifying a user selection of a particular representation of a particular data object included in the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer;

receiving data identifying a user request to initiate at least one particular transaction in the set of transactions on the selected particular data object; and

initiating the at least one particular transaction on the particular data object by the particular software application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the at least one transaction in the set of transactions as capable of being performed on the particular data object by the particular software application;

sending an identification of the identified at least one particular transaction for display on the graphical user interface of the computing device; and

wherein the user request to initiate the at least one transaction corresponds to a user selection of the at least one particular transaction displayed on the graphical user interface.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identification of the at least one particular transaction is displayed on the graphical user interface in connection with the presentation of the particular graphical analytics viewer and in response to the user selection of the particular representation of the particular data object.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a user selection of at least one particular attribute included in the interactive menu of the set of attributes; and

filtering the set of data objects to produce a filtered set of data objects based on the user selection of the at least one particular attribute.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising dynamically updating the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer based on the filtering of the set of data objects.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein updating the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer includes selecting a second graphical analytics viewer from the plurality of graphical analytics viewers for presentation using the graphical user interface, wherein selecting the second graphical analytics viewer includes dynamically identifying that an analytics scheme of the second graphical analytics viewer corresponds to the selected at least one particular attribute, wherein the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer is updated to include presentation of the selected second graphical analytics viewer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein presentation of the selected second graphical analytics viewer includes:

predicting that the selected second graphical analytics viewer is more relevant to the selected at least one attribute than a previously-presented graphical analytics viewer in the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer; and

replacing presentation of the previously-presented graphical analytics viewer with presentation of the selected second graphical analytics viewer.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising identifying a plurality of sub-attributes of the selected at least one particular attribute, wherein the interactive menu is supplemented with at least a portion of the plurality of sub-attributes.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving data identifying a user selection of at least one particular sub-attribute in the plurality of sub-attributes through the interactive menu;

filtering the filtered set of data objects to produce a second filtered set of data objects based on the user selection of the at least one particular sub-attribute; and

dynamically updating the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer based on the filtering of the filtered set of data objects based on the user selection of the at least one particular sub-attribute.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data objects in the corpus of data objects satisfy a particular user search query entered in connection with the particular software application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular user search query is a natural language query describing a business scenario.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes is a first set of attributes, the user search query is a first user search query, and the set of data objects is a first set of data objects, the method further comprising:

identifying, in at least one machine-readable storage device, a second set of data objects in the corpus of data objects that satisfy a second user search query entered in connection with a second software application adapted to perform a second set of transactions on data objects in the corpus of data objects;

identifying a second set of attributes including attributes identified as shared by data objects in the second set of data objects;

dynamically selecting, from the plurality of graphical analytics viewers, at least one second graphical analytics viewer for presentation in the graphical user interface of the computing device, wherein the at least one second graphical analytics viewer has an analytics scheme identified as related to at least one attribute included in the second set of attributes, and presentation of the second graphical analytics viewer includes a graphical representation of each data object in the second set of data objects according to the analytics scheme of the second graphical analytics viewer;

receiving data identifying a user selection of a particular representation of a data object in the second set of data objects included in the presentation of the second graphical analytics viewer;

receiving data identifying a user request to initiate at least one particular transaction in the second set of transactions on the selected data object in the second set of data objects; and

initiating the at least one particular transaction in the second set of transactions on the selected data object in the second set of data objects by the second software application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second set of attributes includes at least one data object attribute not included in the first set of attributes.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the first user search query is substantially the same as the second user search query and the first set of data objects includes at least one data object not included in the second set of data objects.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving data identifying a user request to change presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer, the user request to change presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer including identification of a user-selected graphical analytics viewer from the plurality of graphical analytics viewers; and

providing data for use in updating the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer to include presentation of the user-selected graphical analytics viewer.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of graphical analytics viewers includes at least two of a pie chart viewer, an e-commerce viewer, a map viewer, a radar chart viewer, a bubble chart viewer, a timeline viewer, and a bar chart viewer.

17. An article comprising a non-transitory, machine-readable storage device storing instructions operable to cause at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

identifying a set of data objects in a corpus of data objects in connection with a particular software application adapted to perform a set of transactions on data objects in the corpus of data objects;

identifying a plurality of common attributes, each common attribute shared by two or more data objects in the set of data objects;

sending data configured to present an interactive menu of a set of attributes in the identified plurality of common attributes in a first portion of a graphical user interface of a computing device;

dynamically selecting, from a plurality of graphical analytics viewers, at least one particular graphical analytics viewer for presentation in a second portion of the graphical user interface of the computing device, each graphical analytics viewer in the plurality of graphical analytics viewers adapted to present a representation of data objects according to a particular analytics scheme of the graphical analytics viewer, wherein the particular at least one graphical analytics viewer is identified as having an analytics scheme related to at least one attribute included in the set of attributes;

providing for presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer including a graphical representation of each data object in the set of data objects according to the analytics scheme of the particular graphical analytics viewer, wherein each representation of a data object is selectable by a user through the graphical user interface;

receiving data identifying a user selection of a particular representation of a particular data object included in the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer;

receiving data identifying a user request to initiate at least one particular transaction in the set of transactions on the selected particular data object; and

initiating the at least one particular transaction on the particular data object by the particular software application.

18. A system comprising:

at least one data repository, each repository including at least one machine-readable storage device, the at least one repository storing;

a plurality of data objects;

a plurality of graphical analytics viewers;

at least one application server, each application server including at least one processor and at least one machine-readable storage device storing a plurality of software applications, each software application in the plurality of software applications adapted to perform a set of transactions on at least one data object in the plurality of data objects;

a search engine adapted to identifying a set of data objects in the plurality of data objects that satisfy a particular user search query entered in connection with a particular software application in the plurality of software applications; and

a transaction assistance framework implemented on at least one computer, the transaction assistance framework operable to interact with the at least one data repository and perform operations comprising;

identifying a plurality of common attributes, each common attribute shared by two or more data objects in the set of data objects;

sending data configured to present an interactive menu of a set of attributes in the identified plurality of common attributes in a first portion of a graphical user interface of a computing device;

dynamically selecting, from a plurality of graphical analytics viewers maintained in at least one machine-readable storage device, at least one particular graphical analytics viewer for presentation in a second portion of the graphical user interface of the computing device, each graphical analytics viewer in the plurality of graphical analytics viewers adapted to present a representation of data objects according to a particular analytics scheme of the graphical analytics viewer, wherein the particular at least on graphical analytics viewer is identified as having an analytics scheme related to at least one attribute included in the set of attributes;

providing, using at least one computing device, a presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer including a graphical representation of each data object in the set of data objects according to the analytics scheme of the particular graphical analytics viewer, wherein each representation of a data object is selectable by a user through the graphical user interface;

receiving data identifying a user selection of a particular representation of a particular data object included in the presentation of the at least one particular graphical analytics viewer;

receiving data identifying a user request to initiate at least one particular transaction in the set of transactions on the selected particular data object; and

initiating the at least one particular transaction on the particular data object by the particular software application.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the plurality of data objects comprise a plurality of business objects.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one application server is a server in an enterprise software system and the plurality of software applications comprise a plurality of enterprise software services.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the search engine is integrated with a transaction launching engine.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein functionality of the transaction assistance framework is integrated with at least one software application in the plurality of software applications.