MULTI-ENTITY NORMALIZATION

• US 20140280130A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: George, Josie, Kumar, Ajoy, Mueller, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 9,613,070 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence

Abstract

In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are provided for normalizing data representing entities and relationships linking the entities including defining one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics for the data representing the entities and relationships linking the entities, applying the one or more graph rules to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities, identifying one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities, and performing one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

Claims

1. A computer system including instructions recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:

a normalization engine configured to cause the at least one processor to normalize data representing entities and relationships linking the entities, the normalization engine including;

a rule definition module configured to define one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics for the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities;

a rule application module configured to apply the one or more graph rules to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities and identify one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities; and

a rule action module configured to perform one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include describing at least one pattern related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include describing at least one semantic property related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include specifying at least one of an inclusion dependency and an exclusion dependency related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include specifying at least one attribute constraint related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include specifying at least one data value related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics include specifying at least one token based approximation related to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more matching instances includes identifying one or more matching instances having one or more discrepancies between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the rule application module is further configured to identify one or more discrepancies between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities, and

the rule action module is further configured to perform the one or more actions to mitigate the one or more discrepancies identified between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein identifying one or more discrepancies includes at least one of flagging and logging the one or more discrepancies as exceptions for analysis.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein performing the one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances includes at least one of generating a notification for the one or more matching instances, auto-correcting the one or more matching instances, and adjusting one or more attributes related to the one or more matching instances.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein performing the one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances includes cleaning the data by performing at least one of modifying one or more relationships linking the entities, modifying one or more entities, generating one or more additional entities, generating one or more additional relationships linking the entities.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database, the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities is stored in the database.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a relational database, the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities is stored in the relational database.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

defining one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics for data representing entities and relationships linking the entities;

applying the one or more graph rules to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities;

identifying one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities; and

performing one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying one or more matching instances includes identifying one or more discrepancies between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances includes at least one of generating a notification for the one or more matching instances, auto-correcting the one or more matching instances, and adjusting one or more attributes related to the one or more matching instances.

18. A computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to:

define one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics for data representing entities and relationships linking the entities;

apply the one or more graph rules to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities;

identify one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities; and

perform one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to:

identify one or more matching instances includes identifying one or more discrepancies between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to:

perform the one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances by at least one of generating a notification for the one or more matching instances, auto-correcting the one or more matching instances, and adjusting one or more attributes related to the one or more matching instances.