Apparatus and Method for Harmonizing Data Along Inferred Hierarchical Dimensions

• US 20140358846A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alteryx, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ClearStory Data Inc.
• Inventors: Hartlaub, Jon, Nivargi, Vaibhav, Bautin, Mikhail, van der Molen, Douglas, Rabinowitz, Nick
• Granted Patent: US 9,372,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/607
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2291 User-Defined Types; Storage management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A server includes a data processing module with executable instructions executed by a processor to produce a first inferred data type from first received data and a second inferred data type from second received data. The first inferred data type is utilized to augment the first received data with computed values that aggregate the first received data along a first hierarchical dimension. The second inferred data type is utilized to augment the second received data with computed values that aggregate the second received data along a second hierarchical dimension. The first hierarchical dimension and the second hierarchical dimension are harmonized to a lowest common unit value. A first visualization of the first received data is provided based upon the lowest common unit value. A second visualization of the second received data is provided based upon the lowest common unit value.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a data processing module with executable instructions executed by a processor to;

produce a first inferred data type from first received data and a second inferred data type from second received data;

utilize the first inferred data type to augment the first received data with computed values that aggregate the first received data along a first hierarchical dimension;

utilize the second inferred data type to augment the second received data with computed values that aggregate the second received data along a second hierarchical dimension;

harmonize the first hierarchical dimension and the second hierarchical dimension to a lowest common unit value;

provide a first visualization of the first received data based upon the lowest common unit value; and

provide a second visualization of the second received data based upon the lowest common unit value.

2. The server of claim 1 wherein the first visualization is selected based upon the first inferred data type.

3. The server of claim 1 further comprising instructions executed by a processor to:

supply data join relevance indicia for the received data.

4. The server of claim 3 wherein the data join relevance indicia include numeric indicia.

5. The server of claim 3 wherein the data join relevance indicia include graphical indicia.

6. The server of claim 3 wherein the data join relevance indicia include category indicia.

7. The server of claim 3 wherein the data join relevance indicia include characterizations of components of the received data.

8. The server of claim 7 wherein the characterizations of the received data include a chronological data type component.

9. The server of claim 7 wherein the characterizations of the received data include a geographical data type component.

10. The server of claim 7 wherein the characterizations of the received data include a category data type component.

11. The server of claim 7 wherein each component has separate confidence indicia.

12. The server of claim 3 further comprising instructions executed by the processor to receive user input regarding the join relevance indicia.

13. The server of claim 12 further comprising instructions executed by the processor to utilize the user input to refine data join relevance indicia.

14. The server of claim 1, further comprising:

a data processing module with instructions executed by a processor to;

maintain a collection of data units, wherein each data unit includes data, data version indicia, and data access permissions, wherein the collection of data units includes data from multiple data sources, wherein data from each data source is pre-processed to form a hierarchical dimension of data; and

analyze an individual data unit to spawn an additional data unit added to the collection of data units, wherein the additional data unit includes updated data version indicia.

15. The server of claim 14 wherein the data processing module includes instructions executed by the processor to maintain a collection of discussion threads, wherein each discussion thread is associated with a data unit and each discussion thread uniquely identifies different users and comments made by the different users.

16. The server of claim 15 wherein the data processing module includes instructions executed by the processor to maintain a bookmark field for each data unit, wherein a set bookmark field results in the persistence and maintenance of a view of a data unit and its corresponding discussion thread.

17. The server of claim 14 wherein the data processing module includes instructions executed by the processor to maintain the collection of data units in primary memory.

18. The server of claim 14 wherein the data processing module includes instructions executed by the processor to analyze an individual data unit to spawn an additional data unit with filtered data.