Detection of independent changes via change identifiers in a versioned database management system
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for evaluating consistency of variants of a part that are candidates for promotion in hierarchical versioned data management system to determine candidacy status of the variants comprising the steps of:
- for each variant of a part, providing a last-- change identifier field for identifying a most recent change to the variant;
when a variant of a part is created, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part;
when a variant of a part is update, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part;
for each variant of a part, providing a drawdown-- from identifier field for storing the last-- change identifier value of the variant from which it was drawn down;
when a variant of a part is drawn down, setting its drawdown-- from identifier field to the value of the last-- change identifier field of the variant from which it was drawn down;
receiving a request to promote a candidate variant of a part, said candidate variant having a hierarchically superior parent variant;
responsive to the request to promote, comparing the drawdown-- from identifier value for the candidate variant to the last-- change identifier value for the parent variant;
responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, maintaining the candidacy of the candidate variant;
responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value not equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, rejecting the request to promote; and
when a variant of a part is promoted, leaving its last-- change identifier field unaltered.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A versioned-data management system is provided with a method for detecting independent changes to a part when an attempt is made to promote a variant of the part. For each variant of a part, there is maintained two identifiers and a flag. The first identifier is the identifier of the last change to that variant. The second identifier is the last-change identifier of the variant which was the source of the drawdown. When the variant is successfully promoted, and there was not previously a variant at the level to which it is promoted, its drawdown-from identifier value is not changed. When the variant is successfully promoted, and there was previously a variant at the level to which it is promoted, the drawdown-from identifier is set to the drawdown-from identifier value of the variant which was previously at the level to which the promote is made. When the promote of a variant fails, the drawdown-from identifier is set to the last-change identifier value of the variant which is first in the search path beginning at the level to which the promote is being made. The flag indicates whether the variant can be promoted by normal means, or must be promoted using promote-- force. The identifiers and flag are used to identify independent changes and control data integrity in the VDMS at promotion time.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for evaluating consistency of variants of a part that are candidates for promotion in hierarchical versioned data management system to determine candidacy status of the variants comprising the steps of:
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for each variant of a part, providing a last-- change identifier field for identifying a most recent change to the variant; when a variant of a part is created, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part; when a variant of a part is update, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part; for each variant of a part, providing a drawdown-- from identifier field for storing the last-- change identifier value of the variant from which it was drawn down; when a variant of a part is drawn down, setting its drawdown-- from identifier field to the value of the last-- change identifier field of the variant from which it was drawn down; receiving a request to promote a candidate variant of a part, said candidate variant having a hierarchically superior parent variant; responsive to the request to promote, comparing the drawdown-- from identifier value for the candidate variant to the last-- change identifier value for the parent variant; responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, maintaining the candidacy of the candidate variant; responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value not equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, rejecting the request to promote; and when a variant of a part is promoted, leaving its last-- change identifier field unaltered. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A machine-readable data storage device tangibly embodying a program of instruction to direct a computer to perform method steps for evaluating consistency of variants of a part that are candidates for promotion in hierarchical versioned data management system to determine candidacy status of the variants, said method steps comprising:
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for each variant of a part, providing a last-- change identifier field for identifying a most recent change to the variant; when a variant of a part is created, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part; when a variant of a part is updated, setting its last-- change identifier field to a value currently unused for the part; for each variant of a part, providing a drawdown-- from identifier field for storing the last-- change identifier value of the variant from which it was drawn down; when a variant of a part is drawn down, setting its drawdown-- from identifier field to the value of the last-- change identifier field of the variant from which it was drawn down; receiving a request to promote a candidate variant of a part, said candidate variant having a hierarchically superior parent variant; responsive to the request to promote, comparing the drawdown-- from identifier value for the candidate variant to the last-- change identifier value for the parent variant; responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, maintaining the candidacy of the candidate variant; responsive to the compared drawdown-- from identifier value not equaling the compared last-- change identifier value, rejecting the request to promote; and when a variant of a part is promoted, leaving its last-- change identifier field unaltered. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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Specification