Integrated system and method of data warehousing and delivery

• US 5,781,911 A
• Filed: 09/10/1996
• Issued: 07/14/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Century Oasis Limited
• Original Assignee: D2K, Inc.
• Inventors: Young, Edward T., Liat, Lim, Tong, James K. C., Rawls, Judy K., Cheng, Viktor C. H., Yong, Dennis
• Primary Examiner(s): Von Buhr, Maria N.
• Application Number:
  US08/711,526
• Time in Patent Office: 672 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-4, 707/10, 707/200, 707/201, 707/104, 1/1, 705/26, 705/28
• US Class Current: 707/600
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A system and method is capable of providing a much more effective enterprise-wide decision support system. It consists of an integrated end-to-end solution including automatic generation of data warehouses or data marts integrated with automatic delivery of information from the data warehouses or data marts to knowledge workers throughout the enterprise using a "publish and subscribe" paradigm for dissemination of the information at any time, to any places, in any formats to any number of knowledge workers. This integration allows information in the data warehouses or data marts to be delivered immediately after every refresh of the data warehouses or data marts thereby allowing maximum utilization of the valuable information in the data warehouses or data marts throughout the enterprise to gain the most optimum decision support.

Claims

1. An integrated system of data warehousing and data delivery comprising:

a supplier module for a user to define an extraction order comprising a first tasklist of what data are to be extracted from one or more existing data processing systems, what transformations are to be performed and into what one or more databases said extracted and transformed data are to be stored, and a set of timings of when said first tasklist is to be executed;

a publisher module for a user to define s publisher order comprising a second tasklist of which of said extracted and transformed data we to be published, what transformations are to be performed on the published data and into what one or more databases said published data are to be stored, and a set of timings of when said second tasklist is to be executed;

a subscriber module for a user to define a subscription order comprising a third tasklist of which of said published data are to be retrieved, what transformations are to be performed on the retrieved data and the destinations the retrieved data are to be delivered, and a set of timings of when said third tasklist is to be executed;

a master scheduler module for scheduling said extraction orders said publisher order and said subscription order to produce a master schedule of when these orders are to be executed and in what sequence;

a concurrent manager module for managing the concurrent execution of said extraction order, said publisher order and said subscription order according to said master schedule;

a transport service module for transporting data from said one or more existing data processing systems to said databases of said extracted and transformed data, from said databases of said extracted and transformed data to said databases of said published data, and from said databases of said published data to the destinations specified in said subscription order; and

a transformation service module for transforming data according to specifications defined by a user using one or more of said supplier module, said publisher module and, said subscriber module.

2. An integrated system of data warehousing and date delivery as in claim 1 further comprising:

a system administrator module for a user to specify scheduling policies used by said master scheduler module for producing said master schedule; and

an information catalog for storing said extraction order, said publisher order, said subscription order, said scheduling policies and said master schedule.

3. An integrated system of data warehousing and date delivery as in claim 1 wherein one or more of said first, second, and third tasklists comprise a workflow of tasks to be executed.

4. A method of data warehousing and data delivery as in claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

specifying scheduling policies used by said step of scheduling to produce said master schedule; and

storing said extraction order, said publisher order, said subscription order, said scheduling policies, and said master schedule in an information catalog.

5. An integrated system of data warehousing and date delivery as in claim 1 wherein one or more of said extraction order, said publisher order and said subscription order further comprises a dependency list that contains a set of events to trigger the execution of one or more of said extraction order, publisher order or subscription order.

6. A method of data warehousing and data delivery comprising the steps of:

defining an extraction order comprising a first tasklist of what data are to be extracted from one or more existing data processing systems, what transformations are to be performed and into what one or more databases said extracted and transformed data are to be stored, and a set of timings of when said first tasklist is to be executed,

defining a publisher order comprising a second tasklist of which of said extracted and transformed data are to be published, what transformations are to be performed on the published data and into what one or more databases said Published data are to be stored, and a set of timings of when said second tasklist is to be executed;

defining a subscription order comprising a third tasklist of which of said published data are to be retrieved, what transformations are to be performed on the retrieved data and the destinations the retrieved data are to be delivered, and a set of timings of when said third tasklist is to be executed;

scheduling said extraction order, said publisher order, and said subscription order to produce a master schedule of when these orders are to be executed and in what sequence;

managing the concurrent execution of said extraction order, said publisher order and said subscriptions order according to said master schedule;

transporting data from said one or more existing data processing systems to said databases of said extracted and transformed data, from said databases of said extracted and transformed data to said databases of said published data, and from said databases of said published data to the destinations specified in said subscription order; and

transforming data according to specifications in said extraction order, said publisher order and said subscription order.

7. A method of data warehousing and data delivery as in claim 6 wherein one or more of said first, second, and third tasklists comprise a workflow of tasks to be executed.

8. A method of data warehousing and data delivery as in claim 6 wherein one or more of said extraction order, said published order and said subscription order further comprises a dependency list that contains a set of events to trigger the execution of one or more of said extraction order, publisher and subscription order.