Versioned-database management system in which tasks are associated with promote groups which comprise a set of parts whose changes are to be promoted

• US 5,890,166 A
• Filed: 01/25/1995
• Issued: 03/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lehner, Mary Claire, Huddleston, Robert Louis, Eisenberg, Neal Richard, Tribolet, Charles Siegfried, Garth, John Marland
• Primary Examiner(s): Oberley, Alvin E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): COURTENAY III, ST JOHN
• Application Number:
  US08/378,311
• Time in Patent Office: 1,525 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 395/650, 395/700, 395/712, 364/943.5, 364/940, 364/962, 364/962.1, 364/962.3, 707/203, 707/1-10, 707/100-104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A versioned-data management system (VDMSMS) is provided with a method for determining candidates for promotion in association with a user task. The VDMS maintains a list of parts changed as a result of a user task, referred to as a promote group. Before performing any changes the user informs the VDMS which user task is to be associated with the changes. All parts subsequently changed are automatically placed by the VDMS in the promote group associated with the given user task. When the parts associated with a user task for a given variant level are promoted, an iterative process is performed to determine the complete set of parts that must be promoted in support of the requested promote. Initially the set includes those parts in the promote group at the given variant level. Then all the other promote groups are searched to determine whether they contain any of the parts at the given variant level that are already in this set. For any that do, the parts in those promote groups for the given variant level are added to the set of parts to be promoted.

Claims

1. In a versioned data management system, a computer-implemented method for managing promotion of contents of the versioned data management system in response to changes to the contents resulting from execution of a single user task among a plurality of user tasks, the contents of the versioned data management system including a plurality of parts, each part being either an entity or a relationship of the versioned data management system, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of promote groups associated with the user tasks, each promote group of the plurality of promote groups including a list of parts, and their variant levels, changed as a result of execution of a respective user task of the plurality of user tasks;

receiving identification of a promote group of the plurality of promote groups to be associated with part changes;

responsive to a part change, placing the changed part and its variant level in the identified promote group;

responsive to a request to promote the parts at a first variant level and in a designated promote group, determining a set of parts which are candidates for promotion; and

responsive to a promotion of a variant of a part in the designated promote group, updating the variant level entries of other promote groups which include the part at the first variant level to indicate a second variant level, higher than the first variant level, for the promotion.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said step of determining a set of parts which are candidates for promotion further comprises the substeps of:

a. designating to the set of parts which are candidates all parts at the first variant level and in the designated promote group,

b. identifying other promote groups containing parts in the set of parts which are candidates for promotion at the first variant level,

c. adding to the set of parts which are candidates for promotion all parts in the identified other promote groups, and

d. repeating substeps 2b and 2c for the added parts until substep 2b identifies no other promote group.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein every user task has an associated promote group.

4. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein changed parts include any parts explicitly changed by user tools and triggered changes performed by the versioned data management system.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein a changed part appears multiple times in the promote group, each appearance having a different variant level.

6. A data storage apparatus tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform method steps to manage contents of a versioned data management system in response to changes to the contents resulting from execution of a single user task among a plurality of user tasks, the contents of the versioned data management system including a plurality of parts, each part being either an entity or a relationship of the versioned data management system, said method steps comprising:

providing a plurality of promote groups associated with the user tasks, each promote group of the plurality of promote groups including a list of parts, and their variant levels, changed as a result of execution of a respective user task of the plurality of user tasks;

receiving identification of a promote group of the plurality of promote groups to be associated with part changes;

responsive to part changes that occur, placing the changed parts and their corresponding variant levels in the identified promote group;

responsive to a request to promote the parts at a first variant level and in a designated promote group, designating a set of parts that are candidates for promotion; and

responsive to a promotion of a variant of a part in the designated set, updating the variant level entries of other promote groups that include the part at the first variant level to indicate a second variant level, higher than the first variant level, for the promotion.

7. The data storage apparatus of claim 6, wherein the step of designating a set of parts that are candidates for promotion further comprises the substeps of:

designating to the set of parts that are candidates all parts at the first variant level and in the designated promote group;

identifying other promote groups containing parts in the set of parts that are candidates for promotion at the first variant level;

adding to the set of parts that are candidates for promotion all parts in the identified other promote groups; and

repeating the identifying and adding substeps for the added parts until the identifying substep identifies no other promote group.

8. The data storage apparatus of claim 7, wherein every user task has an associated promote group.

9. The data storage apparatus of claim 7, wherein changed parts include any parts explicitly changed by user tools and triggered changes performed by the versioned data management system.

10. The data storage apparatus of claim 9, wherein a changed part appears multiple times in the promote group, each appearance having a different variant level.