Search engine for remote access to database management systems

• US 6,169,992 B1
• Filed: 11/08/1996
• Issued: 01/02/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: JDA Software Group Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: CADIS, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Neal, Michael R., Beall, Christopher W., Terpening, Brooke E., Motycka, John D., Appelbaum, Matthew A., Pendleton, Samuel S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kulik, Paul V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Application Number:
  US08/747,164
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/104, 707/513, 345/419, 345/335, 345/968
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

A system is disclosed for remotely accessing database management systems (5130) and performing guided iterative queries of knowledge bases (110) over a communication circuit such as the Internet (5124). The system includes a Web browser (5120) having a Java™ runtime environment (4015), and executable content client (5121) that may be downloaded from a remote location (103). A Krakatoa proxy server (5128), socket (5021), and tunnel (5129) establish a mechanism for remote procedure calls through firewalls (5126) via an HTTP server (5127). Guardrail counts (750) are preferably displayed to the remote searcher to facilitate guided iterative queries of the remote knowledge base (110). A configurable graphical action region (700) is preferably provided to the remote searcher via a graphical user interface to provide powerful navigation and linking of diverse useful information which varies based upon contexts selected by the remote searcher.

Claims

1. An apparatus for guided interactive queries of an object oriented knowledge base, comprising:

a hypertext markup language browser capable of managing executable content, said browser being adapted to provide a virtual machine runtime environment for an executable content client application, said browser being coupled to a communications circuit capable of transmitting packets of digital information according to a network protocol;

an executable content client application capable of running in the virtual machine runtime environment of the browser, said executable content client application having a remote procedure call mechanism written as executable content which is capable of running in the virtual machine runtime environment of the browser, said remote procedure call mechanism being capable of translating remote procedure calls into digital information that can be transmitted over said communications circuit by said browser;

a data base management system server, said server being located at a remote location; and

an interface mechanism, said interface mechanism being coupled to said communications circuit at the remote location, said interface mechanism being coupled to said data base management system server, said interface mechanism being capable of translating digital information received from said browser via said communications circuit into remote procedure calls to said data base management system server.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said communications circuit is a wide area network.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said executable content client application is downloadable over said communications circuit so that said executable content client application may be transferred over said communications circuit to a browser capable of managing executable content.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said communications circuit is the Internet.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

said data base management system server comprises an object oriented knowledge base server.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

an object oriented knowledge base associated with and accessible by said object oriented knowledge base server.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

when a user interacts with said browser and chooses to search a data base, said executable content client application is downloaded over said communications circuit so that said executable content client application runs in the virtual machine runtime environment of the browser, said executable content client application including a client database retrieval applet, said executable content client application including a graphical user interface to said client database retriever applet, whereby said user can interact through said graphical user interface to navigate a class hierarchy of said object oriented knowledge base associated with said object oriented knowledge base server.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said remote procedure call mechanism translates procedure calls into a format that is conforms to a document transfer protocol.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said protocol is the hypertext transfer protocol.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said mechanism encodes procedure calls into text characters.

11. A method for performing queries of a knowledge base from a remote site, comprising the steps of:

executing a client application within a browser that is running on a computer located at said remote site;

generating a remote procedure call within said client application;

encoding said remote procedure call into a request having a format which conforms with a document transfer protocol;

transmitting the encoded request to the site of a database management system via a communications network, in accordance with said protocol;

decoding the request, to reconstruct the procedure call;

executing a query within the database management system in accordance with said procedure call, to retrieve a result;

encoding said result in a format which conforms to said protocol;

transmitting the encoded result to the remote site via said communications network, in accordance with said protocol; and

retrieving the encoded result within said client application and displaying the result.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said protocol is the hypertext transfer protocol.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said procedure calls are encoded into text characters.

14. The method of claim 11 further including the initial step of transferring the client application from the site of the database management system to the browser running at said remote site via said communications network.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein said database management system is an object-oriented database management system.