Technique for providing a universal query for multiple different databases

• US 6,535,874 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2001
• Issued: 03/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Purcell, Keith J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones, Charles
• Application Number:
  US09/810,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20010013038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• Field of Search: 707/703, 707/3, 707/103, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A technique for permitting a client in a client/server computing environment to query a plurality of databases for desired data utilizing a single query sent over a network one time. The single query need not be written in the syntax for the target database, but includes the names of the database and table within the database which contains the desired data. The query is sent from the client over the network via a specified socket, and is received by servers connected to the network which are listening to the specified socket. Each server includes code which determines if the desired data is present in a database which is associated therewith. If so, the server code generates an appropriate query for its associated database, retrieves the desired data from the database and forwards the data to the client over the network. If the data is not present in the associated database, the server preferably informs the client that the data is not present in its associated database, and the client makes a record of the responses from the servers.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method for querying a plurality of databases for desired data using a single database query, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a global database query at a client which requests desired data;

transmitting the global database query over a network to a plurality of servers, each of said servers being associated with one or more databases;

for each server and database combination, determining whether the database associated with the server contains the desired data, wherein each of the servers is associated with a factory class, and the factory class for each of the servers receives the global database query and determines whether the desired data resides in the database associated with the server; and

retrieving the desired data from each of the databases that contains the desired data and transmitting the desired data over the network to the client.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the factory class generates a query for the database associated with its associated server for determining whether the desired data resides in the database.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the network utilizes client/server TCP/IP socket communications, and wherein said transmitting step further comprises sending the global database query over the network via a predefined socket port, and the servers which receive the global database query listen to the predefined socket port.