Method and system for providing business intelligence web content with reduced client-side processing

• US 6,658,432 B1
• Filed: 06/20/2001
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Inventors: Boysko, Glenn J., Warikoo, Abhimanyu, Li, Benjamin Z., Oliver, Arturo, Brenes, Gunther L., Alavi, Ali, Everhart, L. Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrah, Diane D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu, Yicun
• Application Number:
  US09/884,444
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/6, 707/7, 707/8, 707/9, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104.1, 707/700, 715/511
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06F 2216/03 Data mining
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A layered architecture for communication of reporting system reports to users connecting via a web server. Users communicate via HTTP with web servers without download of plugins or executable files to the user system. The web servers are clustered to balance requests and transmit the requests. The web servers pass report requests via XML to the business intelligence servers to perform the work with the databases. The business intelligence servers convert reports into XML and provide the XML-based version to the web server. The web server then transmits an HTML or DHTMNL report back to the client over the web.

Claims

1. A system for enabling the exchange of reporting system information over a computer network comprising:

at least one web server operatively connected to one or more client systems over a HTTP-communication protocol network, wherein the web server and one or more client systems communicate reporting system requests and information without downloading any executable files from the web server to the client system;

at least one reporting server operatively connected to the at least one web server, wherein the web server and the reporting server communicate;

at least one data storage device operatively connected to the at least one reporting server; and

the at least one reporting server executing the reporting request from the client system using the at least one data storage device and transmitting the retrieved information to the at least one web server;

wherein the retrieved information is transmitted to the client system using DHTML and wherein the web server does not have a direct connection to the database.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the web server does not perform any reporting system operations.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of web servers operating as a web server cluster.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of reporting systems operating as a reporting system cluster.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the reporting system comprises an OLAP system.

6. A method for enabling the exchange of reporting system information over a computer network comprising the steps of:

receiving at one or more web servers using HTTP a user request for reporting system information from a user system;

transmitting the request to a reporting server;

the reporting server executing the reporting request from a the client system using and transmitting the retrieved information to the at least one web server; and

converting the report to HTML or DHTML and transmitting it to the user system without downloading any executable files;

wherein the web server does not perform any reporting system operations; and

wherein the reporting system comprises an OLAP system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of converting the request to an extensible markup language request further comprises the steps of:

converting the request into a platform-independent object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language request using a platform-independent, object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language application program interface; and

converting the platform-independent, object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language request into the extensible markup language request.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of providing a clustered set of web servers to receive user requests.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of providing a clustered set of reporting systems to process reporting system report requests.

10. A medium for causing it processor to enable the exchange of reporting system information over a computer network, the medium comprising code for causing a processor to perform the steps of:

receiving at one or more web servers using HTTP a user request for reporting system information from a user system;

transmitting the request to a reporting server;

the reporting server executing the reporting request from the client system using and transmitting the retrieved information to the at least one web server; and

converting the report to HTML or DHTML and transmitting it to the user system without downloading any executable files;

wherein the web server does not perform any reporting system operations and wherein the reporting system comprises an OLAP system.

11. The medium of claim 10 wherein the medium further comprises code for causing a processor to operate a clustered set of web servers to receive user requests.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the code for causing a processor to perform the step of converting the request to an extensible markup language request further comprises code for causing the processor to perform the steps of:

converting the request into a platform-independent, object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language request using a platform-independent, object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language application program interface; and

converting the platform-independent, object oriented, multi-threaded and extendible programming language request into the extensible markup language request.

13. The medium of claim 10 wherein the medium further comprises code for causing a processor to operate a clustered set of reporting systems to process reporting system report requests.