System and method for selectively presenting multi-dimensional data in two-dimensional form

• US 6,801,908 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2002
• Issued: 10/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Infor Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Supplychainge
• Inventors: Kumar, Prashant, Bhatia, Manish, Fuloria, Manas Chandra
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOULES, JACK M
• Application Number:
  US10/058,726
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A data navigation system and a method that enable a user to selectively view multi-dimensional forecast data in a two-dimensional form. The data navigation system includes a representation means for representing the multi-dimensional data. The system also has a Graphical User Interface that displays the data in two-dimensional form and also enables the user to navigate through the multi-dimensional data through the Interface using an interaction means such as a keyboard, a mouse a voice-command, a touch screen and other such means. The system also has an identification means and an extraction means that identify and obtain the data to be displayed in the Interface from the representation means. The data navigation system can also be used to view any multi-dimensional data in two-dimensional form.

Claims

1. A forecast presentation system suitable for enabling a user to selectively view multi-dimensional demand forecast data of products for multiple sales periods, the products being aggregated in product categories, the demand forecast data being available for product categories, the products being defined using one or more dimensions, each dimension having a finite number of dimension values, the forecast presentation system comprising:

representation means for representing the multi-dimensional demand forecast data;

a graphical user interface for displaying the demand forecast data in two dimensions;

identification means for identifying a specific selection of one or more products selected by the user using the graphical user interface; and

extraction means for obtaining the demand forecast data from the representation means using the identified one or more products; and

interaction means for enabling the user to interact with the graphical user interface in which the user views demand forecast data of one or more products on the graphical user interface by selecting the products using the interaction means, the demand forecast data being identified and processed from the demand forecast data of product categories stored in the representation means.

2. The forecast presentation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the representation means comprises:

a two-dimensional array storing the aggregate demand for each product category for every sales period; and

a set of arrays for storing proportion of demand of each dimension value in a dimension of a product category, the set comprising as many arrays as the number of product categories, in which the demand for one or more products in any sales period is obtained by disaggregating the demand forecast stored in the two-dimensional array using the proportions of demand attributed to the products as stored in the set of arrays.

3. The forecast presentation system as described in claim 1, wherein the representation means comprises:

a two-dimensional array storing the aggregate demand for each product category for every sales period; and

a set of arrays for storing proportion of demand of each dimension value in a dimension of a product category, each array storing proportion of demand for a particular product category and a particular sales period, in which the demand for one or more products in any sales period is obtained by disaggregating the demand forecast stored in the two-dimensional array using the proportions of demand attributed to the products as stored in the set of arrays.

4. The forecast presentation system as described in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface comprises:

a plurality of rows, the number of rows corresponding to the number of product categories;

a plurality of columns, the number of columns corresponding to the number of sales periods;

row updating means for inserting and deleting rows and filling data in the inserted rows; and

a plurality of navigation means that enable the user to specify a specific selection of one or more products in which the user uses the interaction means in conjunction with one or more navigation means to have a specific selection of one or more products of which the demand forecast is displayed in the rows and columns of the graphical user interface.

5. The forecast presentation system as recited in claim 4, wherein the navigation means are a set of symbols that are activated using the interaction means, each symbol representing a specific selection of one or more products.

6. The forecast presentation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the interaction means is at least one of a keyboard, a mouse, a voice activated device and a touch screen.

7. The forecast presentation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface displays character strings.

8. The forecast presentation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface comprises:

a plurality of rows, the number of rows corresponding to the number of product categories;

a plurality of columns, the number of columns corresponding to the number of sales periods;

row updating means for inserting and deleting rows and filling data in the inserted rows;

cell-editing means for enabling the user to change the demand forecast and the proportion of demand using the graphical user interface and the interaction means; and

a plurality of navigation means for enabling the user to specify one or more products in which the user uses the interaction means in conjunction with one or more navigation means to select one or more products of which the demand forecast is displayed in the rows and columns of the graphical user interface.

9. A data navigation system suitable for enabling a user to selectively view multi-dimensional data, the multi-dimensional data presented to the user in two dimensional form, the multi-dimensional data being of n dimensions, the n dimensions classified as a first dimension, a second dimension and navigation dimensions, each dimension having a finite number of dimension values, the data navigation system comprising:

representation means for representing the multi-dimensional data;

a graphical user interface for displaying the multi-dimensional data in two dimensions;

identification means for identifying the multi-dimensional data in the representation means that is to be displayed on the graphical user interface;

extraction means for extracting the identified multi-dimensional data from the representation means; and

interaction means for enabling the user to interact with the GUI in which the interaction means enables the user to select multi-dimensional data from the representation means, the identification means identifying the selected multi-dimensional data in the representation means, the extraction means extracting the identified multi-dimensional data from the representation means, the graphical user interface displaying the selected view of the multi-dimensional data.

10. The data navigation system as recited in claim 9, wherein the data representation means for multi-dimensional data is an n-dimensional table.

11. The data navigation system as described in claim 9, wherein the graphical user interface comprises:

a plurality of rows;

a plurality of columns, the columns and the rows representing two dimensions of the two dimensional form;

row updating means for inserting and deleting rows and updating the data in the inserted rows; and

a plurality of navigation means that enable the user to select the multi-dimensional data to be displayed in the GUI upon activation.

12. The data navigation system as described in claim 9, wherein the graphical user interface comprises:

a plurality of rows;

a plurality of columns, the columns and the rows representing the two dimensions of the two dimensional form;

row updating means for inserting and deleting rows and updating the data in the inserted rows;

cell-editing means for changing the data present in the rows and columns of the GUI,

whereby the two dimensional data is displayed in rows and columns and the user is shown data by using the row updating means.

13. The data navigation system as recited in claim 9, wherein the interaction means is at least one of a keyboard, a mouse, a voice activated device and a touch screen.

14. The data navigation system as recited in claim 10, wherein the n-dimensional table supports numerical data.

15. The data navigation system as recited in claim 10, wherein the n-dimensional table supports string data.

16. The data navigation system as recited in claim 11 wherein the identification means identifies the data in the representation means using the navigation means activated by the user.

17. The data navigation system as recited in claim 11, wherein the navigation means is activated using the interaction means.

18. The data navigation system as recited in claim 11, wherein the navigation means are a set of symbols, each symbol representing a specific operation that will be performed on the data being displayed in the graphical user interface.

19. A method for representing multi-dimensional data in a two dimensional graphical user interface comprising rows and columns, the multi-dimensional data stored using a representation means, the multi-dimensional data being of n dimensions, the n dimensions classified as first dimension, second dimension and as navigation dimensions, each dimension having a finite number of dimension values, comprising:

placing the first dimension of the multi-dimensional data along the columns and the second dimension of the multi-dimensional data along the rows of the two-dimensional table;

filling the rows and columns of the two-dimensional graphical user interface using the multi-dimensional data stored using the representation means;

introducing a plurality of navigation means in the two-dimensional graphical user interface, each navigation means enabling a user to select a particular view of the multi-dimensional data;

recording a user interaction at one of the navigation means, the navigation means being activated as a result of the user interaction;

processing the recorded user interaction to determine the view of the multi-dimensional data to be displayed in the graphical user interface; and

updating the display of the multi-dimensional data in the two-dimensional table according to the determined view of the multi-dimensional data.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the step of filling comprises:

identifying all the dimension values for each data that is to be filled in the graphical user interface;

identifying the view of the multi-dimensional data that is to be filled in the GUI using the identified dimensions; and

extracting the identified data from the representation means.

21. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the step of processing comprises:

identifying the multi-dimensional data in the representation means using an identification means and the recorded user interaction; and

extracting the identified data from the representation means to be displayed in the two-dimensional graphical user interface using the extraction means.

22. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the step of updating comprises:

updating the activated navigation means to a different navigation means;

updating the number of rows in the graphical user interface to allow for more or less information to be displayed in the graphical user interface;

updating the data in the changed rows on the basis of the combination of value in the first dimension, the values in the second dimension and the navigation dimension corresponding to the activated navigation means.

23. A computer program product for representing multi-dimensional data in a two dimensional graphical user interface comprising rows and columns, the multi-dimensional data stored using a representation means, the multi-dimensional data being of n dimensions, the n dimensions classified as first dimension, second dimension and as navigation dimensions, each dimension having a finite number of dimension values, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer readable media and comprising:

computer readable program code means for placing the first dimension of the multi-dimensional data along the columns and the second dimension of the multi-dimensional data along the rows of the two-dimensional table;

computer readable program code means for filling the rows and columns of the two-dimensional graphical user interface using the multi-dimensional data stored using the representation means;

computer readable program code means for introducing a plurality of navigation means in the two-dimensional graphical user interface, each navigation means enabling a user to select a particular view of the multi-dimensional data;

computer readable program code means for recording a user interaction at one of the navigation means, the navigation means being activated as a result of the user interaction;

computer readable program code means for processing the recorded user interaction to determine the view of the multi-dimensional data to be displayed in the graphical user interface; and

computer readable program code means for updating the display of the multi-dimensional data in the two-dimensional table according to the determined view of the multi-dimensional data.

24. The computer program product as recited in claim 23, wherein the computer readable program code means for filling further comprises:

computer readable program code means for identifying all the dimension values for each data that is to be filled in the graphical user interface;

computer readable program code means for identifying the view of the multi-dimensional data that is to be filled in the GUI using the identified dimensions; and

computer readable program code means for extracting the identified data from the representation means.

25. The computer program product as recited in claim 23, wherein the computer readable program code means for processing further comprises:

computer readable program code means for identifying the multi-dimensional data in the representation means using an identification means and the recorded user interaction; and

computer readable program code means for extracting the identified data from the representation means to be displayed in the to-dimensional graphical user interface using the extraction means.

26. The computer program product as recited in claim 23, wherein the computer readable program code means for updating further comprises:

computer readable program code means for updating the activated navigation means to a different navigation means;

computer readable program code means for updating the number of rows in the graphical user interface to allow for more or less information to be displayed in the graphical user interface;

computer readable program code means for updating the data in the changed rows on the basis of the combination of value in the first dimension, the values in the second dimension and the navigation dimension corresponding to the activated navigation means.

27. A forecast presentation and updating system suitable for enabling a user to selectively view multi-dimensional data for products along multiple sales periods and updating the demand forecast data, the products being aggregated in product categories, the demand forecast data being available for product categories, the products being defined using one or more dimensions, each dimension having a finite number of dimension values, the forecast presentation and updating system comprising:

representation means for representing the demand forecast data;

a graphical user interface for displaying the demand forecast data in two dimensions;

identification means for identifying a specific selection of one or more products selected by the user using the graphical user interface; and

processing means for obtaining the demand forecast data from the representation means using the identified one or more products;

interaction means for enabling the user to interact with the graphical user interface;

data-updating means for updating the demand forecast data being represented by the representation means, and

wherein the user views the data of one or more products on the graphical user Interface by selecting the products using the interaction means, the data being identified and processed from the demand forecast data being represented in the representation means, the demand forecast being updated using the data updating means.

28. The forecast presenting and updating system as recited in claim 27, wherein the data-updating means uses a forecasting system to update the data represented in the representation means.