Method and system for data management perform the functions of automatically propagating changes in information related to product being designed or manufactured from a central location to remote and disparate user information systems having varying data formats

• US 7,124,150 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2004
• Issued: 10/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Agile Software Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Agile Software Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Fazio, Joseph L., Majjasie, Michelle, Teh, Jin T., Wise, Dorothy O., Hein, Raymond, Lin, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US11/012,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20050135273A1
• Time in Patent Office: 672 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 5, 707/10, 707100-102, 707/104.1, 707/200, 700 11-117, 717/100, 717/103, 705 26- 27, 705/8, 705/14, 709203-205, 709217-220
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• 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 data management system propagates changes in product information. The product information is stored in a central data base for transfer to remote systems having disparate formats and protocols. The system includes an administration module to validate product data stored in the data base. This ensures that the data is accessible by the system. The system also includes a product change module configured to determine whether a change has been made to data related to a product. When changes are discovered, a data management server is alerted to the change. In response to the alert, the data server extracts, formats and transmits the changes in product data from the central data base to an appropriate user system. An application adapter communicating with the user system then receives the changed data from the data server and formats the data according to the user system platform.

Claims

1. A data management system including memory storage for storing software code that, when executed configures and controls the system to perform the functions of automatically propagating changes in information related to a product being designed or manufactured, from a central location to remote and disparate user information systems having varying data formats, comprising:

a central data base under the control of said software code for storing and maintaining data that is related to a business process for manufacturing a product, including component serial numbers, change orders, and information pertaining to products, and is configured to format the data according to different aspects of the manufacturing business process for transfer to remote and disparate user information systems;

an administration module stored in said memory storage and under the control of said software code communicating with the central database and wherein said software code that, when executed by a microprocessor, configures the administration module to validate data related to a product by confirming the correct field length of data related to a product, the correct field format of the data, the correct list of values of the data including units of measure and the correct required fields for the transfer of reformatted data in a reformatted data file to disparate user information systems having disparate data formats;

a product change module stored in said memory storage and under the control of said software code, and communicating with the central data base and having software code that, when executed by a microprocessor, configures the product change module to poll the central data base to determine whether a change has been made to data related to a product; and

to send a signal to the data server upon the detection of a change of product data in the central data base to incorporate said change in the data related to the product; and

a data server stored in said memory storage and under the control of said software code that, when said code is executed by a microprocessor, configures the data server to generate a reformatted file and to extract, format and transmit changes in data stored in the central data base in the form of the reformatted file containing reformatted product data to separate user systems, the data being extracted, formatted, and transferred according to predefined criteria including predetermined data formats, file attributes, and requirements of the disparate information systems.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the product change module is incorporated into the data server in the form of software code, which, when executed by the data server, configures the data server to perform the functions of the product change module to update existing product data upon the detection of a change in product data in the central data base, and wherein attribute properties of the file in the data server can be altered to match the properties of the fields in the target computer system to which the file will ultimately be transferred.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the application adapter is configured to validate data changes sent by the data server, to update a user system database after data changes are validated and to generate status reports according to predefined criteria for the user system.

4. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a client information system configured to receive the data changes from the data server and to display the data for a user.

5. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a client computer system configured to modify predefined criteria used by the data server to transmit the data changes, wherein attribute properties of the file in the data server can be altered to match the properties of the fields in the target computer system to which the file will ultimately be transferred.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the central data base is configured to store data pertaining to financial information.