Method and apparatus for processing jobs on an enterprise-wide computer system

• US 7,266,821 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2001
• Issued: 09/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hyperion Solutions Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Hippenmeyer, William, Yedwab, Gadi, Norris, Jack, Bick, Robert Mark, Burton, Peter Alan, Murphy, Anthony John, Ewry, Jeffrey Alan, Godbeer, Gail Helen, Polizzi, Kathleen Riddell
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tang; Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US09/845,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20020023122A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-253, 709201-202, 718/1, 718100- 10, 705 1- 45
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• 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 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A method and apparatus for processing jobs on an enterprise-wide computer system. The computer system uses a portal architecture to allow a user to view a wide variety of content retrieved from a variety of different computer systems. The computer system is configured such that a plurality of users can access the system at the same time through a computer network such as the Internet. Users may access the computer system by using a standardized browser program, thus simplifying the user interface. The computer system may also be connected to one or more back-end databases that correspond to the different computer systems within the enterprise. The computer system is configured to run predefined jobs to process data. These jobs can perform a variety of tasks such as retrieving data from a back-end database, preparing a report based upon retrieved data, processing data already resident within the portal system, or notifying a user when a particular condition occurs within the portal system. These jobs can be executed on a predefined schedule or on an ad-hoc basis at the request of a user. The computer system also allows users to subscribe to the job. A user that subscribes to a job receives a notification whenever the job is executed by the computer system. The portal system also allows a user to configure one or more exception conditions for a job that indicate when some element of the output report is outside of a predefined range. A user can subscribe to exceptions and thus be notified when an exception condition is found.

Claims

1. An enterprise-wide computer portal system electrically connected to a plurality of enterprise computer systems and configured to communicate with a plurality of enterprise users through a network interface, wherein at least one of the plurality of enterprise users communicates with the network interface through a computer network, the enterprise-wide computer portal system comprising:

a service broker electrically connected to the network interface, the service broker controlling a level of access to the enterprise-wide computer portal system by an enterprise user and controlling the disposition of jobs within the enterprise-wide computer portal system;

a job repository electrically connected to the service broker, the job repository comprising a computer memory encoded with a plurality of objects including at least one job, the at least one job having at least one set of job properties, wherein said set of job properties includes a set of input data;

a job server electrically connected to the service broker, the job server configured to execute said at least one job and to produce an output report of the job, wherein the job server is configured to process the set of input data; and

a job event server electrically connected to the service broker the job event server comprising a computer memory encoded with instructions for dispatching a job for processing on a corresponding job server according to a predefined schedule.

2. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one set of job properties define a list of enterprise users to be notified when a corresponding job is executed;

and wherein the job server is configured to process said job properties and provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users when the job is executed.

3. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one set of job properties define an exception condition and a list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition, and wherein the job server is configured to compare the exception condition to the output report to determine the existence of an exception event, and to provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition when the exception event occurs.

4. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one job is a secure Structured Query Report (SQR) job, and wherein the job server is configured to process a secure SQR job so as to generate a secure bursted output report comprised of a master file and a plurality of HTML pages, wherein the master file includes a plurality of containers, each of which corresponds to one of said plurality of HTML pages, wherein each of said plurality of HTML pages includes a set of permissions defining the ability of said at least one enterprise user to view that page.

5. An enterprise-wide computer portal system electrically connected to a plurality of enterprise computer systems and electrically connected to at least one enterprise back-end database, the enterprise-wide computer portal system configured to communicate with at least one enterprise user through a network interface, wherein said at least one enterprise user communicates with the network interface through a computer network, the enterprise-wide computer portal system comprising:

a service broker electrically connected to the network interface, the service broker controlling a level of access to the enterprise-wide computer portal system by an enterprise user and controlling the disposition of jobs within the enterprise-wide computer portal system;

a job repository electrically connected to the service broker, the job repository comprising a computer memory encoded with a plurality of objects including at least one job including instructions to retrieve and process data from said at least one enterprise back-end database, the at least one job having at least one set of job properties, wherein said sot of job properties includes a set of input data;

a job server electrically connected to the service broker and to said at least one enterprise back-end database, the job server configured to execute said at least one job;

wherein the job server is configured to process the set of input data; and

a job event server electrically connected to the service broker, the job event server comprising a computer memory encoded with instructions for dispatching a job for processing on a corresponding job server according to a predefined schedule.

6. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 5, wherein said job properties define a list of enterprise users to be notified when the job is executed;

and wherein the job server is configured to process said job properties and provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users when the job is executed.

7. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 5, wherein said job properties define an exception condition and a list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition, and wherein the job server is configured to compare the exception condition to the output report to determine the existence of an exception event, and to provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition when the exception event occurs.

8. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 5, wherein said at least one job is a secure Structured Query Report (SQR) job, and wherein the job server is configured to process a secure SQR job so as to generate a secure bursted output report comprised of a master file and a plurality of HTML pages, wherein the master file includes a plurality of containers, each of which corresponds to one of said plurality of HTML pages, wherein each of said plurality of HTML pages includes a set of permissions defining the ability of said at least one enterprise user to view that page.

9. An enterprise-wide computer portal system electrically connected to a plurality of enterprise computer systems and configured to communicate with at least one enterprise user through a network interface, wherein said at least one enterprise user communicates with the network interface through a computer network, the enterprise-wide computer portal system comprising:

a service broker electrically connected to the network interface, the service broker controlling a level of access to the enterprise-wide computer portal system by said at least one enterprise user and controlling the disposition of jobs within the enterprise-wide computer portal system;

a job repository electrically connected to the service broker, the job repository comprising a computer memory encoded with a plurality of objects including at least one job and wherein the computer memory of the job repository is further encoded with job properties corresponding to said at least one job, the job properties including a set of input data, the job properties defining an exception condition and a list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition;

a job server electrically connected to the service broker, the job server configured to execute said at least one job so as to produce an output report, wherein the job server is configured to process the set of input data, and wherein the job server is further configured to compare said exception condition to the output report to determine the existence of an event, and to provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception when the exception event occurs, the job server also configured to transmit the output report to the network interface for transmission to said at least one enterprise user.

10. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 9, wherein the job properties further define an input form to be provided to a corresponding job server when the job is executed;

and wherein the job server is configured to provide a corresponding input form to said at least one enterprise user.

11. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 10, wherein said at least one job is a secure Structured Query Report (SQR) job, and wherein the job server is configured to process a secure SQR job so as to generate a secure bursted output report comprised of a master file and a plurality of HTML pages, wherein the master file includes a plurality of containers, each of which corresponds to one of said plurality of HTML pages, wherein each of said plurality of HTML pages includes a set of permissions defining the ability of said at least one enterprise user to view that page.

12. An enterprise-wide computer portal system electrically connected to a plurality of enterprise computer systems and configured to communicate with at least one enterprise user through a network interface, wherein each of said at least one enterprise users communicates with the network interface through a computer network, the enterprise-wide computer portal comprising:

a service broker electrically connected to the network interface the service broker controlling a level of access to the enterprise-wide computer portal system by an enterprise user and controlling the disposition of jobs within the enterprise-wide computer portal system;

an authentication server electrically connected to the service broker, the authentication server configured to determine a level of access to be granted to said at least one enterprise user based upon data stored therein;

a job repository electrically connected to the service broker, the job repository comprising a computer memory encoded with a plurality of objects including at least one job, at least one output report corresponding to said at least one job, and at least one portal page corresponding to said at least one enterprise user, wherein said at least one portal page includes a dynamically updated portal object corresponding to an output report, wherein the at least one job has at least one set of job properties, wherein said set of job properties includes a set of input data;

a job server electrically connected to the service broker, the job server configured to execute said at least one job and to produce an output report corresponding to said at least one job, wherein the job server is configured to process the set of input data; and

a job event server electrically connected to the service broker, the job event server comprising a computer memory encoded with instructions for dispatching a job for processing on a corresponding job server according to a predefined schedule.

13. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 12, wherein said at least one set of job properties includes a list of enterprises users to be notified when the corresponding job is executed;

and wherein the job server is configured to process said at least one set of job properties and provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users when the corresponding job is executed.

14. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 13, wherein the notification is provided through e-mail.

15. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 13, wherein the notification is provided by updating a dynamically up dated portal object in an enterprise user'"'"'s portal page.

16. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 12, wherein said at least one set of job properties include an exception condition and a list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition, and wherein the job server is configured to i) compare an exception condition to an output report to determine the existence of an exception event, and ii) provide a notification to each user in the list of enterprise users subscribing to the exception condition when a corresponding exception even occurs.

17. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 16, wherein the notification is provided through e-mail.

18. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 16, wherein the notification is provided by updating an exceptions dashboard in an enterprise user'"'"'s portal page.

19. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 12, wherein said at least one job is a secure Structured Query Report (SQR) job, and wherein the job server is configured to process a secure SQR job so as to generate a secure bursted output report comprised of a master file and a plurality of HTML pages, wherein the master file includes a plurality of containers, each of the containers corresponding to one of said plurality of HTML pages, and wherein each of said plurality of HTML pages includes a set of permissions defining the ability of said at least one enterprise user to view that page.

20. An enterprise-wide computer portal system according to claim 19, wherein said at least one portal page further includes a portal object containing a link to the secure bursted output report.