Including annotation data with disparate relational data

• US 7,373,342 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2003
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tran, Hoa T., Fish, Douglas R., Rath, Cale T., Cragun, Brian J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Application Number:
  US10/728,288
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,622 Days
• Field of Search: 707 4- 10, 707/100, 707/104.1, 707/101, 715853-855, 715/805, 715/526, 715/961
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture that may be used for identifying and indicating annotations made for a variety of different type (i.e., heterogeneous) data objects are provided. According to some embodiments, an annotation store may be queried to identify annotations for data objects in a current view of data. For certain identifiable portions of the view (e.g., a row in a relational view), a callable function may be created that returns a set of indicia maps indicating which objects in the portions are annotated. Bits in an indicia map may correspond to different objects (e.g., individual cells in a row or the row itself). Using these indicia maps, an indication of which data objects are annotated may be provided in the view, for example, by displaying annotation icons proximate annotated objects.

Claims

1. A method for indicating objects in a view of data having corresponding annotations, comprising:

querying an annotation store to identify annotations corresponding to objects in the view;

generating one or more indicia maps indicating objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations, wherein each indicia map includes a plurality of bits and wherein each bit is set to indicate an existence of an annotation for a corresponding one of the objects in the view of data; and

providing an indication of those objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations, based on the one or more indicia maps.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating one or more indicia maps indicating objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations comprises generating at least one indicia map indicating the existence or absence of annotations for each object included in the view of data objects.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the view of data comprises a portion of a text document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing an indication of which objects in the view have the identified corresponding annotations comprises displaying one or more annotation icons proximate one or more objects having the identified corresponding annotations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating one or more indicia maps indicating objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations comprises:

setting a first bit in an indicia map to indicate a first data object has a corresponding annotation; and

setting a second one or more bits in the indicia map to indicate one or more subobjects, related to the first data object, each having corresponding annotations.

6. A method for indicating annotated objects in a relational view of data having rows of individual cells, comprising:

querying an annotation store to identify annotations corresponding to objects in the view;

generating one or more indicia maps indicating objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations, wherein the one or more indicia maps each comprise a single bit corresponding to a row and one or more bits corresponding to individual cells in the row; and

providing an indication of those objects in the view having the identified corresponding annotations, based on the one or more indicia maps.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein querying the annotation store to identify annotations corresponding to objects in the view comprises generating and executing a query specifying a data source and one or more primary keys identifying objects in the view.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving the primary keys comprises:

receiving a query for generating the view, wherein a specified result set of the query does not include primary key data; and

modifying the query to include primary key data in the result set.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the indicia maps comprises one or more bits indicating the existence of annotations corresponding to a specified group of cells.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein providing an indication of which objects in the view have the identified corresponding annotations comprises:

for each bit corresponding to a row that is set in the indicia map, displaying an annotation icon proximate to a corresponding row in the relational view of data ;

and

for each of the one or more bits corresponding to individual cells in the row that is set in the indicia map, displaying one or more annotation icons proximate to corresponding one or more cells in the relational view of data.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving partial annotation information related to annotated objects; and

displaying partial annotation information in response to a user placing a mouse cursor over an annotation icon.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising, in response to a user selecting an annotation icon, displaying a corresponding annotation.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving the corresponding annotation, in response to the user selecting the annotation icon.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein generating one or more indicia maps indicating which, objects in the view have the identified corresponding annotations comprises:

generating a temporary table having entries with a single bit set to indicate an annotated row or annotated individual cells; and

combining individual entries corresponding to a combined row to generate an indicia map for the combined row.