Common query runtime system and application programming interface

• US 7,383,255 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2003
• Issued: 06/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Desai, Arpan A., Pfleiger, Todd F., Kimball, Andrew E., Dubinets, Sergey, Brundage, Michael L., Fussell, Mark W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gortayo; Dangelino N
• Application Number:
  US10/601,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20040260691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,807 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/1, 707/200, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 707/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3332 Query translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• 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

Abstract

A query runtime architecture and an exemplary application programming interface suitable for the architecture are presented. The architecture inputs one or more XML queries and views and enables the queries to be translated wherein the queries and views may be run over multiple data sources of different data models. The architecture incorporates front-end compilers which convert input queries and views into an intermediate language representation which represents the meaning of the respective query or view. The architecture may then allow the back-end compiling of the intermediate language representation to target languages compatible with the data sources desired to be queried. The architecture also allows the execution of those target compilations to extract the data requested of the queries. The invention also discloses an example application programming interface for the query runtime system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of communicating with an application using an application programming interface (API), the method executing in a computer system having M front-end languages and N back-end compilers, where M and N are integers, the API method comprising:

the system receiving from the application, one or more calls to set one or more compile parameters and commands for converting a plurality of input queries in a plurality of language compilers to an XML intermediate language representation, wherein the XML intermediate language representation is a composite of the plurality of input queries, is an explicit representation of the meaning of the plurality of input queries, and has a graph structure; and

the system receiving from the application, one or more calls to convert the XML intermediate language representation to at least one query, the at least one query, when executed, instructing the system to query over a plurality of data sources having differing data models;

wherein the one or more calls to convert the XML intermediate language to at least one query comprises a plurality of API calls comprising commands to a plurality of target generators and corresponding execution engines having different data languages, wherein the plurality of API calls share a common data model comprising operators of the graph structure of the XML intermediate data language representation, and wherein use of the M front-end languages and the N back-end compilers results in only M plus N system paths instead of M times N system paths.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the application receiving from the system one or more of the group consisting of event status, progress status, intermediate results, final results, error messages, warnings and help messages.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more calls to set one or more environment, compile parameters and compile commands comprise one or more of enabling message reception from the system, specifying query permission and execution restrictions, selecting the input query and compiler type, and establishing evaluation contexts.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the compiler type comprises XPath, XSLT and XQuery language compilers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the XML intermediate language representation is a semantic representation of an input query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the XML intermediate language to the executable query comprises preparing the XML intermediate language for direct execution in a target query execution engine, wherein direct execution avoids the use of a compiler for the target execution engine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the XML intermediate language to the executable query comprises converting the XML intermediate language into a target representation using a target generator.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the target representation is one or more of the group consisting of an XML language target, a SQL language target and an intermediate language target.

9. A system for compilation and execution of input queries producing query results, comprising:

a plurality of input devices for receiving a plurality of input queries;

a quantity of M front-end query language to intermediate language compilers wherein a composite XML intermediate language representation is compiled from the plurality of input queries, wherein the XML intermediate language representation is an explicit representation of the meaning of the plurality of input queries and has a graph structure;

a quantity of N back-end target generators wherein the XML intermediate language representation is transformed into a plurality of target queries;

a plurality of data sources for querying over; and

a plurality of execution engines wherein the plurality of target queries are executed over the plurality of data sources to produce the query results; and

wherein use of the M front-end query language to intermediate language compilers and the N back-end target generators results in only M plus N system paths instead of M times N system paths.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of input queries comprise queries formed from one or more of XPath, XSLT, and XQuery languages.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the XML intermediate language representation expresses the meaning of the input query.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of target generators comprise one or more of an XML language generator, a SQL language generator and an intermediate language generator.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise one or more of relational data sources and non-relational data sources.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein non-relational data sources comprise spreadsheets and word processing documents.