System for generating an information catalog

• US 7,720,886 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ponessa, Steven J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sanders; Aaron
• Application Number:
  US11/937,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 922 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/804
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A computer system and computer program product for generating and displaying an information catalog relating to a business model. The method includes accessing technical metadata from a data warehouse, accessing business metadata from a first source outside of the data warehouse, accessing presentation metadata from a second source outside of the data warehouse, and applying the presentation metadata to the technical metadata and the business metadata to generate the information catalog. The information catalog comprises the technical metadata and the business metadata in accordance with the presentation format specified by the presentation metadata. The technical metadata is associated with data used by computer applications. The computer applications support business processes of the business model.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising a processor and a computer readable memory unit coupled to the processor, said memory unit including an information catalog compiler that when executed by the processor implements a method for generating an information catalog relating to a business model, said method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

accessing technical metadata from a data warehouse, said technical metadata being associated with data used by computer applications, said computer applications supporting business processes of the business model;

accessing business metadata from a first source outside of the data warehouse, said business metadata comprising relationships between the business processes and the computer applications, said business metadata further comprising relationships between the computer applications and the technical metadata;

accessing presentation metadata from a second source outside of the data warehouse, said second source being independent of the first source, said presentation metadata specifying a presentation format of the technical metadata and business metadata, wherein the second source comprises at least one eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet comprising the presentation metadata;

applying the presentation metadata to the technical metadata and the business metadata to generate the information catalog, said information catalog comprising the technical metadata and the business metadata in accordance with the presentation format specified by the presentation metadata; and

displaying, on an output device for an end user, a graphical interface representing the generated information catalog,

wherein the method further comprises generating a rules base of rules as templates derived from the presentation metadata in the at least one XSL stylesheet;

wherein prior to the applying step the method further comprises parsing the technical metadata and the business metadata to form a source tree such that the source tree comprises the parsed business metadata and parsed technical metadata logically linked to each other;

wherein the applying step comprises both applying the templates of the rules base and traversing the source tree to form a result tree that includes the logically linked technical metadata and business metadata integrated with the presentation metadata;

wherein the method further comprises transforming the result tree into the information catalog such that the information catalog comprises files formatted in accordance with the presentation metadata;

wherein traversing the source tree comprises traversing the entire source tree in accordance with a recursive descent algorithm in which said traversing comprises starting at the root node of the source tree and traversing through the source tree until a leaf node is reached and then returning through the source tree to the root node;

wherein said traversing the source tree comprises ascertaining whether there is a rule in the rules base for each element in the source tree;

wherein each element having exactly one rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, is written out in accordance with said exactly one rule during said displaying;

wherein each element having no rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, is written out as text during said displaying; and

wherein for each element having more than one rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, one or more of said more than one rule is applied to said each element in accordance with a rule hierarchical scheme for determining how said each element is displayed during said displaying.

2. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the graphical interface includes a package list frame, an object list frame driven by the package list frame, and a detail frame driven by the object list frame, wherein the package list frame includes selectable applications of said computer applications and selectable associated table creators of tables relating to the technical data, wherein the object list frame is adapted to include selectable tables driven by a computer application and associated table creator selected from the package list frame, and wherein the detail frame is adapted to include table information relating to a table selected from the object list frame.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the information catalog comprises result files selected from the group consisting of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files, PDF files, ZIP files, and combinations thereof.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first source comprises at least one eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file comprising the business metadata.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the XML file includes well-formed HTML code.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data warehouse is a relational database management system, and wherein the technical data is stored in tables of the relational database management system.

7. The computer system of claim 1, said method further comprising accessing additional technical data from the first source;

and wherein said applying step comprises applying the presentation metadata to the technical metadata, the business metadata, and the additional technical metadata to generate the information catalog.

8. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithm adapted to implement a method for generating an information catalog relating to a business model, said method comprising the steps of:

accessing technical metadata from a data warehouse, said technical metadata being associated with data used by computer applications, said computer applications supporting business processes of the business model;

accessing business metadata from a first source outside of the data warehouse, said business metadata comprising relationships between the business processes and the computer applications, said business metadata further comprising relationships between the computer applications and the technical metadata;

accessing presentation metadata from a second source outside of the data warehouse, said second source being independent of the first source, said presentation metadata specifying a presentation format of the technical metadata and business metadata, wherein the second source comprises at least one eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet comprising the presentation metadata;

applying the presentation metadata to the technical metadata and the business metadata to generate the information catalog, said information catalog comprising the technical metadata and the business metadata in accordance with the presentation format specified by the presentation metadata; and

displaying, on an output device for an end user, a graphical interface representing the generated information catalog,

wherein the method further comprises generating a rules base of rules as templates derived from the presentation metadata in the at least one XSL stylesheet;

wherein prior to the applying step the method further comprises parsing the technical metadata and the business metadata to form a source tree such that the source tree comprises the parsed business metadata and parsed technical metadata logically linked to each other;

wherein the applying step comprises both applying the templates of the rules base and traversing the source tree to form a result tree that includes the logically linked technical metadata and business metadata integrated with the presentation metadata;

wherein the method further comprises transforming the result tree into the information catalog such that the information catalog comprises files formatted in accordance with the presentation metadata;

wherein traversing the source tree comprises traversing the entire source tree in accordance with a recursive descent algorithm in which said traversing comprises starting at the root node of the source tree and traversing through the source tree until a leaf node is reached and then returning through the source tree to the root node;

wherein said traversing the source tree comprises ascertaining whether there is a rule in the rules base for each element in the source tree;

wherein each element having exactly one rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, is written out in accordance with said exactly one rule during said displaying;

wherein each element having no rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, is written out as text during said displaying; and

wherein for each element having more than one rule in the rules base, as determined from said ascertaining, one or more of said more than one rule is applied to said each element in accordance with a rule hierarchical scheme for determining how said each element is displayed during said displaying.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the graphical interface includes a package list frame, an object list frame driven by the package list frame, and a detail frame driven by the object list frame, wherein the package list frame includes selectable applications of said computer applications and selectable associated table creators of tables relating to the technical data, wherein the object list frame is adapted to include selectable tables driven by a computer application and associated table creator selected from the package list frame, and wherein the detail frame is adapted to include table information relating to a table selected from the object list frame.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the information catalog comprises result files selected from the group consisting of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files, PDF files, ZIP files, and combinations thereof.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first source comprises at least one eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file comprising the business metadata.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the XML file includes well-formed HTML code.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the data warehouse is a relational database management system, and wherein the technical data is stored in tables of the relational database management system.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, said method further comprising accessing additional technical data from the first source;

and wherein said applying step comprises applying the presentation metadata to the technical metadata, the business metadata, and the additional technical metadata to generate the information catalog.