Apparatus, system, and method for map definition generation

• US 7,840,610 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2005
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tsang, Juliana Hing Sze, Chelladurai, Karthikeyan, Srinivasan, Saravanakumar Anthiyur, Chandrasekharan, Sivakumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pulliam; Christyann R
• Application Number:
  US11/127,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,022 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/809
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

A computer program product, apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for automatic generation of a map definition. The computer program product performs operations for such generation. These operations include identifying a source data structure and a source attribute associated with the source data structure and identifying a destination data structure and a destination attribute associated with the destination data structure. These operations also include automatically identifying a match of the source attribute and the destination attribute and generating a map definition inclusive of the match. The computer program product, apparatus, system, and method thereby reduce human intervention in the creation of a map definition.

Claims

1. A method for generating a storable map definition for a client, the method comprising:

accessing a source data structure and a destination data structure, wherein the source data structure comprises a plurality of source attributes and the destination data structure comprises a plurality of destination attributes;

using a map apparatus to automatically identify a match of an identified source attribute and an identified destination attribute, the map apparatus implemented on a processor and a memory, the match identified according to predefined tolerance parameters comprising affixes, case sensitivities, data types, and synonyms, and using the map apparatus to generate a storable map definition configured to map a source value for the identified source attribute to a destination value for the identified destination attribute;

delivering the storable map definition to a user, the storable map definition comprising the identified source attribute, the identified destination attribute, and a transformation action associated with each identified source attribute and identified destination attribute, the transformation action configured to transform data in the identified source attribute of the source data structure to data in the identified destination attribute of the destination data structure, the source data structure and the destination data structure residing on disparate data systems, wherein the transformation action specifies an action to convert at least one data value in the identified source attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified destination attribute;

using the map apparatus to generate a storable reverse map definition from a mapping defined in the storable map definition;

using the map apparatus to automatically generate a reverse transformation action for the storable reverse map definition, the reverse transformation action based on a transformation action included in the storable map definition, the reverse transformation action specifying an action to convert at least one data value in the identified destination attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified source attribute; and

delivering the storable reverse map definition to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the storable map definition during a development time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatic identification comprises comparing the spelling of a source attribute identifier to the spelling of a destination attribute identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising editing the storable map definition to define a mapping between an additional source attribute and an additional destination attribute in response to the user augmenting the storable map definition, the additional source and destination attributes having a semantic relationship.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising instantiating the storable map definition at runtime as a map instance, the map instance comprising transformation code associated with a transformation action included in the storable map definition.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storable map definition is defined by a Java file comprising a representation of an Extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) data structure.

7. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to facilitate automatic generation of a storable map definition, the operations of the computer program product comprising:

accessing a source data structure and a destination data structure, wherein the source data structure comprises a plurality of source attributes and the destination data structure comprises a plurality of destination attributes;

automatically identifying a match of an identified source attribute and an identified destination attribute using a map apparatus implemented on a processor and a memory, the match identified according to predefined tolerance parameters comprising affixes, case sensitivities, data types and synonyms;

generating a storable map definition inclusive of the match and delivering the storable map definition to a user, the storable map definition comprising the identified source attribute, the identified destination attribute, and a transformation action associated with each identified source attribute and identified destination attribute, the transformation action configured to transform data in the identified source attribute of the source data structure to data in the identified destination attribute of the destination data structure, the source data structure and the destination data structure residing on disparate data systems, wherein the transformation action specifies an action to convert at least one data value in the identified source attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified destination attribute;

editing the storable map definition to define a mapping between an additional source attribute and an additional destination attribute in response to the user augmenting the storable map definition, the additional source and destination attributes having a semantic relationship;

generating a storable reverse map definition from a mapping defined in the storable map definition;

automatically generating a reverse transformation action for the storable reverse map definition, the reverse transformation action based on a transformation action included in the storable map definition, the reverse transformation action specifying an action to convert at least one data value in the identified destination attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified source attribute; and

delivering the storable reverse map definition to the user.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to generate the storable map definition during development time.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the predefined tolerance parameters comprise a data type compatibility parameter and the instructions further comprise an operation to designate the data type compatibility parameter.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the reverse transformation action comprises a join operation and the transformation action comprises a split operation.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the reverse transformation action comprises a split operation and the transformation action comprises a join operation.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to generate a compiled reverse map definition from the storable reverse map definition.

13. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the source data structure comprises a source attribute identifier and the destination data structure comprises a destination attribute identifier and wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to identify the match according to a comparison of the destination attribute identifier and a synonym of the source attribute identifier.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to search a synonym table for the synonym.

15. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to generate a compiled map definition from the storable map definition, wherein the compiled map definition comprises transformation code associated with one or more transformation actions included in the storable map definition, the transformation code executable in a runtime environment.

16. An apparatus comprising the computer program product of claim 7, wherein the apparatus further comprises a plurality of modules configured to implement the operations to facilitate automatic generation of the storable map definition.

17. A system comprising the computer program product of claim 7, wherein the system further comprises an interchange server coupled to the source data structure and the destination data structure.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a source database server coupled to the interchange server, wherein the source data structure resides on the source database server.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a destination database server coupled to the interchange server, wherein the destination data structure resides on the destination database server.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising an electronic memory device coupled to the interchange server, wherein the electronic memory device is configured to store the machine-readable instructions of the computer readable storage medium.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a synonym table stored on the electronic memory device, the synonym table comprising one or more synonyms associated with a source attribute identifier.

22. The system of claim 17, further comprising a digital processor configured to execute the machine-readable instructions of the computer readable storage medium to perform the operations to facilitate automatic generation of the storable map definition.

23. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise an operation to instantiate the storable map definition at runtime as a map instance, the map instance comprising transformation code associated with a transformation action included in the storable map definition.

24. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the storable map definition is defined by a Java file comprising a representation of an Extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) data structure.

25. A method for automatically generating a storable map definition, the method comprising:

identifying a source data structure and a plurality of source attributes associated with the source data structure;

identifying a destination data structure and a plurality of destination attributes associated with the destination data structure;

automatically identifying a match of an identified source attribute and an identified destination attribute using a map apparatus implemented on a processor and a memory, the match identified according to predefined tolerance parameters comprising affixes, case sensitivities, data types and synonyms;

generating a storable map definition inclusive of the match and delivering the storable map definition to the user, the storable map definition comprising the identified source attribute, the identified destination attribute, and a transformation action associated with each identified source attribute and identified destination attribute, the transformation action configured to transform data in the identified source data attribute of the source data structure to data in the identified destination data attribute of the destination data structure, the source data structure and the destination data structure residing on disparate data systems, wherein the transformation action specifies one of a move, join, split, submap, cross-reference, string manipulation, and data type conversion;

editing the storable map definition to define a mapping between an additional source attribute and an additional destination attribute in response to the user augmenting the storable map definition, the additional source attribute and the additional destination attribute having a semantic relationship;

generating a storable reverse map definition from a mapping defined in the storable map definition;

automatically generating a reverse transformation action for the storable reverse map definition, the reverse transformation action based on a transformation action included in the storable map definition, the reverse transformation action specifying an action to convert at least one data value in the identified destination attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified source attribute; and

delivering the storable reverse map definition to the user.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising generating the storable map definition during development time.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the predefined tolerance parameters comprise a data type compatibility parameter.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising comparing the identified destination attribute and a synonym associated with the identified source attribute.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising instantiating the storable map definition at runtime as a map instance, the map instance comprising transformation code associated with a transformation action included in the storable map definition.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the storable map definition is defined by a Java file comprising a representation of an Extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) data structure.