Methods and apparatus for storing and retrieving annotations accessible by a plurality of reports

• US 7,870,480 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open Text Holdings, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Actuate Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Chu, Jason, Oswald, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn; Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US11/080,078
• Time in Patent Office: 2,129 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/230, 715/231, 715/266, 715/272
• US Class Current: 715/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for storing and retrieving annotations accessible by a plurality of reports are disclosed. When an annotation including comments entered by an author is received in association with a data element or field of one of the plurality of reports, the annotation is stored such that it is retrievable using a key. Specifically, the key is composed of both a scope of the annotation and a period end date of the annotation. The scope indicates a subject matter with which the annotation is associated. When annotations associated with a particular data element or field of a report are viewed, the scope of the annotation and the period end date of the data element or field are ascertained. A key composed of the scope and period end date is then used to retrieve the annotation(s) that are pertinent to the data element or field of the report. Specifically, since the reports are related in a hierarchical manner, the scope and period end date of the annotations that are retrieved are those within the scope and period end date of the data element or field of the report.

Claims

1. A method of storing annotations accessible by a plurality of reports, comprising:

obtaining an annotation in association with a data element or field of one of the plurality of reports, the annotation including comments entered by an author; and

storing the annotation;

wherein the stored annotation is associated with a scope of the annotation and a period end date of the annotation;

wherein the scope indicates a subject matter with which the annotation is associated;

wherein both the scope and the period end date are used together to access as a key for accessing the annotation;

for one of the plurality of reports via which the annotation was obtained,

wherein the annotation is accessible by each of the plurality of reports having a scope equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and having a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope of the annotation is a scope of the data element or field and the period end date is a period end date of the data element or field.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope of the annotation is a scope of the report and the period end date is a period end date of the report.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of reports are related in a hierarchical manner.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope identifies a scope of the plurality of reports.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope identifies the plurality of reports.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope indicates at least one of a variance type and an account type.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope indicates at least one of a division, a business unit, and an account.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the annotation has an entry date associated therewith.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the entry date can be outside the period end date.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope of the annotation is a scope of the field and the period end date of the annotation is a period end date of the field.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the field is present in each of the plurality of reports.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

storing the scope of the annotation; and

storing the period end date of the annotation.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the annotation has an annotation time associated therewith.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the field is a variance field, the scope is a variance scope indicating a scope of variance and wherein the comments are associated with the variance.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the variance is a budget variance.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the variance is a difference between a budget amount and a forecasted amount.

18. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the variance is a difference between a budget amount and an actual amount.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the scope is one of a plurality of scopes, the plurality of scopes being related in a hierarchical manner.

20. A method of storing annotations accessible by a plurality of reports, comprising:

receiving an annotation in association with a variance of one of the plurality of reports, the annotation including comments entered by an author; and

storing the annotation;

wherein the stored annotation is associated with a scope of the variance and a period end date of the variance;

wherein the scope of the variance indicates a subject matter with which the variance is associated; and

wherein both the scope and the period end date are used together as a key for accessing the annotation;

wherein the annotation is accessible by each of the plurality of reports having a scope that is equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and having a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the variance is a forecast or budget variance.

22. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the scope is represented by a plurality of fields.

23. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the subject matter indicates a business group with which the plurality of reports are associated.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the plurality of reports are related in a hierarchical manner.

25. The method as recited in claim 24, wherein each of the plurality of reports has a scope equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and has a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation, thereby enabling the annotation to be accessible via the plurality of reports.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein each of the plurality of reports has a variance with a scope equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation.

27. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of reports is a summary report or expense report.

28. The method as recited in claim 27, wherein the annotation is not associated with the plurality of reports.

29. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the annotation is accessible by each of the plurality of reports having a variance with a scope that is equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and having a variance with a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation.

30. A method of viewing annotations in association with a field of one of a plurality of reports, comprising:

receiving a request to view annotations in association with a field of one of the plurality of reports or a request to view the one of the plurality of reports;

ascertaining a scope of the field of the one of the plurality of reports and a period end date of the field of the one of the plurality of reports;

identifying one or more annotations from a plurality of annotations using a key, wherein both the scope and the period end date are used together as the key; and

displaying the identified annotations, wherein the scope of the field of the one of the plurality of reports is equal to or greater than the scope of the identified annotations and wherein the period end date of the field of the one of the plurality of reports is later than or equal to the period end date of the identified annotations.

31. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein identifying one or more annotations comprises:

identifying one or more annotations in an annotations database storing annotations for the plurality of reports, wherein the scope of the field and the period end date of the field are used together as a key to the annotations database.

32. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein the field is a variance field and where displaying is performed in association with the variance field of the one of the plurality of reports.

33. The method as recited in claim 32, further comprising:

displaying a comment indicator in association with the variance field when the scope of the one of the plurality of reports is equal to or greater than the scope of one or more annotations and when the period end date of the one of the plurality of reports is later than or equal to the period end date of one or more annotations associated with the variance field.

34. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising:

receiving a request to view annotations associated with the variance field.

35. The method as recited in claim 34, further comprising:

determining whether the comment indicator is set; and

when the comment indicator is set, displaying the one or more annotations when the scope of the one of the plurality of reports is equal to or greater than the scope of the one or more annotations and when the period end date of the one of the plurality of reports is later than or equal to the period end date of the one or more annotations.

36. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein when the scope of the one of the plurality of reports is equal to or greater than the scope of annotation and when the period end date of the one of the plurality of reports is later than or equal to the period end date of the annotation, receiving and storing a new annotation.

37. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein

wherein the request is received from an individual;

determining whether the individual has security access to the one of the plurality of reports; and

when it is determined that the individual has security access to the one of the plurality of reports, performing the determining, ascertaining and displaying steps.

38. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein each of the plurality of the annotations is accessible via each of the plurality of reports having a scope equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and having a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation.

39. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of annotations was entered in association with a different one of the plurality of reports.

40. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein the plurality of annotations have been entered in association with one or more of the plurality of reports, and wherein the plurality of annotations are accessible via the plurality of reports.

41. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the following steps:

obtaining an annotation in association with a data element or field of one of a plurality of reports, the annotation including comments entered by an author; and

storing the annotation;

wherein the stored annotation is associated with a scope of the annotation and a period end date of the annotation;

wherein the scope indicates a subject matter with which the annotation is associated; and

wherein the annotation is accessible via each of the plurality of reports having a scope equal to the scope of the annotation or including the scope of the annotation, and having a period end date equal to the period end date of the annotation or greater than the period end date of the annotation.

42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein both the scope and the period end date are used together as a key for accessing annotations.

43. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein the scope of the annotation is a scope of the one of the plurality of reports and the period end date of the annotation is a period end date of the one of the plurality of reports.

44. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the following steps:

receiving a request to view annotations in association with a field of one of a plurality of reports or a request to view the one of the plurality of reports;

ascertaining a scope of the one of the plurality of reports and a period end date of the one of the plurality of reports;

identifying one or more annotations from a plurality of annotations using a key, wherein both the scope and the period end date are used together as the key, wherein the scope of the one of the plurality of reports is equal to or greater than the scope of the identified annotations and wherein the period end date of the one of the plurality of reports is later than or equal to the period end date of the identified annotations; and

displaying the identified annotations.

45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 44, wherein the plurality of annotations have been entered in association with one or more of the plurality of reports, and wherein the plurality of annotations are accessible via the plurality of reports.

46. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 45, wherein the key does not identify the one of the plurality of reports, thereby enabling annotations that have been entered in association with other ones of the plurality of reports to be accessed via the one of the plurality of reports.