Annotation structure type determination

• US 7,900,133 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2003
• Issued: 03/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Grev, Christine A., Rath, Cale T., Cragun, Brian J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig; Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US10/731,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,639 Days
• Field of Search: 715/512, 715/230, 715/231, 715/233, 715/234
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for organizing and selecting structures used to generate forms for capturing information as annotations made for a variety of different type data objects are provided. Some embodiments allow annotation structures to be associated with specific pairings of data object types and user roles via entries in a configuration file. When a user selects a set of one or more data objects for annotation, the configuration file may be accessed to determine a proper annotation structure for use in generating an annotation form based on the selected data objects and a role of the user.

Claims

1. A method for annotating a set of disparate data points, comprising:

receiving a request from a user to create an annotation for a specified set of disparate data points from different data sources;

determining if the disparate data points are of the same type;

if so, retrieving, from a configuration file, at least one annotation structure associated with the same type as the data points; and

generating, based on the annotation structure, an interface for entering annotation information to be associated with the specified set of data points.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the data points are of differing types, retrieving, from a configuration file, at least one annotation structure associated with a set of data points of the same differing types.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein retrieving the one or more annotation structures associated with the set of data points of the same differing types, comprises:

determining, for each differing type, if a number of data points in the specified set having that type falls within a range specified in the configuration file; and

if so, retrieving an identification of one or more annotation structures associated with the set of data points of the same differing types.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the one or more annotation structures comprises retrieving only annotation structures associated with a specified role of the user.