Autopropagation of business intelligence metadata

• US 7,941,398 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Issued: 05/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pentaho Incorporated (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Pentaho Incorporated (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sichi, John V., Kadam, Chetan R., Rudin, Ken M., Tran, Quoc T., Agashe, Vishwas S., Chow, Benny T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly; Anh
• Application Number:
  US11/904,632
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083306A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,322 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/10, 707100-102, 707/602, 707/755, 707/756, 707/770, 705/1, 705 7- 8
• US Class Current: 707/602
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method of processing data is disclosed. A data field change is detected in a received data entry received by a business intelligence application. A shared metadata entry shared by two or more business intelligence application stack elements is processed to derive for each of at least a subset of said two or more business intelligence application stack elements a corresponding set of element specific metadata needed by that element to use a data value associated with the data field change.

Claims

1. A method of processing data, comprising:

detecting a data field change in a received data entry received by a business intelligence application; and

using a processor to process a shared metadata entry shared by two or more business intelligence application stack elements to derive for each of at least a subset of said two or more business intelligence application stack elements a corresponding set of element specific metadata needed by that element to use a data value associated with the data field change;

wherein detecting a data field change comprises detecting a dynamic data field; and

receiving a binding data associated with the dynamic data field, wherein the binding data indicates a manner in which data associated with the dynamic data field is to be used.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the business intelligence application stack elements include one or more of the following:

one or more source data agents, an Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) element, a Data Warehouse element, an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) element, a data mining element, and a User Interface (UI) element.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein source data agents connect to accounting sources, customer relationship management (CRM) sources, sales-force automation (SFA) sources or enterprise resource planning (ERP) sources.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the corresponding set of element specific metadata is represented by defining views and insert/update statements for data movement in an ETL element.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the corresponding set of element specific metadata is represented by creating columns and tables in a Data Warehouse element.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the corresponding set of element specific metadata is represented by categorizing, summarizing and aggregating data in an OLAP element.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the corresponding set of element specific metadata is represented by building reports from a zero footprint web interface in a UI element.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising adding, modifying or deleting a business intelligence application stack element from the said two or more business intelligence application stack elements.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one corresponding set of element specific metadata comprises a set of element specific runtime object creation commands.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, where the set of element specific runtime object creation commands include one or more of the following:

database commands, table schema commands, XML commands, or OLAP metadata commands.

11. A system of processing data, including:

a processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to;

detect a data field change in a received data entry by a business intelligence application; and

process a shared metadata entry shared by two or more business intelligence application stack elements to derive for each of at least a subset of said two or more business intelligence application stack elements a corresponding set of element specific metadata needed by that element to use a data value associated with the data field change;

wherein detecting a data field change comprises detecting a dynamic data field; and

wherein the processor is further configured to receive a binding data associated with the dynamic data field, wherein the binding data indicates a manner in which data associated with the dynamic data field is to be used.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the business intelligence application stack elements include one or more of the following:

one or more source data agents, an ETL element, a Data Warehouse element, an OLAP element, and a UI element.

13. A system as recited in claim 12, wherein source data agents connect to accounting sources, CRM sources, SFA sources or ERP sources.

14. A computer program product for processing data, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

detecting a data field change in a received data entry by a business intelligence application; and

processing a shared metadata entry shared by two or more business intelligence application stack elements to derive for each of at least a subset of said two or more business intelligence application stack elements a corresponding set of element specific metadata needed by that element to use a data value associated with the data field change;

wherein detecting a data field change comprises detecting a dynamic data field; and

the computer program product further comprising computer instructions for receiving a binding data associated with the dynamic data field, wherein the binding data indicates a manner in which data associated with the dynamic data field is to be used.

15. A computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the business intelligence application stack elements include one or more of the following:

one or more source data agents, an ETL element, a Data Warehouse element, an OLAP element, and a UI element.

16. A computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein source data agents connect to accounting sources, CRM sources, SFA sources or ERP sources.