Method for intelligent browsing in an enterprise data system

• US 8,055,637 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Krantz, Myrle, Helpenstein, Helmut, Romainczyk, Stefan, Deininger, Ralf, Krantz, Andreas, Haub, Andreas Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby; Frantz
• Application Number:
  US11/461,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20070038591A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,925 Days
• Field of Search: 707/602, 707/705, 707/736, 707769-770, 707/741
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• 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: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A method and system is presented which provides a TDM framework for managing self-describing measurement data. The TDM framework provides applications with a central platform for accessing measurement data across an entire enterprise system. By means of individual plug-ins, which are specific to a given data file format, meta-data for each data store in the enterprise may be indexed in a unified manner. The unified indexing, in turn, provides the ability to browse and query the indexed measurement data without requiring the opening or reading from a source data file.

Claims

1. A method, for browsing measurement data comprising:

utilizing a computer to perform;

storing a first plurality of data files in an enterprise system, wherein each data file of the first plurality of data files comprises measurement data and meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data, wherein the meta-data comprises a hierarchical data model including a file/root level, a group/type/setup level, and a signal/channel/trace level;

creating an index for the first plurality of data files according to the meta-data comprised in the first plurality of data files, wherein creating the index comprises a plug-in associated with a file type of each data file retrieving meta-data from each data file;

receiving user input selecting at least one first data file of the first plurality of data files; and

retrieving and displaying meta-data from the index corresponding to the at least one first data file in response to the user input, wherein the at least one first data file is not opened during said retrieving and displaying.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing the computer to perform;

displaying a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing the computer to perform;

storing a second plurality of data files in the enterprise system, wherein the second plurality of data files comprise non-measurement data and meta-data associated with the non-measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the non-measurement data; and

displaying a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files and at least a subset of the second plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the index includes a portion of measurement data from each of the first plurality of data files.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the hierarchical view is performed in response to user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed in the hierarchical view.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed is associated with measurement data stored in two or more data files.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least two of the two or more data files are stored as a different file type.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the index includes a portion of measurement data from one or more channels stored in one or more of the plurality of data files.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein said creating an index according to the meta-data further comprises:

validating a file type of at least one data file in response to successfully retrieving meta-data from the at least one data file using a plug-in associated with the file type of the at least one data file.

9. A computer system comprising:

a memory;

a processor; and

computer-readable code stored on said memory and processable by said processor, said computer-readable code including instructions for causing said processor to;

store a first plurality of data files in an enterprise system, wherein each data file of the first plurality of data files comprises measurement data and meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data, wherein the meta-data comprises a hierarchical data model including a file/root level, a group/type/setup level, and a signal/channel/trace level;

create an index for the first plurality of data files according to the meta-data comprised in the first plurality of data files, wherein creating the index comprises a plug-in associated with a file type of each data file retrieving meta-data from each data file;

receive user input selecting at least one first data file of the first plurality of data files; and

retrieve and display meta-data from the index corresponding to the at least one first data file in response to the user input, wherein the at least one first data file is not opened during said retrieving and displaying.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said computer-readable code further includes instructions for causing said processor to:

display a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said computer-readable code further includes instructions for causing said processor to:

store a second plurality of data files in the enterprise system, wherein the second plurality of data files comprise non-measurement data and meta-data associated with the non-measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the non-measurement data; and

display a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files and at least a subset of the second plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the index includes a portion of measurement data from each of the first plurality of data files.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein displaying the hierarchical view is performed in response to user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed in the hierarchical view.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed is associated with measurement data stored in two or more data files.

15. A non-transitory memory medium comprising program instructions executable to:

store a first plurality of data files in an enterprise system, wherein each data file of the first plurality of data files comprises measurement data and meta-data associated with the measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the measurement data, wherein the meta-data comprises a hierarchical data model including a file/root level, a group/type/setup level, and a signal/channel/trace level;

create an index for the first plurality of data files according to the meta-data comprised in the first plurality of data files, wherein creating the index comprises a plug-in associated with a file type of each data file retrieving meta-data from each data file;

receive user input selecting at least one first data file of the first plurality of data files; and

retrieve and display meta-data from the index corresponding to the at least one first data file in response to the user input, wherein the at least one first data file is not opened during said retrieving and displaying.

16. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable to:

display a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

17. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable to:

store a second plurality of data files in the enterprise system, wherein the second plurality of data files comprise non-measurement data and meta-data associated with the non-measurement data, wherein the meta-data describes characteristics of the non-measurement data; and

display a hierarchical view which contains at least a subset of the first plurality of data files and at least a subset of the second plurality of data files,

wherein said receiving user input selecting at least one first data file comprises receiving user input to the hierarchical view.

18. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 17, wherein displaying the hierarchical view is performed in response to user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed in the hierarchical view.

19. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 18, wherein the user input specifying criteria limiting the measurement data displayed is associated with measurement data stored in two or more data files.

20. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 19, wherein at least two of the two or more data files are stored as a different file type.