System and method for delivering results of a search query in an information management system

• US 8,069,147 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2006
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Blazejewski, Edward, Angle, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le; Jessica N
• Application Number:
  US11/559,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/640
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A system and method for managing data repositories may include providing techniques for end users to access and manipulate reports stored in the repositories. Text-based, image-based, or other types of reports may be stored in online and/or offline repositories, and in response to a search request, reports stored in the online and/or offline repositories may be retrieved. End users may export report data from text-based and/or image-based formats by converting the data into a spreadsheet format using various customization techniques. Thus, end users may edit, modify, analyze, or otherwise manipulate information in online and/or offline reports, while maintaining integrity of the information in the repositories.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for delivering search results that include data from one or more online data repositories that store a plurality of online reports and one or more offline data repositories that store a plurality of archived or compressed reports in a long-term backup system, comprising:

setting security to limit access to the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories and the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories;

specifying one or more mandatory criteria fields and one or more optional criteria fields to search the online data repositories and the offline data repositories;

searching, by a processor, the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories to identify a first report among the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories that matches criteria provided in a search query in response to a data management application determining that the criteria provided in the search query includes at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

searching, by the processor, the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories to identify a second report among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories that matches the criteria provided in the search query in response to the data management application determining that the criteria provided in the search query includes at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

exporting data from the first report identified in the online data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the first report;

exporting data from the second report identified in the offline data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the second report, wherein exporting the data from the second report includes unarchiving or decompressing the second report identified among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories;

analyzing the data exported from the first report and the data exported from the second report;

delivering, by a data management application, the analyzed data exported from the first report and the analyzed data exported from the second report to a spreadsheet application in response to a user that submitted the search query having one or more permissions that satisfy the security, wherein manipulating the data delivered to the spreadsheet application does not modify the first report stored in the online data repositories or the second report stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories; and

tracking activity associated with the user interacting with the analyzed data delivered to the spreadsheet application to generate an audit log, vary a presentation associated with the first report or the second report depending on read versus unread status, and generate statistical analysis relating to the tracked activity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that at least one of the first report or the second report is an image-based report; and

converting the at least one image-based report into a text-based report using optical character recognition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include a parsing criteria indicating one or more pages in the respective report having the data to be exported.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include an automatic parsing criteria indicating at least one of a delimiter, a column offset, or a data type used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one column offset value used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one delimiter character used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein exporting the data from the first report or the second report further includes treating two or more consecutive occurrences of the delimiter character as one occurrence of the delimiter character in response to the export options including a selection to treat consecutive delimiters as one.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data exported from the first report or the second report includes data from any line in the respective report having an inclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report and excludes data from any line in the respective report having an exclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria provided in the search query indicates whether to search only the online data repositories, only the offline data repositories, or both the online data repositories and offline data repositories, and wherein the method further comprises recalling the second report from the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories in response to a selection of the second report that matches the criteria provided in the search query.

28. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying a proceed message in response to the selection of the second report stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories, wherein the proceed message includes an availability of the second report stored in the long-term backup system, an amount of time needed to recall the second report from the long-term backup system, and a prompt to confirm that the second report is to be recalled from the long-term backup system.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising displaying a confirmation message in response to receiving a confirmation to the prompt in the proceed message, wherein the confirmation message includes a confirmation that a request to recall the second report has been submitted to the long-term backup system, an expected amount of time until the second report will be recalled from the long-term backup system, and an elapsed time since the request to recall the second report was submitted to the long-term backup system.

36. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more threads in a dynamic thread pool recall the second report from the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories to enable scalability in recalling information from the long-term backup system.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon for delivering search results that include data from one or more online data repositories that store a plurality of online reports and one or more offline data repositories that store a plurality of archived or compressed reports in a long-term backup system, the computer-executable instructions operable when executed on a computer to:

set security to limit access to the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories and the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories;

specify one or more mandatory criteria fields and one or more optional criteria fields to search the online data repositories and the offline data repositories;

search, by a processor, the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories to a first report among the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories that matches criteria provided in a search query in response to the criteria provided in the search query including at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

search, by the processor, the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories to identify a second report among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories that matches the criteria provided in the search query in response to the criteria provided in the search query including at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

export data from the first report identified in the online data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the first report;

export data from the second report stored in the offline data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the second report, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further operable to unarchive or decompress the second report identified among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories to export the data from the second report;

analyze the data exported from the first report and the data exported from the second report;

deliver the analyzed data exported from the first report and the analyzed data exported from the second report to a spreadsheet application in response to a user that submitted the search query having one or more permissions that satisfy the security, wherein manipulating the data delivered to the spreadsheet application does not modify the first report stored in the online data repositories or the second report stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories; and

track activity associated with the user interacting with the analyzed data delivered to the spreadsheet application to generate an audit log, vary a presentation associated with the first report or the second report depending on read versus unread status, and generate statistical analysis relating to the tracked activity.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the computer-executable instructions further operable when executed to:

determine that at least one of the first report or the second report is an image-based report; and

convert the at least one image-based report into a text-based report using the optical character recognition.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include a parsing criteria indicating one or more pages in the respective report having the data to be exported.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include an automatic parsing criteria indicating at least one of a delimiter, a column offset, or a data type used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one column offset value used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one delimiter character used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further operable to treat two or more consecutive occurrences of the delimiter character as one occurrence of the delimiter character to export the data from the first report or the second report in response to the export options including a selection to treat consecutive delimiters as one.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the data exported from the first report or the second report includes data from any line in the respective report having an inclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report and excludes data from any line in the respective report having an exclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the criteria provided in the search query indicates whether to search only the online data repositories, only the offline data repositories, or both the online data repositories and offline data repositories, and wherein the computer-executable instructions are further operable when executed to recall the second report from the long-term backup system associated with stored in the offline data repositories in response to a selection of the second report that matches the criteria provided in the search query.

30. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the computer-executable instructions further operable when executed to display a proceed message in response to the selection of the second report stored in the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories, wherein the proceed message includes an availability of the second report stored in the long-term backup system, an amount of time needed to recall the second report from the long-term backup system, and a prompt to confirm that the second report is to be recalled from the long-term backup system.

31. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 30, the computer-executable instructions further operable when executed to display a confirmation message in response to receiving a confirmation to the prompt in the proceed message, wherein the confirmation message includes a confirmation that a request to recall the second report has been submitted to the long-term backup system, an expected amount of time until the second report will be recalled from the long-term backup system, and an elapsed time since the request to recall the second report was submitted to the long-term backup system.

35. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further operable when executed to use one or more threads in a dynamic thread pool to recall the second report from the long-term backup system associated with the offline data repositories and provide scalability in recalling information from the long-term backup system.

19. A system for delivering search results, comprising:

one or more online data repositories configured to store a plurality of online reports;

a long-term backup facility having one or more offline data repositories configured to store a plurality of archived or compressed reports;

a data management application configured to;

set security to limit access to the reports stored in the online data repositories and the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories; and

specify one or more mandatory criteria fields and one or more optional criteria fields to search the online data repositories and the offline data repositories; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive a search query from a client device;

search the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories to identify a first report among the plurality of online reports stored in the online data repositories that matches criteria provided in the search query in response to the criteria provided in the search query including at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

search the plurality of archived or compressed reports in the long-term backup facility associated with the offline data repositories to identify a second report among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories that matches the criteria provided in the search query in response to the criteria provided in the search query including at least the one or more mandatory criteria fields;

export data from the first report identified in the online data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the first report;

export data from the second report stored in the offline data repositories in accordance with one or more export options provided for the second report, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to unarchive or decompress the second report identified among the plurality of archived or compressed reports stored in the offline data repositories to export the data from the second report;

analyze the data exported from the first report and the data exported from the second report;

deliver the analyzed data exported from the first report and the analyzed data exported from the second report to a spreadsheet application associated with the client device in response to the data management application determining that a user that submitted the search query has one or more permissions that satisfy the security, wherein manipulating the data delivered to the spreadsheet application on the client device does not modify the first report stored in the online data repositories or the second report stored in the offline data repositories, and wherein the data management application is further configured to track activity associated with the user interacting with the analyzed data delivered to the spreadsheet application to generate an audit log, vary a presentation associated with the first report or the second report depending on read versus unread status, and generate statistical analysis relating to the tracked activity.

20. The system of claim 19, the one or more processors further configured to:

determine that at least one of the first report or the second report is an image-based report; and

convert the at least one image-based report into a text-based report using the optical character recognition.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include a parsing criteria indicating one or more pages in the respective report having the data to be exported.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include an automatic parsing criteria indicating at least one of a delimiter, a column offset, or a data type used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one column offset value used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the export options provided for one or more of the first report or the second report include at least one delimiter character used to organize information in the respective report and export the data from the respective report.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to treat two or more consecutive occurrences of the delimiter character as one occurrence of the delimiter character to export the data from the first report or the second report in response to the export options including a selection to treat consecutive delimiters as one.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the data exported from the first report or the second report includes data from any line in the respective report having an inclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report and excludes data from any line in the respective report having an exclusion filtering criteria provided in the export options associated with the respective report.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the criteria provided in the search query indicates whether to search only the online data repositories, only the offline data repositories, or both the online data repositories and offline data repositories, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to recall the second report from the long-term backup facility associated with the offline data repositories in response to a selection of the second report that matches the criteria provided in the search query.

32. The system of claim 27, the one or more processors further configured to display a proceed message in response to the selection of the second report stored in the long-term backup facility associated with the offline data repositories, wherein the proceed message includes an availability of the second report stored in the long-term backup facility, an amount of time needed to recall the second report from the long-term backup facility, and a prompt to confirm that the second report is to be recalled from the long-term backup facility.

33. The system of claim 32, the one or more processors further configured to display a confirmation message in response to receiving a confirmation to the prompt in the proceed message, wherein the confirmation message includes a confirmation that a request to recall the second report has been submitted to the long-term backup facility, an expected amount of time until the second report will be recalled from the long-term backup facility, and an elapsed time since the request to recall the second report was submitted to the long-term backup facility.

34. The system of claim 27, further comprising a dynamic thread pool, wherein the one or more processors are configured to use one or more threads in the dynamic thread pool to recall the second report from the long-term backup facility associated with the offline data repositories and provide scalability in recalling information from the long-term backup facility.