Method and system of unifying data

• US 8,234,294 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Issued: 07/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DATATRAK International Incorporated
• Original Assignee: DATATRAK International Incorporated
• Inventors: Shlaes, Marc J., van Berkel, Jochen, Engel, Hermann, Jugel, Mario
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehichioya, Fred I
• Application Number:
  US12/275,639
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,348 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609, 707/705, 707/765, 707/769, 707/791, 707/802, 707/803, 707/813
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system, method and database design is provided for unifying data from a plurality of heterogeneous databases, each having business-context related data and a data access mechanism. A database is created (e.g., the UniDimNet) which contains a node for each dimension of an industry. For each data source which is accessible via the system, a set of data source specific dimensions is created and mapped to the corresponding industry business context dimension(s). A set of templates (e.g., UniViews) is created to query the data sources. Each UniView contains a specific question for a specific dimension designed for a specific data source. UniViews query the database they are associated with by using the data access mechanism of the associated database. A central server coordinates the system and facilitates use of the system through an interface (e.g., the UniViewer). The UniViewer allows a user to query the data sources by identifying an industry business context dimension, a dimension instance and at least one UniView. Multiple UniViews can be combined, cached and saved to facilitate complex queries.

Claims

1. A method using one or more computer systems for querying data relating to an industry having a plurality of industry business context dimensions which define logical groupings of data related to the industry, the data contained in a plurality of data sources, at least one data source having a physical or logical structure differing from at least one other data source, each data source having data which is capable of a logical contextual grouping into at least one data source specific dimension which contains data related to at least one industry business context dimension, each data source having a data access mechanism for facilitating querying thereof, the data sources being part of a system for unifying the data, the system having a plurality of data source query function calls, each query function call querying a single data source regarding a single data source specific dimension, each dimension having at least one dimension instance, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from a user the identity of a dimension to be queried;

providing to the user a plurality of data source query function calls from which the user may select at least one data source query function call;

creating a result set having columns defined by the data source query functions selected by the user;

receiving from a user the identity of at least one dimension instance to perform a query regarding; and

populating the columns of the result set with data retrieved from the query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing to the user a list of dimension instances available for the selected dimension.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

modifying the result field based upon a change by the user to data source query function calls selected.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

modifying the result field based upon a change by the user to the dimension instances selected.