Method and mechanism for managing and accessing static and dynamic data

• US 8,271,530 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2004
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Surojit, Joshi, Sameer, Srivastava, Alok Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson, Kimberly
• Application Number:
  US10/845,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20040210582A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,051 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/100.S, 707/200.S, 707/786, 707/999.001
• US Class Current: 707/786
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

Disclosed is a method, mechanism, and computer usable medium for managing and accessing static and shard data. In one approach, described is a method and mechanism for implementing group dependent keys (GDKs) in a computing system, in which the GDK is visible to all members of a distributed system, but its value(s) and subtree(s) could be different for different groups. Members of each group see the same view of the value and subtree of a GDK. Also disclosed is a method, mechanism, and computer usable medium for implementing group dependent links (GDLs) in a computing system. According to one approach, a data transformation function is used to coordinate changes to different versions of shared data.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for accessing data in a computing system, the method comprising:

using at least one processor to perform a process, the process comprising;

associating a hierarchical key with a first subtree to provide a first tree;

associating the hierarchical key with a second subtree to provide a second tree;

accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

storing the hierarchical key on a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, wherein members of different groups access different subtrees in different storage locations using a hierarchical data structure.

2. The method of claim 1 in which only a single member is part of the first or second group.

3. The method of claim 1 in which a member of the first group dynamically changes association to become a member of the second group.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating the hierarchical key with a default data or a default subtree, wherein access against the hierarchical key by any member that is not part of an established group will cause access to the default data or the default subtree.

5. The method of claim 1 that is applied to allow multiple members to access different data during a rolling upgrade, in which the hierarchical key comprises a key to data for a software product.

6. The method of claim 1 that is applied to allow different users to access different content at a web page, in which a web page address for the web page comprises the hierarchical key.

7. The method of claim 1 that is applied to allow access to different database views, in which the hierarchical key comprises an identifier of a view.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the hierarchical key is an index structure.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the key is a group dependent key.

10. The method of claim 9 in which the group dependent key is only visible to members of the first or second groups.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the group dependent key is associated with only a single member.

12. The method of claim 11 in which the key is a member dependent key.

13. The method of claim 9 in which the first or second subtree includes data that is shared static or dynamic data.

14. The method of claim 1 in which a link is created between the first subtree and the second subtree.

15. The method of claim 14 in which the link is a group dependent link.

16. The method of claim 14 in which the link is only visible to members of the first or second groups.

17. The method of claim 14 in which the link is bidirectional or multidirectional.

18. The method of claim 14 in which the link is implemented as a link to a group dependent key.

19. The method of claim 14 in which the link is implemented as one or more links to normal keys.

20. The method of claim 19 in which the one or more links are private links.

21. The method of claim 20 in which the private links are private symbolic links.

22. The method of claim 14 in which the first or second subtree includes data that is shared static or dynamic data.

23. The method of claim 1 in which data transformation is performed between a first data or the first subtree and a second data or the second subtree.

24. The method of claim 23 in which a data transformation function is used to perform the act of data transformation.

25. The method of claim 23 in which the data transformation is performed against data associated with a group dependent link or a group dependent key.

26. The method of claim 23 in which the act of data transformation changes data format, data value, index structure, or data structure.

27. The method of claim 23 in which a Backus-Naur Form (BNF) grammar is used to define a language for specifying the data transformation.

28. The method of claim 27 in which the Backus-Naur Form (BNF) grammar comprises semantics for implementing a data transformation selected from the group consisting of:

data format change, data value change, transformation along a hierarchical structure, transformation applied to children in a hierarchy, transformation between different hierarchical structures, transformations related to security attributes of a key.

29. The method of claim 23 in which the data transformation is performed between three or more groups of members.

30. A computer implemented method for managing shared data in a computing system implemented by using a processor, comprising:

associating a hierarchical key with a first subtree of a first tree;

associating the hierarchical key with a link to a second subtree of a second tree;

accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

storing a first version of a data item for the hierarchical key associated with the first group in a first storage location on a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium and a second version of the data item for the hierarchical key associated with the second group in the second storage location on the volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, wherein the hierarchical key accesses different versions of the data item stored in different storage locations.

31. The method of claim 30 in which only a single member is part of the first or second group.

32. The method of claim 30 in which a member of the first group dynamically changes association to become a member of the second group.

33. The method of claim 30 that is applied to allow multiple members to access different data during a rolling upgrade, in which the hierarchical data access structure comprises a key to data for a software product.

34. The method of claim 30 that is applied to allow different users to access different content at a web page, in which a web page address for the web page comprises the index structure.

35. The method of claim 30 that is applied to allow access to different database views, in which the hierarchical data access structure comprises an identifier of a view.

36. The method of claim 30 in which a data transformation function is performed when accessing the hierarchical data access structure.

37. The method of claim 36 in which the data transformation function converts between a first expected format, value or structure and a second expected format, value, or structure.

38. The method of claim 37 in which the conversion between the first expected format, value, or structure and the second expected format, value, or structure is dynamically performed.

39. The method of claim 37 in which the data transformation function is applied when a data read operation is performed.

40. The method of claim 36 in which the first subtree or the second subtree includes data that are shared data.

41. The method of claim 40 in which the shared data is dynamic shared data.

42. The method of claim 36 in which the data transformation function is applied when a data update operation is performed.

43. A volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium that stores instructions for accessing data in a computing system, the instructions performing a process comprising:

associating a hierarchical key with a first subtree to provide a first tree;

associating the hierarchical key with a second subtree to provide a second tree;

accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

storing the hierarchical key on a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, wherein the hierarchical key represents different data structure values for accessing different subtrees for members of different groups.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, wherein the hierarchical data access structure is a key.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the key is a group dependent key.

46. A system for accessing data in a computing system, comprising:

a processor that is configured to;

associate a hierarchical key with a first subtree to provide a first tree;

associate the hierarchical key with a second subtree to provide a second tree;

access against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

a volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium that is configured to store the hierarchical key, wherein the hierarchical key represents different data structure values for accessing different subtrees for members of different groups.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the hierarchical data access structure is a key.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the key is a group dependent key.

49. A system for managing shared data in a computing system, comprising:

a processor that is to;

associate a hierarchical key with a first subtree to provide a first tree;

associate the hierarchical key with a link to a second subtree to provide a second tree;

access against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

a volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium that is to store a first version of a data item for the hierarchical key associated with the first group in a first storage location on the volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium and a second version of the data item for the hierarchical key associated with the second group in the second storage location on the volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, wherein the hierarchical key accesses different versions of the data item.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the hierarchical data access structure is a key.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the key is a group dependent key.

52. A volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium that stores instructions for managing shared data in a computing system, the instructions performing a process comprising:

associating a hierarchical key with a first subtree to provide a first tree;

associating the hierarchical key with a link to a second subtree to provide a second tree;

accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a first group causes access to the first subtree of the first tree and accessing against the hierarchical key by a member of a second group causes access to the second subtree of the second tree, wherein the first tree and the second tree comprise different hierarchies having different hierarchically structured data and the different subtrees are accessible by the hierarchical key; and

storing a first version of a data item for the hierarchical key associated with the first group in a first storage location of a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium and a second version of the data item for the hierarchical key associated with the second group in the second storage location of the volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, wherein the hierarchical key accesses different versions of the data item.

53. The computer-readable medium of claim 52, wherein the hierarchical data access structure is a key.

54. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the key is a group dependent key.