Taxonomy-based database partitioning

• US 8,458,214 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2001
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Wilson, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Al Alam, Shahid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bullock, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US09/992,594
• Time in Patent Office: 4,221 Days
• Field of Search: 707777-778
• US Class Current: 707/778
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24554 Unary operations; Data partitioning operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

In one aspect of the invention, a memory is described for facilitating splitting data by taxonomy. The memory is accessed by an application program, and includes one or more top-level categories, where each top-level category comprises a subset of the items; and also includes a category group corresponding to at least one of the top-level categories and the subset of the items belonging to the top-level categories.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory comprising one or more top-level categories, each top-level category including a subset of the items;

a category group including at least one of the top-level categories and the subset of the items belonging to at least one of the top-level categories; and

at least one other category group, the at least one other category group including a remainder of the top-level categories, wherein items corresponding to a given top-level category are split among a plurality of category groups; and

a server comprising a database engine coupled to the memory, the database engine configured to provide a listing of top-level categories, to determine a top-level category corresponding to an item, to determine a category group corresponding to the top-level category, to assign the top-level category and the category group to the corresponding item, to partition the top-level category by dividing items within a single top-level category into two or more category groups, and to partition a database in the memory by category group into multiple database instances of the database across multiple storage devices, each storage device comprising groups of items related by category group, the database engine further configured to receive a record of the item to be added to a database in the memory, to generate an item number for the item, the item number comprising an automatically generated number and a category group identifier corresponding to the category group of the item, the category group identifier appended to the automatically generated number, and to generate an item information object corresponding to the item number in the database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory is to be accessed by an application program and includes item records corresponding to an item, said item records belonging to said item as being related by a top-level category, and being related by a category group corresponding to the top-level category.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a first one of related item records resides on a database instance different from a second one of related item records based on the item number.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein a first one of item records corresponding to the same top-level category belongs to a category group different from a second one of item records corresponding to the same top-level category.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory is accessed by an application program to process transactions on an auction website.

6. A system comprising:

a memory to be accessed by an application program, the memory comprising at least one top-level category identifier;

at least one category group identifier corresponding to the at least one top-level category identifier; and

one or more item information objects each corresponding to a top-level category identifier, and each corresponding to a category group that corresponds to the top-level category identifier, each item information object corresponds to a record, the record including information including at least one of the following;

an item number;

an item description;

or one or more item bids; and

a server comprising the application program coupled to the memory, the application program configured to provide a listing of top-level categories, to determine a top-level category corresponding to an item, to determine a category group corresponding to the top-level category, to determine one or more locations corresponding to the category group, to create at least one item information object corresponding to the item, to assign the top-level category and the category group to the at least one item information object, to store the at least one item information object at the one or more locations corresponding to the category group, to partition the top-level category by dividing items within a single top-level category into two or more category groups, and to partition a database in the memory by category group into multiple database instances of the database across multiple storage devices, each storage device comprising groups of items related by category group, the application program further configured to receive a record of the item to be added to a database in the memory, to generate an item number for the item, the item number comprising an automatically generated number and a category group identifier corresponding to the category group of the item, the category group identifier appended to the automatically generated number, and to generate an item information object corresponding to the item number in the database.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein related item information objects are located on a single database instance.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the item information objects each correspond to an auction item on an auction website.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein a first item information object corresponding to a first item of a first category group resides on a first database instance of the database based on the item number of the first item, a second item information object corresponding to a second item of a second category group resides on a second database instance of the database based on the item number of the second item.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first database instance of the database resides on a first machine, wherein the second database instance of the database resides on a second machine separate from the first machine.