Shared composite data representations and interfaces

• US 8,463,743 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gopal, Burra, Soni, Manish, Singh, Jagdish, Viegers, Sander M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Mohammed R
• Application Number:
  US12/372,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211741A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 707/808, 707/610, 707/617, 707/999.101
• US Class Current: 707/610
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide information management features and functionality that can be used to manage information of distinct information sources, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, a computing environment includes a client that can be used to access data from distinct sources and generate a data composition representing aspects of accessed and other data and/or relationships of the distinct sources. In one embodiment, a client can include data composition and conflict resolution presentation features that can be used to manage one or more data compositions and/or source interrelationships. Other embodiments are available.

Claims

1. A method of representing a composition of data comprising:

generating a plurality of data composition regions, including aspects of sets of data;

forming any overlapping portions of the composition of data based in part on one or more corresponding properties of one or more of the plurality of composition regions;

generating a graphical composition representation to include one or more overlapping portions including delineating data flow and conflict information based in part on one of a master source and an overriding source, including using a master determination in quantifying a direction of change and associated propagation, and displaying conflict-related information for various sources including resolved conflicts and unresolved conflicts, further including displaying color changing of one or more overlapping portions of the graphical composition representation from one or more first colors to one or more second colors upon resolving conflicting data changes, wherein the displaying further includes using opposing arrow indicators to indicate a potential or an existing conflict of each associated overlapping portion and a single arrow indicator to identify a master-subordinate relationship of each associated overlapping portion;

determining if any corresponding properties of an overlapping portion are unmerged; and

,

updating the graphical composition representation to reflect aspects of the unmerged properties of the overlapping portion including merging unmerged properties of an associated overlapping portion based in part on one of an identified master source and an identified overriding source and updating the graphical composition representation to reflect merging of the unmerged properties of each overlapping portion.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing aspects of the graphical composition representation as one or more data structures in cache memory.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the graphical composition representation based in part on one of a selected master and a source override operation associated with the one or more corresponding properties for each overlapping portion.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating each overlapping portion with a color representative of one of a conflict, a master or override source, and a data change.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising filling each overlapping portion with:

red to present a conflict and a change having multiple masters, green to present no changes with no conflict, and orange and a direction of change indicator to present a single master change with no conflict.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising identifying non-overlapping portions having unmapped properties and filling each non-overlapping portion with:

yellow to present some change with no conflict, and blue to present no change with no conflict.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a first overlapping portion representative of a first set of mapping data, a second overlapping portion representative of a second set of mapping data, a third overlapping portion representative of a third set of mapping data, and a fourth overlapping portion representative of a fourth set of mapping data, wherein each overlapping portion includes one of a color and a direction of change indicator to identify one of a conflict, master change, and no conflict which is based in part on each set of mapping data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting any conflicting changes and data movement at an individual property mapping level.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising presenting any identified data movement corresponding to a change with or without a conflict at each individual property mapping level of a corresponding overlapping portion.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the graphical composition representation based in part on one of a master selection, defined master rule set, and defined source override rule set to resolve any conflicting changes.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the graphical composition representation to reflect a conflict resolution including changing any overlapping portion having a conflict from a first color to a second color and displaying the changing from the first color to the second color.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a list of resolved conflicts and unresolved conflicts with the graphical composition representation.

13. A computing device to use composite data comprising:

at least one processor coupled to memory; and

,

a user interface component under processor control and configured to provide a data composition representation by;

accessing sets of properties and values, wherein each set of properties and values is associated with a distinct information source;

identifying any overlapping portions corresponding to mapped portions of one or more of the sets of properties and values;

presenting the data composition representation including presenting the overlapping portions with one of directional information associated with a change and conflict information based in part on a property mapping of one or more of the mapped portions, including using a master determination in quantifying a direction of change and associated propagation, and displaying conflict-related information for various sources including resolved conflicts and unresolved conflicts, further including displaying color changing of one or more overlapping portions of the data composition representation from one or more first colors to one or more second colors upon resolving conflicting data changes, wherein the displaying further includes using opposing arrow indicators to indicate a potential or an existing conflict of each associated overlapping portion and a single arrow indicator to identify a master-subordinate relationship of each associated overlapping portion;

determining if any corresponding properties of an overlapping portion are unmerged; and

,

updating the data composition representation to reflect aspects of the unmerged properties of the overlapping portion including merging unmerged properties of an associated overlapping portion based in part on one of an identified master source and an identified overriding source and updating the data composition representation to reflect merging of the unmerged properties of each overlapping portion.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user interface component is further configured to provide the data composition representation by updating properties and values to reflect a conflict resolution based in part on the determination of a master source and an override source associated with an overlapping portion.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface component is further configured to provide the data composition representation by changing a color of an overlapping portion from a first color to a second color upon resolving a conflicting data change and displaying the changing from the first color to the second color.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having executable instructions, when executed, provide an information composition representation by:

creating sets of name-value pairs, wherein each set of name-value pairs is associated with a distinct system;

identifying any corresponding name-value pairs of one or more of the sets based in part on mappings between corresponding name-value pairs;

generating overlapping composite portions based in part on corresponding name-value pairs;

presenting the information composition representation including presenting any overlapping composite portions with representative conflict information and direction of change indicators, including using a master determination in quantifying a direction of change and associated propagation, and displaying the conflict information for various sources including resolved conflicts and unresolved conflicts, further including displaying color changing of one or more overlapping portions of the information composition representation from one or more first colors to one or more second colors upon resolving conflicting data changes, wherein the displaying further includes using opposing arrow indicators to indicate a potential or an existing conflict of each associated overlapping portion and a single arrow indicator to identify a master-subordinate relationship of each associated overlapping portion;

determining if any corresponding properties of an overlapping portion are unmerged; and

,

updating the information composition representation to reflect aspects of the unmerged properties of the overlapping portion including merging unmerged properties of an associated overlapping portion based in part on one of an identified master source and an identified overriding source and updating the information composition representation to reflect merging of the unmerged properties of each overlapping portion.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, provide the information composition representation by presenting an updated information composition corresponding to information propagations associated with a name-value pair and one of a master and an override source.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, provide the information composition representation by changing a color of an overlapping composite portion from a first color to a second color based in part on a merging operation corresponding to one of a master source and an overriding source.