Augmenting a report with metadata for export to a non-report document

• US 8,527,540 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2005
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Wu, Ju, Dong, Yan, Shet, Prashantha Ramachandra, Cheng, Patrick Yee Cheuk
• Primary Examiner(s): OBISESAN, AUGUSTINE KUNLE
• Application Number:
  US11/318,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20060271508A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,811 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/783
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

A computer readable medium includes executable instructions to create a report; augment the report with metadata including a report identifier and parameter information; and export the report and metadata to a non-report electronic document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

opening, by a report engine of a report server, a report document, the report server passing information about a server name and a report identification (ID) of the report document;

storing, by the report engine, the passed information;

receiving, the report engine, an export call for the report document from an exporter module;

passing the report document and the stored information to the exporter module;

creating and encrypting, by the export module, a string comprising the stored information and at least one other attribute of the report document; and

encrypting and embedding, by the export module, the string into the report document; and

transmitting the report document to a non-reporting application, the non-reporting application decrypting the string to import the report document into a non-report document.

2. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

augmenting the report document with metadata including a report identifier and parameter information.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein augmenting the report document comprises:

augmenting the report document with content level metadata tags to facilitate a refresh of the report document within a non-report electronic document.

4. A method as in claim 2, wherein the metadata to augment the report document is selected from a group consisting of:

a report server name, drill down path information, export dynamic link library (dll) information, export format and options, report parameters, report prompts, login information, and report language.

5. A method as in claim 2, further comprising:

refreshing the report document from a latest instance of the report document that has the same parameters that are specified in the metadata.

6. A method as in claim 5, further comprising:

illustrating data changes in the refreshed report document.

7. A method as in claim 5, further comprising:

maintaining security while refreshing the report.

8. A method as in claim 1, wherein the report document comprises a plurality of components, at least one of the plurality of components being tagged with metadata enabling a first portion of the report document to refresh while a second portion of the report document does not refresh.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein only a portion of the report document is exported.

10. A method as in claim 1, wherein the report document is exported into an existing non-report document.

11. A method as in claim 10, wherein information from a plurality of reports is exported into the existing non-report document.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by at least one data processor of at least one computing system, result in operations comprising:

opening, by a report engine of a report server, a report document, the report server passing information about a server name and a report identification (ID) of the report document;

storing, by the report engine, the passed information;

receiving, the report engine, an export call for the report document from an exporter module;

passing the report document and the stored information to the exporter module;

creating and encrypting, by the export module, a string comprising the stored information and at least one other attribute of the report document; and

encrypting and embedding, by the export module, the string into the report document; and

transmitting the report document to a non-reporting application, the non-reporting application decrypting the string to import the report document into a non-report document.

13. A system comprising:

at least one data processor; and

memory storing instructions, which when executed by the at least one data processor, result in operations comprising;

opening, by a report engine of a report server, a report document, the report server passing information about a server name and a report identification (ID) of the report document;

storing, by the report engine, the passed information;

receiving, the report engine, an export call for the report document from an exporter module;

passing the report document and the stored information to the exporter module;

creating and encrypting, by the export module, a string comprising the stored information and at least one other attribute of the report document; and

encrypting and embedding, by the export module, the string into the report document; and

transmitting the report document to a non-reporting application, the non-reporting application decrypting the string to import the report document into a non-report document.