Progressive exploration of data relationships

• US 8,762,411 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Poon, Madison, Gosper, Julian, Hanna, Ryan, Gadd, Ashley, Chan, Chun Pong, Denis, Sylvie
• Primary Examiner(s): MOSER, BRUCE M
• Application Number:
  US12/957,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 707/999.003, 707/999.005, 707/999.1, 707/999.102, 707/999.107, 707/755, 707/769, 707/776, 707/778, 707/796
• US Class Current: 707/778
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/282 Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226

Abstract

Parental dependency information for various data fields may be analyzed to create a data field hierarchy. Each of the data fields may be presented in a selectable list through an interface. Once a data field is selected, any immediate parent(s) and/or child(ren) field(s) of the active data element may be demarcated in the list according to the hierarchy. Additional data entry fields relating to the selected data field and its familial fields may also be displayed. Data in each of data fields may also be analyzed to identify fields with incomplete data. Systems and methods are provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

responsive to a request to generate a data entry interface, parsing the request to identify an object associated with the data entry interface;

querying a data source to retrieve parental dependency information from a plurality of data fields associated with the identified object;

comparing the parental dependency information of the plurality of fields to identify a field hierarchy using a processing device;

displaying a prompt window containing a summary interface and a data entry interface as requested, the summary interface displaying each of the fields in a linear selectable list separate from the data entry interface, the data entry interface providing an interface for a user to enter or modify values associated with one or more fields displayed in the summary interface with child fields being demarcated to prevent data entry until data is entered in a respective parent field based on the field hierarchy;

responsive to a user selection of a field in the linear selectable list, demarcating any immediate parent fields and any immediate child fields in the linear selectable list of the user selected field based on the identified field hierarchy within the summary interface; and

displaying in the data entry interface a data entry field for the user to enter or modify values associated with the user selected field and the immediate parent and child fields that are to be stored in the identified object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein immediate parent fields are demarcated using a different demarcation technique than immediate child fields.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the data source to retrieve data from the plurality of data fields associated with the identified object;

analyzing the data from the plurality of data fields to identify those fields with incomplete data; and

selecting the fields with incomplete data for data entry in the interface.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

identifying, through the hierarchy, each of the fields in a same family as the selected incomplete fields; and

further selecting the identified familial fields for data entry in the interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein fields that are ancestors of the selected incomplete field are in the same family as the selected field.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein fields that are descendants of the selected incomplete field are in the same family as the selected field.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein fields that are selected for data entry are sent to a data entry interface for data entry.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the identified field hierarchy requires parent fields to be entered before child fields:

waiting to display in the data interface the user selected field and any of its child fields until parent field data has been entered; and

waiting to display in the data interface any of the child fields until data of the user selected field has been entered.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving, as part of the querying, each of the data fields included in a non-linear hierarchical relationship between data fields associated with the identified object;

initially displaying all the retrieved data fields in a single column one above another in the linear selectable list; and

after a user selects the user selected fields, only displaying in the data entry interface one or more data entry fields for the user to enter or modify values associated with the user selected field and the immediate parent and child fields of the user selected field that are to be stored in the identified object.

10. A reporting system comprising:

a software development kit (SDK) system including a processing device and a memory, to parse a prompt-creation request, identify a data source object from the parsed request, and generate a prompt window containing a summary interface and a data entry interface, the summary interface displaying each of the fields in a linear selectable list separate from the data entry interface, the data entry interface providing an interface for a user to enter or modify values associated with one or more fields displayed in the summary interface with child fields being demarcated to prevent data entry until data is entered in a respective parent field based on the field hierarchy;

a reporting engine system to identify a plurality of data fields associated with the identified source data object from a database system, generate a query to retrieve parental dependency information from the identified data fields, compare the parental dependency information of the plurality of fields to generate a data field hierarchy, display each of the fields in the linear selectable list within a prompt, demarcate any immediate parent fields and any immediate child fields in the linear selectable list of the user selected field based on the identified field hierarchy within the summary interface responsive to a user selection of a field in the linear selectable list, and display in the data entry interface a data entry field for the user to enter or modify values associated with the user selected field and the immediate parent and child fields that are to be stored in the identified object; and

a communications interface to communicatively couple the SDK system, reporting engine system, and database system.

11. The reporting system of claim 10, wherein each demarcated immediate parent field is similarly demarcated using a different demarcation technique from each of the demarcated immediate child fields.

12. The reporting system of claim 10, wherein the generated query is sent to an external system through a communications network and the dependency information is received from the external system.

13. The reporting system of claim 10, wherein the reporting system generates a query to retrieve data from the plurality of data fields and analyzes the data from the plurality of data fields to identify those fields with incomplete data and the SDK system selects the fields with incomplete data for data entry in the interface.

14. A non-transitory computer readable device storing instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

responsive to a request to generate a data entry interface, parse the request to identify an object associated with the data entry interface;

query a data source to retrieve parental dependency information from a plurality of data fields associated with the identified object;

compare the parental dependency information of the plurality of fields to identify a field hierarchy using a processing device;

display a prompt window containing a summary interface and a data entry interface as requested, the summary interface displaying each of the fields in a linear selectable list separate from the data entry interface, the data entry interface providing an interface for a user to enter or modify values associated with one or more fields displayed in the summary interface with child fields being demarcated to prevent data entry until data is entered in a respective parent field based on the field hierarchy;

responsive to a user selection of a field in the linear selectable list, demarcate any immediate parent fields and any immediate child fields in the linear selectable list of the user selected field based on the identified field hierarchy within the summary interface; and

display in the data entry interface a data entry field for the user to enter or modify values associated with the user selected field and the immediate parent and child fields that are to be stored in the identified object.