Processing data updates within a data maintenance system

• US 9,092,639 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2009
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ab Initio Technology LLC (Ab Initio Software Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Ab Initio Technology LLC (Ab Initio Software Corporation)
• Inventors: Winters, Christopher J., Yeracaris, Anthony, Gould, Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Loan T
• Application Number:
  US12/628,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,065 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

Maintaining data in a data management system including at least one processor and a storage system includes accessing a first data source providing one or more source elements of data; accessing a storage system storing one or more subsets of data, each subset including at least one element of data, and storing one or more descriptors identifying a data source for a subset and identifying a data source for each of one or more elements of the subset; and processing rules that determine if, according to the descriptors, an element in the storage system is allowed to be changed.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining data in a data management system including at least one processor and a storage system, the method including:

accessing a storage system storing a table, the table including one or more records, each record including at least one field that contains data, and storing two or more descriptors, at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for a record and at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for each of one or more fields of the record; and

determining if, according to the descriptors and based at least in part on an identity of a first data source providing one or more source elements of data, at least one field in one of the records of the table is allowed to be changed in response to receiving the source elements of data from the first data source;

at least one descriptor identifying a record owner that governs changes to a particular record of the table, and

at least one other descriptor identifying a field owner different from the record owner, the field owner governing changes to a data element stored in a particular field of the particular record of the table.

2. The method of claim 1 including determining if, according to at least one descriptor, any of the source elements is to be used to replace an element in the storage system.

3. The method of claim 1 including determining if, according to at least one descriptor, an element in the storage system is to be deleted in response to a corresponding source element being deleted.

4. The method of claim 1 including accessing a second data source providing one or more source elements of data different from the source elements provided by the first data source.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first data source is the data source for the record and the second data source is the data source for at least one of the fields of the record.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the one or more source elements of the first data source and the one or more source elements of the second data source are each mapped to one or more destination data elements, and wherein the field is determined to be allowed to be changed based on the mapping.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the one or more destination data elements each correspond to one or more fields in the records, and the mapping corresponds to the data identifying a data source of the one or more descriptors.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the descriptors identifies a data source for a record and at least one other descriptor identifies another data source for a field of the record.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein determining requires user input.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first data source includes a user interface accepting direct user input.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein a descriptor identifies a record owner that controls changes to a given record.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the record owner controls deletion of the given record.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the record owner created the given record.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein a descriptor identifies a field owner that controls changes to a data element stored in a given field of a given record.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the field owner controls updates to the data element stored in the given field.

16. The method of claim 1 including providing a user interface to a user and accepting decisions from the user that relate to the storage system data elements.

17. The method of claim 1 including transforming the element in the storage system from a first format to a second format.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein determining if the field can be changed comprises determining if data in the field in the storage system is in a valid form in the context of that field.

19. The method of claim 1 including changing the composition of the element received from the first data source.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein determining if the field is allowed to be changed is based on processing one or more rules.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein at least one of the rules is handled automatically, without user input.

22. The method of claim 20, including accessing a maintenance plan containing the rules.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the maintenance plan includes a mapping indicating which source elements correspond to which elements in the storage system.

24. The method of claim 1 including determining that the identified field owner is different from the identified record owner.

25. A system for maintaining data, the system including:

a storage system including at least one computer readable storage device, the storage system storing

a table, the table including one or more records, each record including at least one field that contains data, and

two or more descriptors, at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for a record and at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for each of one or more fields of the record; and

a processor configured to execute a data manager, the data manager configured to determine if, according to the descriptors and based at least on part on an identity of a first data source providing one or more source elements of data, at least one field in one of the records of the table is allowed to be changed in response to receiving the source elements of data from the first data source;

at least one descriptor identifying a record owner that governs changes to a particular record of the table, and

at least one other descriptor identifying a field owner different from the record owner, the field owner governing changes to a data element stored in a particular field of the particular record of the table.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager is configured to determine if, according to at least one descriptor, any of the source elements is to be used to replace an element in the storage system.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager is configured to determine if, according to at least one descriptor, an element in the storage system is to be deleted in response to a corresponding source element being deleted.

28. The system of claim 25 including a second data source providing one or more source elements of data different from the source elements provided by the first data source.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the first data source is the data source for the record and the second data source is the data source for at least one of the fields of the record.

30. The system of claim 28 wherein the one or more source elements of the first data source and the one or more source elements of the second data source are each mapped to one or more destination data elements, and the data manager is configured to determine if the field is allowed to be changed based on the mapping.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the one or more destination data elements each correspond to one or more fields in the records, and the mapping corresponds to the data identifying a data source of the one or more descriptors.

32. The system of claim 25 wherein at least one of the descriptors identifies a data source for a record and at least one other descriptor identifies another data source for a field of the record.

33. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager requires user input to determine if one of the fields can be changed.

34. The system of claim 25 wherein the first data source includes a user interface accepting direct user input.

35. The system of claim 25 wherein a descriptor identifies a record owner that controls changes to a given record.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the record owner controls deletion of the given record.

37. The system of claim 35 wherein the record owner created the given record.

38. The system of claim 25 wherein a descriptor identifies a field owner that controls changes to a data element stored in a given field of a given record.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the field owner controls updates to the data element stored in the given field.

40. The system of claim 25 including a user interface providing to the manager decisions of a user that relate to the storage system data elements.

41. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager transforms the element in the storage system from a first format to a second format.

42. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager determines if the element in the storage system is in a valid form in the context of that element.

43. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager handles changes in the composition of the data source of the element in the storage system.

44. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager is configured to determine if the field is allowed to be changed based on processing one or more rules.

45. The system of claim 44 wherein at least one of the rules is handled automatically, without user input.

46. The system of claim 44 wherein the data manager operates according to a maintenance plan containing the rules.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the maintenance plan includes a mapping indicating which source elements correspond to which elements in the storage system.

48. The system of claim 25 wherein the data manager is configured to determine that the identified field owner is different from the identified record owner.

49. A system for maintaining data in a data management system, the system including a processor and a memory, the system including:

means for accessing a storage system storing a table, the table including one or more records, each record including at least one field that contains data, and storing two or more descriptors, at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for a record and at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for each of one or more fields of the record; and

means for determining if, according to the descriptors and based at least in part on an identity of a first data source providing one or more source elements of data, at least one field in one of the records of the table is allowed to be changed in response to receiving the source elements of data from the first data source;

at least one descriptor identifying a record owner that governs changes to a particular record of the table, and

at least one other descriptor identifying a field owner different from the record owner, the field owner governing changes to a data element stored in a particular field of the particular record of the table.

50. A computer-readable storage device storing a computer program for maintaining data in a data management system, the computer program including instructions for causing a computer to:

access a storage system storing a table, the table including one or more records, each record including at least one field that contains data, and storing two or more descriptors, at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for a record and at least some of the descriptors each comprising data identifying a data source for each of one or more fields of the record; and

determine if, according to the descriptors and based at least on part on an identity of a first data source providing one or more source elements of data, at least one field in one of the records of the table is allowed to be changed in response to receiving the source elements of data from the first data source;

at least one descriptor identifying a record owner that governs changes to a particular record of the table, and

at least one other descriptor identifying a field owner that governs changes to a data element stored in a particular field of the particular record of the table; and

determine that the identified field owner is different from the identified record owner.

51. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including determining if, according to at least one descriptor, any of the source elements is to be used to replace an element in the storage system.

52. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including determining if, according to at least one descriptor, an element in the storage system is to be deleted in response to a corresponding source element being deleted.

53. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including accessing a second data source providing one or more source elements of data different from the source elements provided by the first data source.

54. The computer-readable storage device of claim 53 wherein the one or more source elements of the first data source and the one or more source elements of the second data source are each mapped to one or more destination data elements, and wherein the field is determined to be allowed to be changed based on the mapping.

55. The computer-readable storage device of claim 54 wherein the one or more destination data elements each correspond to one or more fields in the records, and the mapping corresponds to the data identifying a data source of the one or more descriptors.

56. The computer-readable storage device of claim 53 wherein the first data source is the data source for the record and the second data source is the data source for at least one of the fields of the record.

57. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein at least one of the descriptors identifies a data source for a record and at least one other descriptor identifies another data source for a field of the record.

58. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein determining requires user input.

59. The computer-readable storage device of claim 58 wherein the maintenance plan includes a mapping indicating which source elements correspond to which elements in the storage system.

60. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein the first data source includes a user interface accepting direct user input.

61. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein a descriptor identifies a record owner that controls changes to a given record.

62. The computer-readable storage device of claim 61 wherein the record owner controls deletion of the given record.

63. The computer-readable storage device of claim 61 wherein the record owner created the given record.

64. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein a descriptor identifies a field owner that controls changes to a data element stored in a given field of a given record.

65. The computer-readable storage device of claim 64 wherein the field owner controls updates to the data element stored in the given field.

66. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including providing a user interface to a user and accepting decisions from the user that relate to the storage system data elements.

67. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including transforming the element in the storage system from a first format to a second format.

68. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein determining if the field can be changed comprises determining if data in the field in the storage system is in a valid form in the context of that field.

69. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50, the operations including changing the composition of the element received from the first data source.

70. The computer-readable storage device of claim 50 wherein determining if the field is allowed to be changed is based on processing one or more rules.

71. The computer-readable storage device of claim 70 wherein at least one of the rules is handled automatically, without user input.

72. The computer-readable storage device of claim 70, the operations including accessing a maintenance plan containing the rules.