System and method for exporting report results from a reporting system

• US 9,183,317 B1
• Filed: 06/20/2001
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Inventors: Cappiello, Scott, Hurwood, William, Li, Benjamin Z., Orozco, Luis V., Ramachandran, Ramkumar, Yuan, Jun, Rewari, Gaurav
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Thu
• Application Number:
  US09/884,468
• Time in Patent Office: 5,256 Days
• Field of Search: 715/530, 715/255, 715/234, 715/200, 715/209, 707/2, 707/4, 707/6, 707/100, 707/705, 707/821, 707/822, 709/227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions

Abstract

A technique for exporting results from a reporting system report in a format type including a datamart, PDF file, flat file, Excel™ file, HTML file, and XML file or in another relational database management system (RDBMS) format. In one embodiment, the technique is realized through a method and a system for automatically exporting results from a business intelligence, OLAP, or other reporting system. One embodiment of the present invention involves a method of enabling a user to designate a report desired for execution as an export-report. When the report is processed, the report is exported into a datamart or other format and made available for access by the user through one or more different types of user devices. The user may then further manipulate or export the results from the datamart to a file type as desired.

Claims

1. A method for automatically exporting results from a reporting system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a selection of an export-designated report to be processed by the reporting system;

generating a plurality of datamarts associated with the selected export-designated report, wherein each of the plurality of datamarts corresponds to a datamart table of a plurality of datamart tables;

generating one or more datamart create queries for each of the plurality of datamarts, wherein at least one datamart create query inserts a datamart table in a destination database management system;

exporting results from the export-designated report from the reporting system to at least one predetermined format accessible by a user device, wherein the results are exported automatically without user input at a report execution time, and wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises exporting the results from the destination database management system to a plurality of datamart tables corresponding to the plurality of datamarts, wherein the at least one destination database management system comprises a different database management system than a database management system of the reporting system, wherein multiple database connections are supported inside a report execution for exporting the results from the destination database management system; and

enabling a user of the user device after receiving the export-designated reports to designate the export-designated report for further result exporting by the reporting system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a selection of an export-designated report comprises automatically forwarding one or more reports to the user and enabling the user to designate the one or more reports for result exporting after receiving the one or more reports.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a selection of an export-designated report comprises enabling the users to designate the one or more reports as the export-designated report when the users select portions of service to receive as a report.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one predetermined format is exported to at least one database management system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing at least one of analytical calculations and post-processing.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the user of the user device to specify at least one of a table name, a table location and column names for a user table and exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises exporting the results to the user table.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises bulk inserting the results in a preexisting table associated with the plurality of datamart tables in the at least one predetermined format.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the bulk inserting the results in the preexisting table leverages bulk insert capabilities of a relational database, a file system, or the data management system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises automatically forwarding the results to the user based on a schedule.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report to at least one predetermined format accessible by the user device further comprises exporting the results to a flat file, another relational database management system format, a XML file, a spreadsheet file, a HTML file and a portable document format file.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein exporting the results from the export-designated reports comprises exporting at least one of hypertext markup language data and extensible markup language data to a spreadsheet format file.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein use of the multiple database connections is enabled by an indicator in a query associated with the one or more designated reports.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the user of the user device specifies a format for further result exporting by the reporting system.

14. A system for automatic exporting of results from a reporting system, the system comprising a processor and a memory storing instruction means coupled to the processor that when executed causes the processor to perform the following steps:

receive a selection of an export-designated report to be processed by the reporting system;

generate a plurality of datamarts associated with the selected export-designated report, wherein each of the plurality of datamarts corresponds to a datamart table of a plurality of datamart tables;

generate one or more table create queries for each of the plurality of datamarts, wherein the table create query inserts a first export datamart table in a destination database management system; and

export the results from the export-designated report to at least one predetermined format accessible by a user device, wherein the results are exported automatically without user input at a report execution time, and wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises exporting the results from the destination database to a plurality of datamart tables corresponding to the plurality of datamarts, wherein the at least one destination database management system comprises a different database management system than a database management system of the reporting system wherein multiple database connections are supported inside a report execution for exporting the results from the destination database management system; and

enable a user of the user device after receiving the one or more designated reports to designate the export-designated report for further result exporting by the reporting system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor further performs a step to enable the user to designate the export-designation report for exporting at a time of the user selection of report elements and after receiving the export-designated report.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the multiple database connections are supported for processing of the export-designated report.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein use of the multiple database connections for the processing of the export-designated report is enabled by an indicator in a query associated with the one or more designated reports.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the user of the user device specifies a format for further result exporting by the reporting system.

19. A non-transitory processor usable medium having processor readable program code embodied therein for automatically exporting results from a reporting system, the computer readable code comprising:

processor readable code for causing at least one processor to operate so as to;

receive a selection of an export-designated report to be processed by the reporting system;

generate a plurality of datamarts associated with the selected export-designated report, wherein each of the plurality of datamarts corresponds to a datamart table of a plurality of datamart tables;

generate one or more datamart create queries for each of the plurality of datamarts, wherein at least one datamart create query inserts a datamart table in a destination database management system;

export results from the export-designated reports from the reporting system to at least one predetermined format accessible by a user device,

wherein the results are exported automatically without user input at a report execution time, and

wherein exporting the results from the export-designated report comprises exporting the results from the export-designated report to a plurality of datamart tables corresponding to the plurality of datamarts, wherein the destination database management system comprises a different database management system than a database management system of the reporting system, wherein multiple database connections are supported inside a report execution for exporting the results from the destination database management system; and

enable a user of the user device after receiving the export-designated report to designate the export-designated report for further result exporting by the reporting system.

20. The non-transitory processor usable medium of claim 19, wherein the multiple database connections are supported for processing of the export-designated report.

21. The non-transitory processor usable medium of claim 20, wherein use of the multiple database connections for the processing of the export-designated report is enabled by an indicator in query associated with the one or more reports.

22. The non-transitory processor usable medium of claim 19, wherein the user of the user device specifies a format for further result exporting by the reporting system.