Versioning of metadata, including presentation of provenance and lineage for versioned metadata

• US 9,286,334 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2011
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Velasco, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Debbie
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mobin, Hasanul
• Application Number:
  US13/183,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20130018873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,705 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Metadata associated with content is versioned by receiving updated values for the metadata and storing the updated values and also previous values for metadata separately from the content, comparing the updated values to the previous values of the metadata, and determining a modification indicator for the metadata based upon the comparison of the updated values to the previous values of the metadata, where the modification indicator provides an indication of extent of differences between the updated and previous values. The modification indicator for the metadata can further be displayed to provide version information for the metadata to a user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of versioning metadata associated with content for an object, wherein the metadata comprises data selected from the group consisting of information about a file size of the object, information about an author making a revision to content for the object, information about a title of the object, information about a revision date of the object, information about access security associated with the object, and any one or more combinations thereof, the method comprising:

receiving an updated value for the metadata and storing the updated value for the metadata separately from the content; and

determining a modification indicator for the metadata based upon a comparison of the updated value for the metadata to previously stored values for the metadata, wherein the modification indicator provides a quantified value representing an indication of extent of differences between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more of the previously stored values for the metadata, and wherein the determination of the modification indicator further comprises determining a lineage value for the updated value for the metadata, the lineage value representing a change in a number of users associated with modification of the metadata from the previously stored values for the metadata to the updated value for the metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the modification indicator for the metadata to provide version information for the metadata.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the modification indicator comprises determining a provenance value for the updated value for the metadata, wherein the provenance value comprises information about a degree of difference between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more of the previous values for the metadata.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing the modification indicator to control additional updates to values for the metadata based upon a comparison of the modification indicator with a threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ascertaining at least one originator of the updated value for the metadata.

6. A system for versioning metadata associated with content for an object, wherein the metadata comprises data selected from the group consisting of information about a file size of the object, information about an author making a revision to content for the object, information about a title of the object, information about a revision date of the object, information about access security associated with the object, and any one or more combinations thereof, the system comprising:

a database including a content module to store the content and a metadata storage module to store metadata updates associated with the content stored in the content module; and

a server to access the database, the server configured with logic to;

receive an updated value for the metadata and store the updated value for the metadata separately from the content in the database; and

determine a modification indicator for the metadata based upon a comparison of the updated value for the metadata to previously stored values for the metadata, wherein the modification indicator provides a quantified value representing an indication of extent of differences between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more the previously stored values for the metadata, and wherein the determination of the modification indicator further comprises determining a lineage value for the updated value for the metadata, the lineage value representing a change in a number of users associated with modification of the metadata from the previously stored values for the metadata to the updated value for the metadata.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system is further configured to display the modification indicator for the metadata to provide version information for the metadata.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the determination of the modification indicator by the server logic comprises determining a provenance value for the updated value for the metadata, wherein the provenance value comprises information about a degree of difference between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more of the previous values for the metadata.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the server is further configured with logic to:

utilize the modification indicator to control additional updates to values for the metadata based upon a comparison of the modification indicator with a threshold value.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the server is further configured with logic to:

ascertain at least one originator of the updated value for the metadata.

11. A computer program product for versioning metadata associated with content for an object, wherein the metadata comprises data selected from the group consisting of information about a file size of the object, information about an author making a revision to content for the object, information about a title of the object, information about a revision date of the object, information about access security associated with the object, and any one or more combinations thereof, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage device comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to;

receive an updated value for the metadata and store the updated value for the metadata separately from the content; and

determine a modification indicator for the metadata based upon a comparison of the updated value for the metadata to previously stored values for the metadata, wherein the modification indicator provides a quantified value representing an indication of extent of differences between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more of the previously stored values for the metadata, and wherein the determination of the modification indicator further comprises determining a lineage value for the updated value for the metadata, the lineage value representing a change in a number of users associated with modification of the metadata from the previously stored values for the metadata to the updated value for the metadata.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program code is further configured to facilitate a display of the modification indicator for the metadata to provide version information for the metadata.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the determination of the modification indicator by the computer readable program code comprises determining a provenance value for the updated value for the metadata, wherein the provenance value comprises information about a degree of difference between the updated value for the metadata and any one or more of the previous values for the metadata.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program code is further configured to:

utilize the modification indicator to control additional updates to values for the metadata based upon a comparison of the modification indicator with a threshold value.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program code is further configured to:

ascertain at least one originator of the updated value for the metadata.