Automated metadata lookup for legacy systems

• US 9,507,823 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2014
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Hegde, Sumanth, Shetty, Tarun
• Primary Examiner(s): BOWEN, RICHARD L
• Application Number:
  US14/307,777
• Publication Number:
  US 20150370868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2452 Query translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24535 of sub-queries or views
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

A method and system for accessing data in a de-commissioned legacy system are provided. Data are automatically extracted from the legacy system, although data structure(s) of the legacy system might not be known, by finding views corresponding to a query for the data. Attributes, metadata, and/or fields (“attributes”) can be parsed from the query. Tables and/or fields including the parsed attributes are identified. Views can be then identified, where the views contain the tables and/or fields including the parsed attributes. The views can be ranked in an order from those that include the greatest number of parsed attributes to those including the least number of parsed attributes. A data request understandable by the legacy system, e.g. a packet, can then be formed using the least number of views, where the views can collectively include all of the parsed attributes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for retrieving data from a legacy system, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a query for the data;

extracting, using the processor, attributes from the query by parsing the query;

identifying, using the processor, a plurality of tables of the legacy system by scanning metadata of the legacy system, wherein each of the tables includes at least one of the attributes from the query;

identifying, using the processor, a plurality of views, wherein the views contain at least one of the plurality of tables;

ranking, using the processor, the plurality of views based on a quantity of the attributes contained in the respective view, wherein the quantity of the attributes directly correlates to placement of the plurality of views in a ranking hierarchy;

constructing, using the processor, a packet using a subset of the plurality of views such that a maximum number of attributes are included in a minimum number of views, wherein the packet includes loading instructions associated with the plurality of views; and

extracting and returning, using the processor, the requested data from the legacy system by applying filters based on instructions in the packet;

wherein the legacy system has a memory structure different from a memory associated with the processor that implements the method.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the packet is iteratively constructed by selecting a view from the plurality of views containing more attributes than other views of the plurality of views until all of the identified attributes are contained by the views forming the packet.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein each view of the plurality of views is a result set of a stored query on associated data in the legacy system and is defined by manipulations of the legacy system.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the requested data is extracted and returned by forming a command such that a set of the highest ranked views collectively including a pre-defined number of the attributes is used to extract the data from the memory.

5. A computer-implemented method for retracing data from a memory, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a query for the data;

parsing, using the processor, the query to extract attributes;

identifying, using the processor, at least one table including the attributes, wherein the at least one table is stored in the memory;

identifying, using the processor, at least one view containing the at least one table, wherein the at least one view is associated with the memory;

ranking, using the processor, the at least one view based on a quantity of the attributes that the respective view includes, wherein the quantity of the attributes directly correlates to placement of the at least one view in a ranking hierarchy; and

extracting and returning the requested data using the ranking of the at least one view.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the requested data is extracted and returned by forming a command such that a set of the highest ranked views collectively including a pre-defined number of the attributes is used to extract the data from the memory.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the pre-defined number of the attributes is all of the attributes.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein each view of the plurality of views is a result set of a stored query on associated data and is defined by manipulations of the memory.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein a structure of the memory is unknown to the method.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the attributes includes at least one of metadata and fields of the memory.

11. A computer-implemented method of retrieving data from a memory, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a query for the data;

indexing, using the processor, the query by identifying attributes forming the query;

scanning, using the processor, metadata of the memory for tables including the identified attributes;

identifying, using the processor, views including the tables with the identified attributes;

ranking, using the processor, the views based on a quantity of the identified attributes that a respective view contains, wherein the quantity of the identified attributes directly correlates to placement of the views in a ranking hierarchy; and

forming, using the processor, a request for data based on the ranked views.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the scanning includes:

scanning, using the processor, through fields of the tables of the memory; and

listing, using the processor, the tables found to contain the identified attributes.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the views are ranked such that the higher ranked a view, the more identified attributes the view contains.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the requested data is extracted and returned by formatting a data request such that a set of the highest ranked views, collectively including a pre-defined number of the identified attributes, is used to extract the data.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the pre-defined number of the identified attributes is a total number of the identified attributes.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein each view is a result set of a stored query on associated data and is defined by manipulations of the memory.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the memory is a legacy system having a memory structure different from memory associated with the processor that implements the method.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising loading the requested data on a user interface associated with the processor that implements the method, wherein the user interface is subsequently scanned to determine information relevant to the requested data based on user interactions with the user interface.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing program instructions that, when executed, cause an executing device to perform a method for retrieving data from a legacy system, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a query for the data;

parsing, using the processor, the query to extract attributes;

identifying, using the processor, at least one table including the attributes, wherein the at least one table is stored in the memory;

identifying, using the processor, at least one view containing the at least one table, wherein the at least one view is associated with the memory;

ranking, using the processor, the at least one view based on a quantity of the attributes that the respective view includes, wherein the quantity of the attributes directly correlates to placement of the at least one view in a ranking hierarchy; and

extracting and returning the requested data from the legacy system by applying filters using the ranking of the at least one view;

wherein the legacy system is a system having a memory structure different from the storage device.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the requested data is extracted and returned by forming a command such that a set of the highest ranked views collectively including a pre-defined number of the attributes is used to extract the data from the memory.