Uniform search, navigation and combination of heterogeneous data

• US 9,569,506 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2015
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ellis, Jason B., Hassanzadeh, Oktie, Ward, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khoshnoodi, Fariborz
• Application Number:
  US14/960,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20160085761A1
• Time in Patent Office: 435 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/724
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A unified interface that abstracts the underlying differences among heterogeneous data sources and data formats to produce uniform search results. While the result of an initial search may be exactly what the user was seeking, it is likely that the result is in the neighborhood of what was sought. It may aid the end user to provide guided data navigation suggestions to locate related data during data exploration, by providing analysis to identify data similarities among disparate data sources, and by providing guided combination options. The guided data navigation suggestions may include suggestions based on schematic, semantic, and social information. Guided data navigation may aid the user in moving from the initial search landing point in the data to the precise result sought.

Claims

1. A computer system for a unified search and navigation of heterogeneous data sources, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors, one or more computer-readable storage media, and program instructions stored on one or more of the computer-readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive a search keyword from a user interface;

program instructions to search a plurality of heterogeneous data sources utilizing the search keyword, wherein the plurality of heterogeneous data sources include data in a variety of data formats, and wherein the program instructions form an abstract of the variety of data formats of the heterogeneous data sources and present the abstract of the variety of data formats in a uniform data format;

program instructions to send a first data set, in the uniform data format, to the user interface, wherein the first data set comprises a search result from searching the heterogeneous data sources;

program instructions to receive a first indicator from the user interface identifying a selected search result selected from the first data set;

program instructions to send a second data set in the uniform data format to the user interface, wherein the second data set comprises a data sample, and wherein the data sample corresponds to the selected search result selected from the first data set;

program instructions to receive a second indicator from the user interface identifying a selected data sample to save, wherein the selected data sample is selected from the second data set;

program instructions to send a third data set to the user interface, wherein the third data set comprises a named representation of the selected data sample;

program instructions to receive a plurality of third indicators from the user interface identifying a plurality of selected third data sets to combine;

program instructions to send a fourth data set to the user interface in the uniform data format, wherein the fourth data set comprises a guided combination option for the plurality of selected third data sets;

program instructions to receive a fourth indicator from the user interface identifying a selected guided combination option selected from the fourth data set to utilize in combining the plurality of selected third data sets;

program instructions to send a fifth data set to the user interface in the uniform data format, wherein the fifth data set comprises a combination data sample from the plurality of selected third data sets utilizing the selected guided combination option selected from the fourth data set;

program instructions to receive a fifth indicator from the user interface identifying a selected combination data sample to save, wherein the selected combination data sample is selected from the fifth data set; and

program instructions to send a sixth data set to the user interface, wherein the sixth data set comprises a named representation of the selected combination data sample.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the second data set further comprises a guided data navigation suggestion, and wherein the guided data navigation suggestion corresponds to the selected search result selected from the first data set.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the third data sets selected comprises the sixth data sets.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the fourth data set comprises combination options based on geospatial similarity among the plurality of selected third data sets.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the fourth data set comprises combination options based on time period similarity among the plurality of selected third data sets.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the fourth data set comprises combination options based on textual similarity among the plurality of selected third data sets.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions to search utilize an inverted index of data values.