Generating data format description language schema

• US 10,019,426 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2015
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gao, Tian Tian, Huang, Fu Wei, Zhai, Xiao Dong, Zhu, Pu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hershley, Mark E
• Application Number:
  US14/724,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20150379049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 707804
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149

Abstract

An annotation retrieval module may be configured to retrieve annotations added to sample data, the annotations having been added according to an annotation rule. An analysis tool may be configured to create a logical schema and a configuration file from the retrieved annotations, according to the annotation rule. The logic schema may represent a tree structure containing one or more data elements corresponding to the sample data, and the configuration file may define one or more operations for adding DFDL annotations into the logic schema. A DFDL schema generator may be configured to generate a DFDL schema for the sample data according to the logic schema and the configuration file.

Claims

1. A method for generating a Data Format Description Language (DFDL) schema, the method comprising:

retrieving annotations added to sample data according to an annotation rule;

analyzing, automatically by a processor, the annotated sample data;

generating, by the processor, a computer readable description of the annotated sample data according to the DFDL specification;

creating, using the computer readable description of the annotated sample data, a logic schema and a configuration file according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data, wherein the logic schema represents a tree structure of data elements in the sample data, and the configuration file defines computer executable operations for adding DFDL annotations corresponding to the annotations into the logic schema, wherein the configuration file includes a first section and a second section, the first section including code for declaring operations and generation processes, the second section including code for inputting parameters of the operations declared in the first section;

generating, automatically by the processor, a DFDL schema corresponding to the sample data according to the logic schema and the configuration file by;

loading and parsing the first section of the configuration file;

retrieving, based on the parsing of the first section of the configuration file, an operation to be performed from the first section of the configuration file;

loading and parsing the second section of the configuration file according to a value of an input attribute in the operation;

retrieving, based on the parsing the second section of the configuration file, an input definition of the operation, wherein the input definition of the operation includes a location of an attribute to be added to the DFDL schema, a name of the attribute, and a value of the attribute;

loading and parsing the logic schema using the location to determine a definition for an element; and

generating the element in the DFDL schema using the definition, wherein the element includes the name of the attribute and the value of the attribute;

receiving, by the processor, a stream of data; and

converting, automatically by the processor, the stream of data into a DFDL document using the generated DFDL schema.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the annotations added to the sample data according to the annotation rule is retrieved from an annotation tool for marking semantics of the sample data according to the annotation rule.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the annotation tool is implemented by a graphic editor providing the annotation rule and providing means for marking the semantics of the sample data according to the annotation rule.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the annotation tool provides a tool for a user to define an extra annotation rule.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the creating the logic schema and the configuration file according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data comprises:

deriving a corresponding tree structure according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data, nodes of the tree structure comprising the data elements and the annotations in the sample data.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the creating the logic schema and the configuration file according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data further comprises:

creating an XML schema corresponding to the tree structure as the logic schema.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the configuration file further comprises:

operations relating to the data elements in the sample data and attributes of the sample data; and

locations of the data elements and the attributes in the XML schema.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the generating the DFDL schema corresponding to the sample data according to the logic schema and the configuration file further comprises:

performing an operation of adding the DFDL annotations corresponding to semantics of the data elements in the XML schema to the data elements.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein deriving a corresponding tree structure according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data in automatically performed by the processor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein deriving a corresponding tree structure according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data includes:

identifying a start delimiter, an end delimiter, and a message; and

decomposing the message into plurality of nodes by identifying one or more separators, one or more length delimiters, and one or more user-customized fixed-length elements.

11. An apparatus for generating a Data Format Description Language (DFDL) schema, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to perform a method comprising;

retrieving annotations added to sample data according to an annotation rule;

analyzing, automatically, the annotated sample data;

generating a computer readable description of the annotated sample data according to the DFDL specification;

creating, using the computer readable description of the sample data, a logic schema and a configuration file according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data, wherein the logic schema represents a tree structure of data elements in the sample data, and the configuration file defines computer executable operations of adding DFDL annotations, corresponding to the retrieved annotations, into the logic schema, wherein the configuration file includes a first section and a second section, the first section including code for declaring operations and generation processes, the second section including code for inputting parameters of the operations declared in the first section;

generating, automatically, a DFDL schema corresponding to the sample data according to the logic schema and the configuration file by;

loading and parsing the first section of the configuration file;

retrieving, based on the parsing of the first section of the configuration file, an operation to be performed from the first section of the configuration file;

loading and parsing the second section of the configuration file according to a value of an input attribute in the operation;

retrieving, based on the parsing the second section of the configuration file, an input definition of the operation, wherein the input definition of the operation includes a location of an attribute to be added to the DFDL schema, a name of the attribute, and a value of the attribute;

loading and parsing the logic schema using the location to determine a definition for an element; and

generating the element in the DFDL schema using the definition, wherein the element includes the name of the attribute and the value of the attribute;

receiving a stream of data; and

converting, automatically, the stream of data into a DFDL document using the generated DFDL schema.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, the apparatus further comprising:

an annotation tool for marking semantics of the sample data according to the annotation rule, wherein the annotations added to the sample data according to the annotation rule are retrieved from the annotation tool.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the annotation tool is a graphic editor providing the annotation rule and providing means for marking the semantics of the sample data according to the annotation rule.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the annotation tool provides a tool for a user to define an extra annotation rule.

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein creating the logic schema and the configuration file include:

deriving a corresponding tree structure according to the annotation rule and the retrieved annotations added to the sample data, nodes of the tree structure comprising the data elements and the annotations in the sample data.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the method performed by the processor further comprises creating an XML schema corresponding to the tree structure as the logic schema.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the configuration file further comprises:

operations relating to the data elements in the sample data and attributes of the sample data; and

locations of the data elements and the attributes in the XML schema.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the method performed by the processor further comprises adding the DFDL annotations corresponding to semantics of the elements in the XML schema to the elements.

19. A computer program product for generating a Data Format Description Language (DFDL) schema, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

retrieve annotations from a sample data, the annotation corresponding to an annotation rule;

analyze, automatically, the annotated sample data;

generate a computer readable description of the annotated sample data according to the DFDL specification;

create, using the computer readable description of the annotated sample data, a logic schema and a configuration file according to the annotation rule and using the retrieved annotation, wherein the logic schema represents a tree structure of data elements, and the configuration file defines one or more operations for adding DFDL annotations into the logic schema, the DFDL annotations corresponding to the retrieved annotations, wherein the configuration file includes a first section and a second section, the first section including code for declaring operations and generation processes, the second section including code for inputting parameters of the operations declared in the first section;

generate, automatically, a DFDL schema for the sample data according to the logic schema and the configuration file by;

loading and parsing the first section of the configuration file;

retrieving, based on the parsing of the first section of the configuration file, an operation to be performed from the first section of the configuration file;

loading and parsing the second section of the configuration file according to a value of an input attribute in the operation;

retrieving, based on the parsing the second section of the configuration file, an input definition of the operation, wherein the input definition of the operation includes a location of an attribute to be added to the DFDL schema, a name of the attribute, and a value of the attribute;

loading and parsing the logic schema using the location to determine a definition for an element; and

generating the element in the DFDL schema using the definition, wherein the element includes the name of the attribute and the value of the attribute;

receive a stream of data; and

convert, automatically, the stream of data into a DFDL document using the generated DFDL schema.