Content Enhancement for Analyzing Data in a Database

• US 20070276819A1
• Filed: 08/06/2007
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: JDA Technologies US, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tenorio, Manoel, Menon, Hari
• Granted Patent: US 7,647,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

An electronic commerce system (10) includes a content enhancement module (47) that analyzes the product data stored in a seller database (32) using one or more rules and that identifies one or more potential errors in the product data according to the rules. The rules include one or more generic rules that apply to substantially all seller databases (32) including product data. These generic rules include one or more of the following rules: a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the seller database (32) have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data, a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the seller database (32) have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data, and rules indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format.

Claims

1. A method for content enhancement, comprising:

analyzing product data stored in one or more databases using one or more rules, the rules comprising one or more generic rules applying to the one or more databases that contain product data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic rules comprise:

a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic rules comprise:

a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic rules comprise:

one or more rules indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; and

identifying one or more potential errors in the product data according to the rules.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

organizing a plurality of product classes in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify the one or more databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class; and

communicating a search query for product data to a database identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the analysis and identification are performed in response to a user requesting that product data in the one or more databases be associated with one or more classes.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the analysis is performed using one or more rules associated with the particular classes with which the product data is to be associated.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the generic rules further comprise a rule that generates a product identifier for a product when the product data for that product does not include a product identifier, the generated product identifier comprising the name of a class in which the product is categorized and the values for one or more attributes of the product.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the potential errors to a user associated with the one or more analyzed databases.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing comprises communicating one or more search queries to the one or more databases, each search query formulated according to one or more of the rules.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying one or more potential errors comprises identifying product data included in the results of one or more of the search queries.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing comprises accessing and parsing through the product data included in the one or more databases.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules further comprise one or more domain-specific rules that apply only to databases including a particular type of product data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the domain-specific rules comprise one or more rules from the group consisting of rules indicating that a potential error exists if the value associated with a particular product attribute is outside a specified range of values, and rules indicating that a potential error exists if the value associated with a particular product attribute is not in a specified format.

15. Content enhancement software, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and, when executed, operable to:

analyze the product data stored in one or more databases using one or more rules, the rules comprising one or more generic rules applying to the one or more databases that contain product data.

16. The software of claim 15, wherein the generic rules comprise:

a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data.

17. The software of claim 15, wherein the generic rules comprise:

a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data.

18. The software of claim 15, wherein the generic rules comprise:

one or more rules indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; and

identify one or more potential errors in the product data according to the rules.

19. The software of claim 15, further operable to:

organize a plurality of product classes in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify the one or more databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class; and

communicate a search query for product data to a database identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user.

20. The software of claim 19, further operable to analyze the product data and identify the potential errors in response to a user requesting that product data in the one or more databases be associated with one or more classes.

21. The software of claim 20, wherein the analysis is performed using one or more rules associated with the particular classes with which the product data is to be associated.

22. The software of claim 19, wherein the generic rules further comprise a rule that generates a product identifier for a product when the product data for that product does not include a product identifier, the generated product identifier comprising the name of a class in which the product is categorized and the values for one or more attributes of the product.

23. The software of claim 15, further operable to communicate the potential errors to a user associated with the one or more analyzed databases.

24. The software of claim 15, wherein analyzing comprises communicating one or more search queries to the one or more databases, each search query formulated according to one or more of the rules.

25. The software of claim 24, wherein identifying one or more potential errors comprises identifying product data included in the results of one or more of the search queries.

26. The software of claim 15, wherein analyzing comprises accessing and parsing through the product data included in the one or more databases.

27. The software of claim 15, wherein the rules further comprise one or more domain-specific rules that apply only to databases including a particular type of product data.

28. The software of claim 27, wherein the domain-specific rules comprise one or more rules from the group consisting of rules indicating that a potential error exists if the value associated with a particular product attribute is outside a specified range of values, and rules indicating that a potential error exists if the value associated with a particular product attribute is not in a specified format.

29. A method for content enhancement, comprising:

organizing a plurality of product classes in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class;

communicating a search query for product data to a database identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user;

communicating one or more search queries to the one or more databases, in response to a user requesting that product data in the one or more databases be associated with one or more classes, the search queries formulated according to one or more rules associated with the particular classes with which the product data in the one or more databases is to be associated;

identifying one or more potential errors in the product data by determining the product data that is included in the results of one or more of the search queries; and

communicating the potential errors to a user associated with the one or more databases.

30. Content enhancement software, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and, when executed, operable to:

organize a plurality of product classes in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class;

communicate a search query for product data to a database identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user;

communicate one or more search queries to the one or more databases, in response to a user requesting that product data in the one or more databases be associated with one or more classes, the search queries formulated according to one or more rules associated with the particular classes with which the product data in the one or more databases is to be associated;

identify one or more potential errors in the product data by determining the product data that is included in the results of one or more of the search queries; and

communicate the potential errors to a user associated with the one or more databases.