AUTOMATICALLY MOVING ANNOTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH MULTIDIMENSIONAL DATA BETWEEN LIVE DATACUBES

• US 20090024660A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cognos Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tarnoff, Finuala, Cherian, Bindhu Mary, Borgsmidt, Rasmus
• Granted Patent: US 8,347,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Techniques are described for sharing multidimensional data and associated annotations between software systems. As described herein, the techniques provide mechanisms for defining inter-application “links” for automatically copying data and associated annotations among databases associated with the enterprise software systems. For example, a system may include a first database storing multidimensional data for a first software application, and a second database storing multidimensional data for a second software application. The system further includes an interface by which an administrator defines a link that specifies a source area of the first database and a target area of the second database. A link control module automatically moves multidimensional data and annotations associated with cells or cubes of the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link.

Claims

1. A method for exporting data from a software system comprising:

defining a link from a first software application to a second software application, wherein the link specifies a source area of a multidimensional database associated with the first software application and a target area of a multidimensional database associated with the second software application;

automatically copying multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link; and

automatically copying annotations associated with the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link, wherein the annotations define at least text-based commentary associated with the multidimensional data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises:

identifying a source data cube and a target data cube;

identifying a source dimension of the source data cube and a target dimension of the target data cube; and

defining a mapping between items of the source dimension and items of the target dimension,

wherein automatically copying multidimensional data includes copying the multidimensional data in accordance with the mapping.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises defining a data aggregation that maps a plurality of items along a source dimension to one item along a target dimension.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises mapping one or more items along a source dimension to one or more items along a target dimension.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying annotations associated with the multidimensional data comprises:

identifying a set of annotations associated with cells of the multidimensional data;

identifying a set of target cells in the target area associated with the cells of the multidimensional data in accordance with the link; and

creating annotations associated with cells in the set of target cells based on annotations in the identified set of annotations.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method further comprises automatically copying files attached to the annotations from the first software application to the second software application in accordance with the link, and

wherein, after copying the files, these are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotations are incorporated into the multidimensional data as an additional dimension of the multidimensional data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading multidimensional planning data to a client device of a user;

automatically copying the multidimensional data from the source area to the planning data upon manual invocation of the link by the user; and

saving the planning data to the target area from the client device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying multidimensional data comprises copying the multidimensional data from a live source area storing current multidimensional data for the first software application to a live target area storing current multidimensional data associated with the second software application

10. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying multidimensional data comprises exporting a consistent set of data from the source area.

11. The method of claim 1,

wherein one of the annotations is associated with an individual cell within the multidimensional data;

and

wherein the one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding data within the individual cell within the multidimensional data.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein one of the annotations is associated with a data cube of the multidimensional data;

and

wherein the one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding the data cube.

13. A system comprising:

a first database storing multidimensional data for a first software application;

a second database storing multidimensional data for a second software application;

an interface to receive input that defines a link specifying a source area of the first database and a target area of the second database; and

a link control module that automatically moves multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link and that automatically moves annotations associated with the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link,

wherein the annotations define at least text-based commentary associated with the multidimensional data.

14. The system of claim 13,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator defines the link by specifying a source data cube of the source database, a target data cube of the target database, a source dimension of the source data cube and a target dimension of the target data cube,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which the administrator defines a mapping between items of the source dimension and items of the target dimension, and

wherein the link control module automatically moves the multidimensional data in accordance with the mapping.

15. The system of claim 13,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator defines a data aggregation that maps a plurality of items along a source dimension to one item along a target dimension, and

wherein the link control module automatically aggregates at least a portion of the multidimensional data when copying the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator maps one or more items along a source dimension of the first database to one or more items along a target dimension of the second database.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein, in order to move the annotations associated with the multidimensional data, the link control module identifies a set of annotations associated with cells of the multidimensional data, identifies a set of target cells in the target area associated with the cells of the multidimensional data in accordance with the link, and creates annotations associated with cells in the set of target cells based on annotations in the identified set of annotations.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the link control module copies files attached to the annotations from the first software application to the second software application in accordance with the link, and wherein, after copying the files, these are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the annotations are incorporated into the multidimensional data as an additional dimension of the multidimensional data.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a client device providing an operating environment for a planning software application,

wherein the planning software application downloads node-specific planning data from the second database to the client device, automatically retrieves the multidimensional data from the source area of the first database upon manual invocation of the link by a user, and saves the node-specific planning data and the multidimensional data to the target area from the client device.

21. The system of claim 13,

wherein the source area comprises a live source area that stores current multidimensional data for the first software application, and

wherein the target area comprises a live target area that stores current multidimensional data for the second software application.

22. The system of claim 13,

wherein a first one of the annotations is associated with an individual cell within the multidimensional data;

and

wherein the first one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding data within the individual cell within the multidimensional data;

wherein a second one of the annotations is associated with a data cube of the multidimensional data; and

wherein the second one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding the data cube.

23. A computer-readable medium comprising instruction that cause a programmable processor of a computing device to:

present a user interface to receive input specifying;

a source data cube,

a source dimension of the source data cube,

at least one item along the source dimension,

a target data cube,

a target dimension of the target data cube, and

at least one target item of the target dimension;

automatically move multidimensional data associated with the source items of the source data cube to the target items of the target data cube; and

automatically move annotations associated with the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link,

wherein the annotations define at least text-based commentary associated with the multidimensional data.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further comprising instructions to replicate a single annotation associated with a single cell in the source data cube into multiple annotations, each associated with one of a plurality of different cells in the target data cube.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further comprising instructions to generate multiple annotations for a single cell in the target data cube from multiple annotations for cells in the source data cube.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further comprising instructions to automatically copy files attached to the annotations from the first software application to the second software application in accordance with the link, wherein, after copying the files, these are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.