System and method for dynamically summarizing data stores

• US 6,748,384 B1
• Filed: 12/13/2000
• Issued: 06/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Objective Systems Integrators, Inc. (Mycom Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Objective Systems Integrators, Inc. (Mycom Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Strong, Justin M. R., Rylander, Steve C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Application Number:
  US09/737,291
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/10, 707/101, 707/104.1, 709/203, 709/224, 709/227, 379/88.22, 705/10, 711/129, 717/147, 713/400, 714/4, 370/231, 370/232, 370/238, 370/412, 370/414
• US Class Current: 707/812
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed which utilize a computer executable software program to generate software code for constructing desired summary data for one or more data stores. A preferred embodiment provides a software program that is capable of dynamically creating application software code for summarizing one or more data stores in the manner desired by an end user. Most preferably, the software program enables a user to define a desired summary through a graphical user interface, and the software program then generates the necessary software code for achieving the desired summary. Upon executing the generated software code, a desired summary is obtained, which may be stored within a “summary data store” and/or included within a summary report, as examples. Specifically, the generated software code may be executed to “construct” the desired summary data. In a preferred embodiment, a user may request a summary that includes data retrieved directly from one or more data stores, and/or data that can be constructed through manipulation of the data stored within such one or more data stores (e.g., through mathematical operations with such stored data). Therefore, as used herein “constructing” is not limited merely to directly retrieving the data from the one or more data stores, but is intended to also encompass manipulating data retrieved from such one or more data stores in order to “construct” the desired summary data. Accordingly, a preferred embodiment does not require the user to manually write code for constructing a desired summary of a data store.

Claims

1. A method for constructing summary data that summarizes data of at least one data store, said method comprising:

receiving a request from a user for desired summary data of at least one data store having a data structure;

generating software code executable to construct the desired summary data using meta-data for the at least one data store to determine the data structure of the at least one data store;

retrieving data from the at least one data store; and

performing mathematical operations on the retrieved data using the software code.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a user requesting the desired summary data is not required to write software code executable to construct the desired summary data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said software code executable to construct the desired summary data includes:

software code executable to retrieve data from the at least one data store.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said software code executable to construct the desired summary data further includes:

software code executable to manipulate data retrieved from the at least one data store.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

executing the generated software code to construct the desired summary data of the at least one data store.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

said computer program presenting a graphical user interface to a user to enable the user to request the desired summary data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

said computer program determining the data structure of the at least one data store.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said determining includes:

said computer program interrogating the at least one data store to determine its data structure.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said determining includes:

ascertaining which fields of the at least one data store to include for the desired summary data and which fields of the at least one data store to exclude from the desired summary data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said ascertaining includes ascertaining which fields of the at least one data store to include for the desired summary data based on the request for the desired summary data.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said determining further includes:

ascertaining which fields of the at least one data store to group together.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein said determining further includes:

ascertaining which fields of the at least one data store to use for computing information for the desired summary data.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating software code is based at least in part on said request for the desired summary data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said request is received as input from a user desiring the summary data.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating software code includes:

generating ANSI SQL statements for querying the at least one data store.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the summary data to a summary data store.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the generated software code is executable to perform said storing.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

creating said summary data store.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the generated software code is executable to perform said creating.

20. Computer executable program code provided on a medium readable by a processor-based device for generating software code executable to provide a user-defined summary of at least one data store, said computer executable program code comprising:

code for presenting a user interface to a user to allow the user to specify desired summary data to be constructed about at least one data store having a data structure;

code for generating computer executable software code that is executable to construct the desired summary data using meta-data for the at least one data store to determine the data structure of the at least one data store;

code for retrieving data from the at least one data store; and

code for performing mathematical operations on the retrieved data using the software code.

21. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein said user interface is a graphical user interface.

22. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein said user interface allows a user to specify summary data desired including defining the summary data desired by said user.

23. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein said computer executable program code is executing on a processor-based management system.

24. The computer executable program code of claim 23 wherein said management system is a network management system.

25. The computer executable program code of claim 23 wherein performance data for at least one network element managed by said management system is stored in said at least one data store.

26. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein said user desiring the summary data is not required to write software code executable to construct the desired summary data.

27. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein the generated computer executable software code that is executable to construct the desired summary data includes:

code executable to retrieve data from said at least one data store.

28. The computer executable program code of claim 27 wherein the generated computer executable software code that is executable to construct the desired summary data further includes:

code executable to manipulate data retrieved from said at least one data store.

29. The computer executable program code of claim 20 further including:

code executable to determine the data structure of the at least one data store.

30. The computer executable program code of claim 29 code executable to determine the data structure includes code for interrogating the at least one data store to determine its data structure.

31. The computer executable program code of claim 20 further including:

code executable to ascertain which fields of said at least one data store to include for the desired summary data and which fields of said at least one data store to exclude from the desired summary data.

32. The computer executable program code of claim 31 wherein said code executable to ascertain which fields of said at least one data store to include for the desired summary data ascertains said fields based on the specified summary data input to the user interface by the user.

33. The computer executable program code of claim 31 further including:

code executable to ascertain which fields of said at least one data store to group together.

34. The computer executable program code of claim 31 further including:

code executable to ascertain which fields of said at least one data store to use for computing information for the desired summary data.

35. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein the generated computer executable software code includes ANSI SQL statements for querying said at least one data store.

36. The computer executable program code of claim 20 wherein the generated computer executable software code includes code executable to store the summary data to a summary data store.

37. The computer executable program code of claim 36 wherein the generated computer executable software code includes code executable to create said summary data store.