Method and system for enabling connectivity to a data system

• US 7,058,890 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2002
• Issued: 06/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: George, David, Lee, Wen-Hsin, Haven, Chris, Harb, Joseph, Ferry, Dennis, Srinivasan, Java
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu, Tadesse
• Application Number:
  US10/131,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20030151633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 345/864, 345/727, 345/728, 345/717, 345/716, 345/718, 345/741, 345/744, 345/747, 345/735, 345/765, 345/760, 707/513, 707/514, 709/218, 709/217, 709/228, 379/88.01, 715/728, 715/738, 715/744, 715/513, 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/231, 704/251
• US Class Current: 715/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A method and system that provides filtered data from a data system. In one embodiment the system includes an API (application programming interface) and associated software modules to enable third party applications to access an enterprise data system. Administrators are enabled to select specific user interface (UI) objects, such as screens, views, applets, columns and fields to voice or pass-through enable via a GUI that presents a tree depicting a hierarchy of the UI objects within a user interface of an application. An XSLT style sheet is then automatically generated to filter out data pertaining to UI objects that were not voice or pass-through enabled. In response to a request for data, unfiltered data are retrieved from the data system and a specified style sheet is applied to the unfiltered data to return filtered data pertaining to only those fields and columns that are voice or pass-through enabled.

Claims

1. A method for providing data from a data system, comprising:

providing a mechanism to enable a user to identify user interface (UI) objects corresponding to a user interface of an application used to access the data system to pass-through enable; and

in response to a data query request submitted by a requestor to receive data from the data system corresponding to a navigation context within the user interface of the application,

returning data from the data system to the requestor pertaining to UI objects corresponding to the navigation context that were identified to pass-through enable.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a filter mechanism to filter out data pertaining to UI objects that were not identified to pass-through enable,

and, in response to the data query request, further performing the operations of;

retrieving an unfiltered set of data from the data system pertaining to the navigation context;

filtering the unfiltered set of data with the filter mechanism to create a filtered set of data; and

returning the filtered set of data to the requestor,

said filtered set of data comprising data from the data system pertaining to UI objects corresponding to the navigation context that were identified to pass-through enable.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the filter mechanism implements an XSLT (extensible Style sheet Language transformation) style sheet containing logic to filter out any data pertaining to UI objects in the identified form that are not pass-through enabled.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data query request identifies a particular XSLT style sheet to be used by the filter mechanism.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising automatically generating an XSLT style sheet for a set of one or more related forms based on UI objects corresponding to the forms that were identified to pass-through enable.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data query request identifies a row of data to be retrieved from a database that is used by the data system to store data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein UI objects to pass-through enable are enabled to be identified by performing the operations of:

presenting indicia pertaining to UI objects corresponding to the user interface for the data system to a user via a computer user interface;

enabling the user to select which UI objects to pass-through enable via the computer user interface by marking the indicia corresponding to those UI objects.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the computer user interface comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) that is generated by performing the operations of:

extracting metadata corresponding to the data system application, said metadata comprising object definitions for the UI objects of the user interface including a hierarchical position of each UI object within the user interface;

processing the metadata to build an application representation comprising an internal representation of the user interface of the data system application including data identifying the hierarchical position of each UI object; and

rendering a hierarchical tree to provide a visual representation of the application representation.

9. A method to enable voice access to a data system, comprising:

identifying user interface (UI) objects to voice enable, said UI objects pertaining to a user interface that is provided by the data system to access data in the data system; and

in response to receiving a data request from a voice application that identifies a navigation context of a user within the user interface for the data system,

retrieving data from the data system pertaining to the navigation context of the user; and

filtering the data retrieved from the data system to provide data pertaining to voice-enabled UI objects corresponding to the navigation context of the user to the voice application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the data request is received as an XML document.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the data request includes commands to access the data system via an application program interface (API).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the API comprises a Siebel®

Web Engine API.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the data are filtered by performing the operations of:

generating a source tree XML (extended markup language) document that includes an initial set of data retrieved from the data system in response to the data request; and

applying an XSLT (extensible Style sheet Language transformation) style sheet to the source tree XML document to produce an result tree XML document containing a filtered set of data.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the UI objects to voice enable are identified by performing the operations of:

presenting indicia pertaining to respective UI objects of the user interface for the data system to a user via a computer user interface;

allowing the user to select which UI objects to voice enable via the computer user interface by marking the indicia corresponding to those UI objects.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the computer user interface includes a first set of markable objects adjacent to respective UI object indicia to allow a user to select which UI object to voice enable and further includes a second set of markable objects to allow the user to select UI objects to provide grammar update support for, said UI objects that are selected being grammar-update enabled UI objects, further comprising:

in response to receiving a grammar update request from the voice access system that identifies a navigation context of the user interface to update grammar information for,

retrieving data from the data system pertaining to the navigation context; and

filtering the data retrieved from the data system to provide data pertaining to grammar update-enabled UI objects according to the navigation context to the voice access system.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the computer user interface comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) and the indicia pertaining to the respective UI objects are presented to the user as a hierarchical tree corresponding to a hierarchical relationship of the UI objects in the user interface of the data system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein selected levels in the hierarchical tree may be expanded or collapsed in response to a user input.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the GUI is generated by performing the operations of:

storing metadata corresponding to the user interface for the data system, said metadata comprising object definitions for the UI objects of the user interface including a hierarchical position of each UI object within the user interface;

processing the metadata to build an application representation comprising an internal representation of the user interface of the data system including data identifying the hierarchical position of each UI object; and

rendering a hierarchical tree to provide a visual representation of the application representation.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the application representation comprises an XML tree, further comprising:

sending the XML tree to a browser operating on a client machine that is linked in communication with the data system; and

rendering the hierarchical tree via the browser.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the grammar update request further includes information identifying a last update for the navigation context, further comprising filtering data that are retrieved from the data system such that only grammar data in accordance with the navigation context that have changed since the last update are provided to the voice access system.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the UI objects include objects pertaining to screens, views, applets, columns, and fields in the user interface of the data system.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein the filtered data are returned to the voice application as an XML document.

23. The method of claim 9, wherein UI object data is returned to the voice application in addition to the filtered data, said UI object data defining characteristics of one or more UI objects pertaining to the navigation context of the user.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the UI object data include data pertaining to at least one of an operational mode of a UI object, a read-only attribute of a UI object, an insert attribute of a UI object, a delete attribute of a UI object, and an update attribute of a UI object.

25. The method of claim 9, wherein the data request includes size indicia identifying a number of records to be returned to the voice application at one time, and wherein additional records indicia is provided with the filtered data in an event in which a number of records for a given data request exceeds the number of records specified in the size indicia.

26. The method of claim 9, wherein field attribute data comprising attributes of one or more columns or fields of a UI object pertaining to the navigation context of the user are sent to the voice application along with the filtered data.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the field attribute data include at least one of a data type, a text length, a field name, a required, and a format attribute.

28. The method of claim 9, wherein the data system provides a web interface having a URL address, and the data request is received via a computer network using the HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) or HTTPS (Hypertext Transport Protocol Secured) protocol.

29. The method of claim 9, wherein the data request corresponds to a COM (component object model) interface provided by the data system.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the COM interface enables selected data to be retrieved from a database in which data for the data system are stored by referencing a business component that is used to access one or more database tables in which those data are stored.

31. A computer readable medium on which a plurality of machine instructions are stored that when executed by a computing machine provides filtered data to a voice access system by performing the operations of:

providing data to render a computer user interface by which a user may identify user interface (UI) objects to voice enable, said UI objects pertaining to a data system user interface that is provided by a data system from which the filtered data are retrieved to access data in the data system; and

in response to receiving data from the data system pertaining to a data request from the voice access system that identifies a navigation context of a user within the user interface for the data system,

filtering the data received from the data system to produce filtered data pertaining to voice-enabled UI objects corresponding to the navigation context of the user; and

providing the filtered data to the voice access system.

32. The machine-readable media of claim 31, wherein execution of the machine-instructions filters the data by performing the operations of:

generating a source tree XML (extended markup language) document that includes an initial set of data retrieved from the data system in response to the data request; and

applying an XSLT (extensible Style sheet Language transformation) style sheet to the source tree XML document to produce an result tree XML document containing a filtered set of data.

33. The machine-readable media of claim 31, wherein the UI objects to voice enable are identified by performing the operations of:

presenting indicia pertaining to respective UI objects of the user interface for the data system on the computer user interface;

enabling the user to identity which UI objects to voice enable via the computer user interface by marking the indicia corresponding to those UI objects.

34. The machine-readable media of claim 33, wherein the computer user interface comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) and the indicia pertaining to the respective UT objects are presented to the user as a hierarchical tree corresponding to a hierarchical relationship of the UI objects in the user interface of the data system.

35. The machine-readable media of claim 34, wherein execution of the machine instructions generates the GUI by performing the operations of:

retrieving metadata corresponding to the user interface for the data system, said metadata comprising object definitions for the UT objects of the user interface including a hierarchical position of each UT object within the user interface;

processing the metadata to build an application representation comprising an internal representation of the user interface of the data system including data identifying the hierarchical position of each UI object; and

providing data from which a hierarchical tree corresponding to the application representation can be rendered to provide a visual representation of the application representation.

36. The machine-readable media of claim 35, wherein the application representation comprises an XML tree, and execution of the machine instructions further performs the operations of:

sending the XML tree to a browser operating on a client machine that is linked in communication with the data system; and

rendering the hierarchical tree via the browser.

39. The machine-readable media of claim 31, wherein the UI objects include objects pertaining to screens, views, applets, columns, and fields in the user interface of the data system.

40. The machine-readable media of claim 31, wherein the filtered data are returned to the voice application as an XML document.

41. The machine-readable media of claim 31, wherein the data request includes size indicia identifying a number of records of filtered data to be returned to the voice access system at one time, and wherein additional records indicia is provided with the filtered data in an event in which a number of records for a given data request exceeds the number of records specified in the size indicia.

44. The machine-readable media of claim 41, wherein the data query request identifies a particular XSLT style sheet to be used by the filter mechanism.

45. The machine-readable media of claim 41, wherein execution of the machine instructions further performs the operation of automatically generating an XSLT style sheet for a set of one or more related forms based on UI objects corresponding to the forms that were identified to pass-through enable.

37. The machine-readable media of 33, wherein the computer user interface includes a first set of markable objects adjacent to respective UT object indicia to allow a user to select which UI object to voice enable and further includes a second set of markable objects to allow the user to select UI objects to provide grammar update support for, said UI objects that are selected being grammar-update enabled UI objects, and wherein execution of the machine instructions further performs the operations of:

in response to receiving a grammar update request from the voice access system that identifies a navigation context of the user interface to update grammar information for,

retrieving data from the data system pertaining to the navigation context; and

filtering the data retrieved from the data system to provide data pertaining to grammar update-enabled UI objects according to the navigation context to the voice access system.

38. The machine-readable media of claim 37, wherein the grammar update request further includes information identifying a last update for the navigation context, and wherein the data retrieved from the data system are filtered such that only grammar data corresponding to grammar update-enabled UI objects in accordance with the navigation context that have changed since the last update are provided to the voice access system.

42. A computer readable medium on which a plurality of machine instructions are stored that when executed by a computing machine provides filtered data by performing the operations of:

providing data to render a computer user interface by which a user may identify user interface (UI) objects in forms corresponding to a user interface of an application used to access the data system to pass-through enable;

generating a filter mechanism to filter out underlying data pertaining to UI objects contained in the forms that were not identified to pass-through enable; and

in response to a data query request from a requestor requesting to retrieve data from the data system meeting a query criteria provided with the data query request,

said query criteria identifying a form to which the requested data pertain,

receiving an unfiltered set of data from the data system based on the query criteria;

filtering the unfiltered set of data with the filter mechanism to create a filtered set of data; and

returning the filtered set of data to the requestor,

the filtered set of data including data meeting the query criteria and pertaining to UI objects that are pass-through enabled.

43. The machine-readable media of claim 42, wherein the filter mechanism implements an XSLT (extensible Style sheet Language transformation) style sheet containing logic to filter out any data pertaining to UI objects in the identified form that are not pass-through enabled.

46. The machine-readable media of claim 42, wherein the computer user interface includes indicia pertaining to UI objects contained in respective forms corresponding to the user interface for the data system, and a user is enabled to identify which UI objects to pass-through enable by marking the indicia corresponding to those UI objects via the computer user interface.

47. The machine-readable media of claim 46, wherein the computer user interface comprises a graphical user interface (GUI), and execution of the machine instructions generates the GUI by performing the operations of:

retrieving metadata corresponding to the user interface for the data system, said metadata comprising object definitions for the UI objects of the user interface including a hierarchical position of each UI object within the user interface;

processing the metadata to build an application representation comprising an internal representation of the user interface of the data system including data identifying the hierarchical position of each UI object; and

providing data from which a hierarchical tree corresponding to the application representation can be rendered to provide a visual representation of the application representation.

48. The machine-readable media of claim 47, wherein the application representation comprises an XML tree, and execution of the machine instructions further performs the operations of:

sending the XML tree to a browser operation on a client machine that is linked in communication with the data system; and

rendering the hierarchical tree via the browser.