Deferred control of surrogate key generation in a distributed processing architecture

• US 7,779,042 B1
• Filed: 08/08/2005
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Youngkin, Richard Shaffer, Jennings, Terry Don, Friedl, Stephan Edward, Olson, Jeffrey James, Bland, Michael Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H
• Application Number:
  US11/199,828
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.R, 707/104.1, 707/763, 707/781, 707/802, 719/310, 719/318
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

An event reporting system includes a computational component 228 operable (a) to receive notification of a change to an attribute of an entity, the entity, prior to the change, being associated with a first surrogate key, and (b) to defer the use of a second surrogate key for the entity until a selected time. The second surrogate key was generated to reflect the change.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method for correlating information from one or more sources, comprising:

receiving, at a key authority, notification of a change to an attribute of an entity, the entity prior to the change being associated with a first surrogate key;

deferring the use of a second surrogate key, generated in response to the change, until a selected time, wherein the second surrogate key was generated to reflect the change;

receiving from a first source system an event notification, the event notification comprising event information and a source specific key;

determining a third surrogate key corresponding to the source specific key;

determining a hint associated with at least one of the first and second surrogate keys;

mapping the hint and third surrogate key to determine the first surrogate key; and

using the first surrogate key in a row of a table.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the receiving step, using the first surrogate key to identify an instance of the entity and/or attribute of the entity.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the hint indicating the selected time.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a first hint associated with the second surrogate key, the first hint indicating when to use the second surrogate key;

subsequently determining a second hint associated with the second surrogate key, the second hint superseding the first hint and indicating the selected time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the attribute and the entity is a dimension, wherein the third surrogate key is an entity identifier, wherein the source-specific key is a natural key, and wherein the hint is at least one of a flag, a date, a time, a Signature, an identified event, a time stamp, a surrogate key, and sequence number.

6. A computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions to perform the steps of claims 1.

7. An event reporting system including at least one processor for correlating information from one or more resources, the event reporting system comprising:

a key authority that receives notification of a change to an attribute of an entity, the entity, prior to the change, being associated with a first surrogate key, and defers the use of a second surrogate key for the entity until a selected time, wherein the second surrogate key was generated to reflect the change;

an input adapter that receives from a first source system an event notification, the event notification comprising event information and a source specific key; and

an identity resolution authority that determines a third surrogate key corresponding to the source specific key,

wherein the key authority determines a hint associated with at least one of the first and second surrogate keys, and

wherein the key authority maps the hint and third surrogate key to determine the first surrogate key and use the first surrogate key in a row of a table.

8. The event reporting system of claim 7, further comprising:

an output adapter that, after the receiving step, uses the first surrogate key to identify an instance of the entity and/or attribute of the entity in a table.

9. The event reporting system of claim 7, wherein the hint indicating the selected time.

10. The event reporting system of claim 7, wherein the key authority determines a first hint associated with the second surrogate key, the first hint indicating when to use the second surrogate key;

and further comprising;

an event processor that subsequently determines a second hint associated with the second surrogate key, the second hint superseding the first hint and indicating the selected time.

11. The event reporting system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the attribute and the entity is a dimension, wherein the third surrogate key is an entity identifier, wherein the source-specific key is a natural key, and wherein the hint is at least one of a flag, a date, a time, a signature, an identified event, a time stamp, a surrogate key, and a sequence number.

12. The event reporting system of claim 7, further comprising:

a data store comprising a fact table and wherein facts are stored in the data store in association with first surrogate key before the selected time.

13. The event reporting system of claim 7, wherein the selected time occurs when the attribute and/or entity is in a determined state.