Using a controlled vocabulary library to generate business data component names

• US 7,865,519 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Stuhec, Gunther
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): LODHI, ANDALIB FT
• Application Number:
  US10/990,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106824A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,239 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating a name for a business data component in an electronic business process use a received textual description of the business data component. One or more proposed names are generated in accordance with a predefined naming format. The proposed names are generated using a matching algorithm to select terms from a library of available terms based on the textual description. Each proposed name includes multiple terms, and each term in the library of available terms defines an object class, a property, a representation class, or a qualifier.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

present a plurality of selectable business process models to a user in response to at least a request to add a business data component to a business process model, the request including a textual description of the business data component generated by the user;

receive a selection of one of the plurality of business models;

in response to at least the selection, identify terms from a library, including associates between the terms, used to generate proposed names for business data components in connection with adding the business data components to business process models, the library includes terms and associates for each of the plurality of selectable business models;

search the identified terms using a matching algorithm and the textual description to select terms associated with the business data component and used to add business components to the selected business process model, each term in the library of available terms defining at least one of an object class, a property, a representation class, or a qualifier;

combine, in accordance with a predefined naming format, at least portions of the selected terms to generate a proposed name for the business data component in the selected business process model;

receive context information for defining the business data component;

identify a predefined business data model based on the context information;

receive a request to add the business data component to the business data model, wherein the matching algorithm uses a context defined by at least one of the context information or the predefined business data model to select terms from the library of available terms;

update the selected business process model with the business data component using the proposed name, wherein the at least one proposed name includes a business data component name included in a business data model for a different context; and

a topic map defines associations between a plurality of business data models including the predefined business data model and the business data model for the different context, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to identify the business data model for the different context based on a relationship with the predefined business data model defined in the topic map.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer program product is operable to further cause data processing apparatus to modify the business data model to include a selected one of the at least one proposed name.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the textual description includes a description of at least two elements selected from the group consisting of an object class, a property, a representation class, and a qualifier.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein the library of available terms defines associations between the available terms and the at least one proposed name for the business data component is generated based on the defined associations between terms.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein at least one proposed name for the business data component includes an object class term, a property term, and a representation class term.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein at least one proposed name for the business data component includes a qualifier term associated with at least one of the object class term, the property term, or the representation class term.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the library of available terms comprises a topic map of terms included in predefined business data component names, the topic map defining associations between each term and one or more predefined business data component names included in a set of business data models.

8. The computer program of claim 7 wherein the topic map defines associations based on component parts of sentences.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the computer program product is operable to further cause data processing apparatus to modify at least one business data model in the set of business data models to include a selected one of the at least one proposed name in a specific context.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the matching algorithm selects terms using the topic map to combine terms to generate each proposed name.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the matching algorithm selects terms based on at least one limitation for the business data component selected from the group consisting of a constraint, a characteristic, one or more valid values, and a specified context.

12. A system for generating business component names, the system comprising:

memory; and

a data processing apparatus communicatively coupled to the memory, the data processing apparatus operable to;

present a plurality of selectable business process models to a user in response to at least a request to add a business data component to a business process model, the request including a textual description of the business data component generated by the user;

receive a selection of one of the plurality of business models;

in response to at least the request for the selection, execute software means for identifying terms from a library, including associates between the terms, used to generate proposed names for business data components in connection with adding the business data components to business process models, the library includes terms and associates for each of the plurality of selectable business models;

execute software means for searching the identified terms and the associations between the identified terms using a matching algorithm and the textual description to select terms associated with the business data component and used to add business components to the selected business model;

execute software means for combining at least a portion of the selected terms to generate at least one proposed name for the business data component in accordance with a predefined naming format, the predefined naming format defining a name as including a plurality of terms for semantically describing a business data component, wherein the plurality of terms include at least two terms from the group consisting of an object class term, a property term, a representation class term, a qualifier term, a context category, and a context value;

execute software means for receiving context information for defining the business data component;

identify a predefined business data model based on the context information;

receive a request to add the business data component to the business data model, wherein the matching algorithm uses a context defined by at least one of the context information or the predefined business data model to select terms from the library of available terms;

update the selected business process model with the business data component using the proposed name, wherein the at least one proposed name includes a business data component name included in a business data model for a different context; and

a topic map defines associations between a plurality of business data models including the predefined business data model and the business data model for the different context, identifying the business data model for the different context based on a relationship with the predefined business data model defined in the topic map.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the software means for generating at least one proposed name is operable to select, for each proposed name, a plurality of terms from the available terms based on a correspondence between the description and a semantic meaning of the selected plurality of terms and a relationship between a context of the at least one proposed name and a context of each of the selected plurality of terms.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the data processing apparatus is further operable to search available terms and associations between the terms using a topic map with each term corresponding to a topic and each topic associated with at least one other topic and with a component part of a sentence.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein each topic corresponding to a term includes a plurality of elements defining at least one of an occurrence of the term, a topic of which the term is an instance, or a scope associated with the term.

16. A method for defining a business data component name, the method comprising:

presenting a plurality of selectable business process models to a user in response to at least a request to add a business data component to a business process model, the request including a textual description of the business data component generated by the user;

receiving a selection of one of the plurality of business models;

in response to at least the selection, identifying terms from a library, including associates between the terms, used to generate proposed names for business data components in connection with adding the business data components to business process models, the library includes terms and associates for each of the plurality of selectable business models;

searching the identified terms using a matching algorithm and the textual description to select terms associated with the business data component and used to add business components to the selected business process model, each term in the library of available terms defining at least one of an object class, a property, a representation class, or a qualifier;

combining, in accordance with a predefined naming format, at least portions of the selected terms to generate a proposed name for the business data component in the selected business process model;

receiving context information for defining the business data component;

identifying a predefined business data model based on the context information;

receiving a request to add the business data component to the business data model, wherein the matching algorithm uses a context defined by at least one of the context information or the predefined business data model to select terms from the library of available terms;

updating the selected business process model with the business data component using the proposed name, wherein the at least one proposed name includes a business data component name included in a business data model for a different context; and

a topic map defines associations between a plurality of business data models including the predefined business data model and the business data model for the different context, to identify the business data model for the different context based on a relationship with the predefined business data model defined in the topic map.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising generating the name for the business data component is further based on the context definition and a context associated with each of the at least one predefined business data component.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the library of available terms comprises a topic map defining associations between the available terms and generating the name for the business data component is further based on the associations between the available terms.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein generating a name for the business data component comprises using at least one of a synonym library, a code list, or a qualifier list.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the associations between the available terms define dictionary entry names in different contexts, the name including a dictionary entry name in a different context.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the description includes a description of at least two elements selected from the group consisting of an object class, a property, a representation class, and a qualifier.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein generating a name comprises selecting terms based on at least one limitation for the business data component selected from the group consisting of a constraint, a characteristic, one or more valid values, and a specified context.