Resource finder tool

• US 8,195,631 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2003
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Beringer, Joerg, Haeussler, Annette, Nieves, Sandra
• Primary Examiner(s): Jami, Hares
• Application Number:
  US10/658,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20040133413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,193 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/736, 707/754, 707/758, 707/705, 707/722, 707/731, 707/732, 707/999.1, 707/999.3
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Systems and techniques to develop an enterprise management consolidation system are described including a cross-functional application to provide communication between at least one of an object modeling tool, a process modeling tool and a user interface tool. The user interface tool is configured to find resources having desired characteristics. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes receiving characteristics of a resource desired by a user and searching a data source of resource profiles to locate profiles having one or more of the characteristics. The located profiles are provided to the user in a hit-list, which may then be narrowed by receiving from the user refinements or segment filters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a data source of resource profiles associated with a plurality of resources, each resource being at least one of a plurality of resource types;

receiving, through a user interface, one or more first attributes of a resource desired by a user, wherein receiving attributes comprises receiving a search template from the user and the search template is auto-configured based on the resource type, attributes, or facets;

searching, using a processor, the data source of resource profiles for profiles having one or more of the first attributes;

providing, to the user, a hit-list of resources having the one or more first attributes;

receiving one or more second attributes of the resource through a refinement user interface;

searching, using a processor, the hit-list for resources having the one or more second attributes;

providing, to the user, a narrowed hit-list of resources having the one or more first and second attributes;

storing the hit-list as a collection of resources which is used for further actions or stored as a persistent collection,

automatically creating two or more segments of the narrowed hit-list by grouping the resources according to one of a plurality of attribute dimensions generating, for the user, statistics associated with the segments;

receiving a selection of two or more segments through the user interface;

providing, to the user, a subset of the narrowed hit-list based on the selected two or more segments; and

using the hit-list to create a community, the community only including users sharing the first attribute.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, in response to a user query, resources of the hit-list for user inspection;

maintaining a list of resources displayed for inspection by the user;

displaying a search history of search queries previously entered by a user, including a list of resources previously displayed;

allowing the user to back-navigate to a search within the search history by displaying the corresponding hit-list; and

displaying the list of inspected resources as the hit-list.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising defining the resource profiles by facets, attributes, and descriptions of the sources of the attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising generating a pattern-based user interface of a search tool from the resource profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least one selected resource type;

providing a second narrowed hit-list of resources having the selected resource type from the narrowed hit-list;

storing the second narrowed hit-list as a second collection of resources for using for further actions or storing as a persistent collection.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising storing the collection of resources dynamically or statically.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating the narrowed hit-list with an existing collection of resources.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the existing collection of resources comprises an historical listing of aggregated narrowed hit-lists.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the search template is defined by the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the search template comprises a multi-resource query that returns resources of more than one resource type.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising saving and re-using the search template.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing contact information in response to a user query to enable communication with resources in the community.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the narrowed hit-list is displayed based on the resource type.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource type is a person and the attributes include at least one of licenses received, papers published, languages spoken, demographic information, title in an organization, activities.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of selected resource types are received through the refinement user interface.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining the stored collection of resources with a second collection of resources to create a fifth collection of resources.

17. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

storing the second collection of resources by selecting a subset of the second narrowed hit-list.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the collection of resources is stored under a name provided by a user.

19. The method of claim 5, wherein the second narrowed hit-list includes heterogeneous resources.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein the facets include at least one of collaboration, qualification, interests, and activities.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the narrowed hit-list of resources is provided from the hit-list.

22. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions, tangibly recorded on the storage medium, for performing a method when executed by at least one processor, the method comprising:

storing a data source of resource profiles associated with a plurality of resources, each resource being at least one of a plurality of resource types;

receiving, through a user interface, one or more first attributes of a resource desired by a user, wherein receiving attributes comprises receiving a search template from the user and the search template is auto-configured based on the resource type, attributes, or facets;

searching the data source of resource profiles for profiles having one or more of the first attributes;

providing, to the user, a hit-list of resources having the one or more first attributes;

receiving one or more second attributes of the resource through a refinement user interface;

searching, using a processor, the hit-list for resources having the one or more second attributes;

providing, to the user, a narrowed hit-list of resources having the one or more first and second attributes;

storing the narrowed hit-list as a collection of resources which is used for further actions or stored as a persistent collection;

automatically creating two or more segments of the narrowed hit-list by grouping the resources according to one of a plurality of attribute dimensions;

generating, for the user, statistics associated with the segments;

receiving a selection of two or more segments through the user interface;

providing, to the user, a subset of the narrowed hit-list based on the selected two or more segments; and

using the hit-list to create a community, the community only including users sharing the first attribute.

23. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, further comprising:

displaying, in response to a user query, resources of the hit-list for user inspection;

maintaining a list of resources displayed for inspection by the user;

displaying a search history of search queries previously entered by a user, including a list of resources previously displayed;

allowing the user to back-navigate to a search within the search history by displaying the corresponding hit-list; and

displaying the list of inspected resources as the hit-list.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, comprising defining the resource profiles by facets, attributes, and descriptions of the sources of the attributes.

25. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, comprising generating a pattern-based user interface of a search tool from the resource profile.

26. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving at least one selected resource type;

providing a second narrowed hit-list of resources having the selected resource type from the narrowed hit-list; and

storing the second narrowed hit-list as a second collection of resources for using for further actions or storing as a persistent collection.

27. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, further comprising aggregating the narrowed hit-list with an existing collection of resources.

28. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the existing collection of resources comprises an historical listing of aggregated narrowed hit-lists.

29. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 26, further comprising storing instructions operable to cause the one or more machines to perform operations comprising creating a layout of the segments of the narrowed hit-list by discrete values of an attribute dimension.