Automatically moving annotations associated with multidimensional data between live datacubes

• US 8,347,207 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Borgsmidt, Rasmus, Tarnoff, Finuala, Cherian, Bindhu Mary
• Primary Examiner(s): STORK, KYLE R
• Application Number:
  US11/954,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,847 Days
• Field of Search: 715/231, 715/234, 715/243, 715/254, 715/255
• US Class Current: 715/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Techniques are described for sharing multidimensional data and associated annotations between software systems. As described herein, the techniques provide mechanisms for defining inter-application “links” for automatically copying data and associated annotations among databases associated with the enterprise software systems. For example, a system may include a first database storing multidimensional data for a first software application, and a second database storing multidimensional data for a second software application. The system further includes an interface by which an administrator defines a link that specifies a source area of the first database and a target area of the second database. A link control module automatically moves multidimensional data and annotations associated with cells or cubes of the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link.

Claims

1. A method for exporting data from a first enterprise software system comprising:

defining a link from the first enterprise software system to a second enterprise software system, wherein the link specifies a source area of a first multidimensional database and a target area of a second multidimensional database, wherein the link defines one or more of mappings each specifying a relationship between one or more cells of the source area and one or more cells of the target area, wherein the first enterprise software system accesses the first multidimensional database, wherein the second enterprise software system accesses the second multidimensional database, and wherein the first and second multidimensional databases each include three or more dimensions;

automatically copying multidimensional data from the source area of the first multidimensional database to the target area of the second multidimensional database in accordance with the link;

identifying one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area, wherein each of the annotations defines at least text-based commentary associated with a portion of the multidimensional data of the source area; and

automatically copying the identified one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link, wherein automatically copying includes;

if the link defines a first mapping of the plurality of mappings from one cell of the source area to a plurality of cells of the one or more cells of the target area and at least one of the one or more annotations is associated with the one cell of the source area, replicating the at least one annotation associated with the one cell of the source area into multiple annotations, and associating each of the multiple annotations with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the target area and

if the link defines a second mapping of the plurality of mappings from a plurality of cells of the one or more cells of the source area to one cell of the target area and each of at least two of the one or more annotations are associated with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the source area, associating the at least two annotations with the one cell of the target area.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises:

identifying a source data cube and a target data cube;

identifying a source dimension of the source data cube and a target dimension of the target data cube; and

defining a mapping between items of the source dimension and items of the target dimension,

wherein automatically copying multidimensional data includes copying the multidimensional data in accordance with the mapping.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises defining a data aggregation that maps a plurality of items along a source dimension to one item along a target dimension.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a link comprises mapping one or more items along a source dimension to one or more items along a target dimension.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying the identified one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area comprises:

identifying a plurality of target cells in the target area associated with the cells of the multidimensional data in accordance with the link; and

creating annotations associated with cells in the plurality of target cells based on the at least one of the annotations associated with the individual cell of the multidimensional data of the source area.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method further comprises automatically copying files attached to the annotations from the first enterprise software system to the second enterprise software system in accordance with the link, and

wherein, after copying the files, the files of the second enterprise software system are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotations are incorporated into the multidimensional data as an additional dimension of the multidimensional data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading multidimensional planning data to a client device of a user;

automatically copying the multidimensional data from the source area to the planning data upon manual invocation of the link by the user; and

saving the planning data to the target area from the client device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying multidimensional data comprises copying the multidimensional data from a live source area storing current multidimensional data for the first enterprise software system to a live target area storing current multidimensional data associated with the second enterprise software system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically copying multidimensional data comprises exporting a consistent set of data from the source area.

11. The method of claim 1,

wherein the at least one of the annotations associated with the individual cell of the multidimensional data of the source area specifies user-readable information regarding data within the individual cell within the multidimensional data of the source area.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein one of the annotations is associated with a data cube of the multidimensional data;

and

wherein the one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding the data cube.

13. A system comprising:

a programmable processor;

a first database storing multidimensional data accessible at least by a first enterprise software system, wherein the multidimensional data of the first database includes three or more dimensions;

a second database storing multidimensional data accessible at least by a second enterprise software system, wherein the multidimensional data of the second database includes three or more dimensions;

an interface to receive input that defines a link specifying a source area of the first database and a target area of the second database, wherein the link defines one or more mappings each specifying a relationship between one or more cells of the source area and one or more cells of the target area; and

a link control module executable by the programmable processor to;

automatically copy multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link;

identify one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area, wherein each of the annotations defines at least text-based commentary associated with a portion of the multidimensional data of the source area; and

automatically copy the identified one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link, wherein automatically copying includes;

if the link defines a first mapping of the plurality of mappings from one cell of the source area to a plurality of cells of the one or more cells of the target area and at least one of the one or more annotations is associated with the one cell of the source area, replicating the at least one annotation associated with the one cell of the source area into multiple annotations, and associating each of the multiple annotations with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the target area and

if the link defines a second mapping of the plurality of mappings from a plurality of cells of the one or more cells of the source area to one cell of the target area and each of at least two of the one or more annotations are associated with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the source area, associating the at least two annotations with the one cell of the target area.

14. The system of claim 13,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator defines the link by specifying a source data cube of the source database, a target data cube of the target database, a source dimension of the source data cube and a target dimension of the target data cube,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which the administrator defines a mapping between items of the source dimension and items of the target dimension, and

wherein the link control module automatically copies the multidimensional data in accordance with the mapping.

15. The system of claim 13,

wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator defines a data aggregation that maps a plurality of items along a source dimension to one item along a target dimension, and

wherein the link control module automatically aggregates at least a portion of the multidimensional data when copying the multidimensional data from the source area to the target area.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the interface includes input areas by which an administrator maps one or more items along a source dimension of the first database to one or more items along a target dimension of the second database.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein, in order to copy the identified one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area, the link control identifies a plurality of target cells in the target area associated with the cells of the multidimensional data in accordance with the link, and creates annotations associated with cells in the plurality of target cells based on the at least one of the annotations associated with the individual cell of the multidimensional data of the source area.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the link control module copies files attached to the annotations from the first enterprise software system to the second enterprise software system in accordance with the link, and wherein, after copying the files, the files of the second enterprise software system are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the annotations are incorporated into the multidimensional data as an additional dimension of the multidimensional data.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a client device providing an operating environment for a planning software application,

wherein the planning software application downloads node-specific planning data from the second database to the client device, automatically retrieves the multidimensional data from the source area of the first database upon manual invocation of the link by a user, and saves the node-specific planning data and the multidimensional data to the target area from the client device.

21. The system of claim 13,

wherein the source area comprises a live source area that stores current multidimensional data for the first enterprise software system, and

wherein the target area comprises a live target area that stores current multidimensional data for the second enterprise software system.

22. The system of claim 13,

wherein the one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source area comprises a first one of the annotations and a second one of the annotations,

wherein the at least one of the annotations associated with the individual cell of the multidimensional data of the source area comprises the first one of the annotations,

wherein the first one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding data within the individual cell within the multidimensional data of the source area,

wherein the second one of the annotations is associated with a data cube of the multidimensional data of the source area, and

wherein the second one of the annotations specifies user-readable information regarding the data cube.

23. A computer-readable hardware storage medium comprising instructions that cause one or more programmable processors of a computing device to:

present a user interface to receive input specifying a link defining;

a source data cube of a first enterprise software system, the source data cube including three or more dimensions,

a source dimension of the source data cube,

a target data cube of a second enterprise software system, the target data cube including three or more dimensions,

a target dimension of the target data cube, and

one or more mappings each specifying a relationship between one or more cells of the source data cube and one or more cells of the target data cube;

automatically copy multidimensional data associated with the source item of the source data cube to the target items of the target data cube;

identify one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source data cube, wherein each of the annotations defines at least one text-based commentary associated with a portion of the multidimensional data of the source data cube; and

automatically copy the identified one or more annotations associated with the multidimensional data of the source data cube from the source data cube to the target data cube in accordance with the link, wherein automatically copying includes;

if the link defines a first mapping of the plurality of mappings from one cell of the source data cube to a plurality of cells of the one or more cells of the target data cube and at least one of the one or more annotations is associated with the one cell of the source data cube, replicating the at least one annotation associated with the one cell of the source data cute into multiple annotations, and associating each of the multiple annotations with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the target data cube; and

if the link defines a second mapping of the plurality of mappings from a plurality of cells of the source data cube to one cell of the target data cube and each of at least two of the one or more annotations are associated with a respective cell of the plurality of cells of the source data cube, associating the at least two annotations with the one cell of the target data cube.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, further comprising instructions to automatically copy files attached to the annotations from the first enterprise software system to the second enterprise software system in accordance with the link, wherein, after copying the files, the files of the second enterprise software system are correctly associated with corresponding annotations within the target area.