Deferred control of surrogate key generation in a distributed processing architecture

• US 8,578,396 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2010
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Bland, Michael Alan, Friedl, Stephan Edward, Jennings, Terry Don, Olson, Jeffrey James, Youngkin, Richard Shaffer
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, VAN H
• Application Number:
  US12/789,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/318, 707/802
• US Class Current: 719/318
• 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. A method for correlating information, comprising:

receiving an event notification, the event notification comprising event information and a natural key;

mapping the natural key to a normalized key;

selecting, by a processor, a first hint for the normalized key, the first hint indicating which of a plurality of surrogate keys associated with the normalized key will be used in a record corresponding to the event information;

determining whether to use the first hint;

when the first hint is to be used, mapping the normalized key and first hint to identify a second surrogate key in the plurality of surrogate keys; and

when the first hint is not to be used, selecting a second hint for the normalized key, the second hint being associated with a first surrogate key in the plurality of surrogate keys.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the second surrogate key when the first hint is used and the first surrogate key when the second hint is used; and

adding a row to a fact table using the selected one of the first and second surrogate keys.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a data store comprises the fact table.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural key is associated with context.

5. A logic circuit configured to perform the steps of claim 1.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first hint is determined by a key authority.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first hint comprises at least one of a flag, a date, a time, a signature, an identified event, a time stamp, a surrogate key, and sequence number.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the surrogate keys are determined by a key authority.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second hint is determined by a key authority.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed by an input adapter.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions to perform the following steps:

receiving an event notification, the event notification comprising event information and a natural key;

mapping the natural key to a normalized key;

selecting, by a processor, a first hint for the normalized key, the first hint indicating which of a plurality of surrogate keys associated with the normalized key will be used in a record corresponding to the event information;

determining whether to use the first hint;

when the first hint is to be used, mapping the normalized key and first hint to identify a second surrogate key in the plurality of surrogate keys; and

when the first hint is not to be used, selecting a second hint for the normalized key, the second hint being associated with a first surrogate key in the plurality of surrogate keys.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, perform the further steps of:

selecting the second surrogate key when the first hint is used and the first surrogate key when the second hint is used; and

adding a row to a fact table using the selected one of the first and second surrogate keys.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein a data store comprises the fact table.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the natural key is associated with context.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first hint is determined by a key authority.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first hint comprises at least one of a flag, a date, a time, a signature, an identified event, a time stamp, a surrogate key, and sequence number.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the surrogate keys are determined by a key authority.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the second hint is determined by a key authority.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method is performed by an input adapter.