Systems and methods of analyzing changes and data between hierarchies

• US 9,002,845 B1
• Filed: 03/03/2013
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aquire Solutions, Inc. (Learning Technologies Group Plc)
• Original Assignee: Aquire Solutions, Inc. (Learning Technologies Group Plc)
• Inventors: Melbourne, Ross, Winsor, Brad, Melbourne, Lois
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US13/783,386
• Time in Patent Office: 765 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases

Abstract

There is disclosed various embodiments of computer systems and methods for analyzing multi-dimensional trends from two dimensional hierarchical data by comparing and analyzing two hierarchies and their associated attributes. Certain embodiments may comprise: providing a database of previous time slice data, receiving new time slice data, comparing the new time slice data to the database of previous time slice data, generating additional attributes, incorporating the additional attributes and the new time slice data into the database so that analysis may be performed between the two hierarchies.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for analyzing hierarchical data from at least two points in time, the method comprising:

providing data representing nodes of a first hierarchy including a first node,

providing data representing first attributes associated with the nodes of the first hierarchy,

receiving data representing nodes of a second hierarchy including a second node that is a parent node to at least one of the nodes in the first hierarchy,

receiving data representing second attributes associated with the nodes of the second hierarchy, at least some of the second attributes being the same as corresponding first attributes,

providing at least one configurable set of criteria defining particular attributes from the first attributes and the second attributes,

comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy,

determining that the first node represents a particular position in the first hierarchy and that the second node represents another particular position in the second hierarchy similar to the particular position in the first hierarchy using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy,

generating a first set of new attributes using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy,

determining a combination using the first set of new attributes for each node below the second node of the second hierarchy for each particular attribute in the configurable set of criteria, and

storing the combination.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the combination in databases to allow an end user to analyze differences between the first attributes of the first hierarchy with the second attributes of the second hierarchy.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

calculating statistical values using the combination; and

storing the statistical values in databases.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

examining each field type of each second attribute associated with the second hierarchy, and

creating new attributes using the examination of each field type of each second attribute.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is removal,

determining which nodes in the first hierarchy do not have a corresponding node in the second hierarchy, and

flagging each node in the first hierarchy that does not have a corresponding node in the second hierarchy or creating a new flagged node for each node in the first hierarchy that does not have a corresponding node in the second hierarchy.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is addition,

determining which nodes in the second hierarchy that do not have a corresponding node in the first hierarchy, and

flagging each node in the second hierarchy that does not have a corresponding node in the first hierarchy.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is moveout,

(a) building a list of all nodes under the second node in the second hierarchy,

(b) building a list of all nodes under the first node in the first hierarchy,

(c) flagging each node under the first node in the first hierarchy that does not have a corresponding node in the second hierarchy, and

(d) repeating the above steps (a) through (c) for every node in the first hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is movein,

(a) building a list of all nodes under the second node in the second hierarchy,

(b) building a list of all nodes under the first node in the first hierarchy,

(c) flagging each node under the second node in the second hierarchy that does not have a corresponding node in the first hierarchy, and

(d) repeating the above steps (a) through (c) for every node in the hierarchy.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is a cross time slice,

determining if the attribute of the second hierarchy is to be joined with an attribute of the first hierarchy using data from the configurable set of criteria, and

flagging each node in the second hierarchy to be joined.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is raw, and

copying raw field values from the second attributes associated with each of the nodes of the second hierarchy.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises:

determining that one of the field types is a filter defined in the configurable set of criteria,

determining if the attribute of the second hierarchy meets criteria defined in the configurable set of criteria, and

flagging each attribute meeting criteria defined in the configurable set of criteria and

calculating a second set of new attributes by filtering the first set of new attributes using the configurable set of criteria.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular position in the first hierarchy is the same as the other particular position in the second hierarchy.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the particular position comprises a title.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the second node comprises a root node of the second hierarchy.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a first set of new attributes using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises generating a first set of new attributes using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy and the determination that the first node represents a particular position in the first hierarchy and that the second node represents another particular position, similar to the particular position, in the second hierarchy.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein calculating a second set of new attributes by filtering the first set of new attributes using the configurable set of criteria comprises:

determining an attribute from the configurable set of criteria,

determining which of the nodes in the second hierarchy have the attribute, and

determining a combination for all parent nodes in the second hierarchy that have the attribute.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining a combination for all parent nodes in the second hierarchy that have the attribute comprises:

determining, for each parent node, each corresponding child node that has a field type of an attribute that corresponds with the attribute from the set of criteria, and

generating the second set of attributes for each determined child node and each parent node that has the field type of an attribute that corresponds with the attribute.

18. The method of claim 1, comprising:

calculating a second set of new attributes by filtering the first set of new attributes using the configurable set of criteria, wherein determining the combination using the first set of new attributes for each node below the second node of the second hierarchy for each particular attribute in the configurable set of criteria comprises determining the combination using the second set of new attributes for each node below the second node of the second hierarchy.

19. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining a combination for each parent node in the second hierarchy.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first set of new attributes using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy comprises generating the first set of new attributes using the comparison of the data representing the nodes of the second hierarchy to the data representing nodes of the first hierarchy for each of the particular attributes in the configurable set of criteria.

21. A method for analyzing time dependent trends from two dimensional hierarchical data, the method comprising:

receiving first data from a first database, the first data containing previous time-dependent data representing a hierarchy of nodes, first attributes for the hierarchy of nodes, first combination attributes for the hierarchy of nodes, and first structural attributes for the hierarchy of nodes,

receiving second data containing current time-dependent data representing a new hierarchy of nodes and second attributes for the new hierarchy of nodes,

determining second combination attributes, for at least some of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes, using a first set of predefined criteria and the second attributes for the corresponding child nodes of the respective node,

determining second structural attributes for all of the nodes in the second hierarchy of nodes using a second set of predefined criteria,

comparing the first structural attributes with the second structural attributes to determine which nodes in the first hierarchy correspond to nodes in the second hierarchy,

determining, for each node in the new hierarchy of nodes that corresponds to one of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes, differences between attributes of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes and attributes of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes using a third set of predefined criteria,

updating the first database using the second data, the second combination attributes, the second structural attributes, and the differences between attributes of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes and attributes of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes, and

providing the second data, the second combination attributes, the second structural attributes, and the differences between attributes of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes and attributes of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes to an end user to perform time dependent trend analysis.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein determining differences between attributes of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes and attributes of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes comprises determining differences between first attributes and second attributes other than the first structural attributes and the second structural attributes.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein determining differences between attributes of the nodes in the hierarchy of nodes and attributes of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes comprises determining differences between the first structural attributes and the second structural attributes.

24. The method of claim 21, comprising:

determining, for at least some of the nodes in the new hierarchy of nodes, third combination attributes using the differences for the corresponding child nodes of the respective node.