Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-09
2001-10-23
Choules, Jack (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308168
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computer database systems, and in particular to presentation of information stored in the computer database system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Operational computer database systems have typically been designed to meet mission-critical requirements for supporting the day-to-day operations of a business, including on-line and batch processing of transactional data. An example of transactional data stored in computer database systems is point of sale (POS) data provided by electronic cash registers from the reading of bar codes on items being purchased. The millions of records generated by recording the day-to-day operations of a business, such as point-of-sale data, are often too detailed to be useful to strategic decision makers.
The analysis of transactional data to obtain useful knowledge is financially beneficial to businesses in the retail industry such as suppliers, retailers, large chains, local stores, and advertisers. For example, by analyzing transactional data, a retailer can determine the percentage of purchasers who buy milk during a transaction and also buy cookies. Accordingly, the retailer can estimate the effect of changing the price of milk on the number of cookie products purchased.
Data warehouses were developed to improve the productivity of decision makers by consolidating, converting, transforming, and integrating transactional data into useful knowledge. Data warehouses are therefore another form of computer database system that contain both detailed transaction-level data and summary information.
To facilitate the use of information in a computer database system, many computer database systems include metadata, or “data about data.” Metadata includes technical information about operational databases, the transformations of operational data to produce the data stored in the data warehouse, and data warehouse management information. Metadata also includes business information to help users understand the data stored in the data warehouse. Typically, metadata is organized as a set of database tables, separate from the operational databases. However, metadata may be stored as any type of file. The user can view metadata to determine the types of information available in the computer database system.
A particular end user such as a product manager of a retail chain may be concerned only about a specific area of the useful knowledge, such as summary information for a single product or group of products. Another end user in the same company, such as a store manager, may instead wish to examine information for each store. Because some end users may not possess sufficient computer skills or knowledge of the technical information necessary to access information in the different parts of the warehouse, computer database systems often have a set of pre-programmed report types from which the user may select. Reports may present information to the user in statistical, textual and/or graphical form.
To enable a user to easily select from these pre-programmed report types, computer database systems often include data presentation modules. Data presentation modules enable a user to customize reports by specifying “report criteria.” An example of a report criterion is a specified date range to which the data displayed in the report will be limited. Data presentation modules may also allow the user to specify report criteria such as the data fields to appear as columns on the report. The user will use the data presentation module in a “report configuration session,” in which the user specifies the report criteria desired for the report of interest. Because different users will have different requirements of a report, the data presentation module should provide the user with as much flexibility as possible in specifying report criteria to customize the information to be displayed.
In a typical data presentation module of a computer database system, adding new report types or changing the report criteria available to customize a report type typically involves modifying the data presentation module software. Because the list of available report types and/or the report criteria available for each report type may change rapidly, a data presentation module that can be easily modified to meet organizational and even individual user needs is desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has been discovered that a data presentation module presenting panels that are driven by metadata provides many advantages such as ease of maintenance, support, and customization for individual users. The data presentation module is customized for the user's environment by configuring the metadata tables upon initial installation of the data presentation module software. Changes to the panels presented by the data presentation module can be performed at any time by changing the metadata tables and without modifying the software for the data presentation module. Placing the data that controls the display of the panels into metadata, rather than in a separate database, allows all “data about data” to be consolidated. Maintenance, support, and customization of the data presentation module is centralized and greatly simplified.
In one aspect of the invention, a method for configuring presentation of information from a database system includes initiating access of at least one metadata file to obtain at least one panel presentation parameter from the at least one metadata file. The method also includes displaying at least one panel via a user interface according to the at least one panel presentation parameter obtained from the metadata file. The at least one panel allows a user to configure the presentation of information from a database system.
In another aspect of the invention, an article of manufacture includes a computer-readable medium. The article of manufacture also includes means for initiating access of at least one metadata file to obtain at least one panel presentation parameter from the at least one metadata file. The means for initiating access is stored in the computer-readable medium. The article of manufacture also includes means for displaying at least one panel via a user interface according to the at least one panel presentation parameter obtained from the metadata file. The means for displaying is stored in the computer-readable medium. The at least one panel allows a user to configure the presentation of information from a database system.
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Dovich Ronald J.
Eppele Peter J.
Choules Jack
Dolezal David G.
Knowledge Discovery One, Inc.
Lewis Cheryl
Rifai D'Ann Naylor
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