Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-03
2003-02-11
Vu, Kim (Department: 2172)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06519588
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
N/A
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
N/A
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to computer based information management systems, and more specifically to a system for representing, storing, and retrieving product information.
In order to effectively market their products, product manufacturers must communicate product information to many parties, including product information aggregators such as on-line retailers or catalog suppliers, procurement partners within business to business procurement networks, prospective product purchasers (“consumers”), and others. A significant problem exists related to managing and storing large amounts of product information in a way that allows the information to be conveniently updated, while also enabling the information supplier to provide the information to multiple receiving parties in multiple formats, such that the information may be conveniently utilized for a variety of different, specific purposes.
In some existing systems, an information aggregator may collect product information from one or more information suppliers, and then store the information using a relational database (RDBMS) system, such as those provided by various RDBMS suppliers. In these existing systems, the information aggregator predefines a number of tables and columns which define how the information is to be stored and accessed. Generally, product information for a given product occupies a row or “entry” within a predefined table, and the predefined columns define the searchable attributes of the populated database. Often, the set of predefined columns cannot be modified after the database is populated without a special operation that must be performed by a system administrator. It is difficult, however, to determine a set of columns that are appropriate across different versions of a given product. It is even more difficult to determine a set of columns that are appropriate for a group of supposedly “related” products, which may be provided by different manufacturers. Additionally, it may be desirable to dynamically provide a specific “customized” information organization for a particular product, for example to reflect its “proprietary” features or some fundamental differences between it and competing products. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that significant product features or product characteristics may change over time, for example, due to new revisions or releases of the products. Moreover, for marketing purposes, different product manufacturers often seek to place emphasis on different features or product characteristics of their products with respect to competing products. Existing RDBMS solutions further assume that ordering of the data they store is implicit in the data, as may be obtained by sorting the names of people alphabetically. However, in some cases, the information supplier may desire to specify a data ordering that is content independent.
Some existing systems have responded to these complex problems by forcing large amounts of product information into a single column, sometimes referred to as the “detailed description” of the product. In one example of such an approach, only the detailed description column and a part number column are provided as searchable attributes for each product entry. With this type of existing system, targeted searching to identify and/or compare product features is very difficult. Even searching for matching text strings within the detailed description column is often ineffective, due to the use of different terminology for comparable features by different product manufacturers, and due to changes in terminology over time.
When product information aggregators provide static, pre-formatted tables of product information with a predetermined set of attribute columns, such predetermined columns cannot generally be dynamically controlled or configured, for example by the product manufacturers. Such systems also fail to provide a convenient mechanism for product information suppliers to dynamically modify individual product entries within the tables. In particular, while well understood features or product characteristics can be reflected to some extent by such predefined tables, no convenient mechanism is typically provided in existing systems for dynamically adding proprietary features or characteristics of a given product or product category to column definitions or headings.
Accordingly it would be desirable to have a system for product information maintenance and storage which permits product information suppliers to conveniently update the information regarding particular products, as well as the way such information may be referenced and or retrieved. The system should further be capable of providing the information to a variety of publishing destinations, such as product aggregators, procurement partners, and/or consumers, in a way that enables effective product feature research and/or comparison.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a system and method for storing related data is disclosed. The disclosed system treats all information it receives and stores as a number of discrete “concepts”. The system receives a number of concepts related to the data to be stored, such as product names, product categories, and/or product characteristics, forms a number of relationships linking the concepts together, and then represents the data in a way reflecting both the concepts and the relationships between the concepts. The relationships formed by the disclosed system include a number of independent aspects which add useful levels of meaning to the way the information is organized. One aspect of the relationships formed between concepts reflects application specific meanings that may be applied to individual relationships. Accordingly, the relationships provided in any specific embodiment of the disclosed system are defined to reflect a specific application of the system, such as, for example, a catalog service for receiving, storing, and publishing product-related information.
In general, relationships may be formed to distinguish a subset of concepts from other concepts stored within a common data structure. In a tree data structure, relationships may be provided indicating that a number of concepts are distinguishable from other concepts within the same tree data structure, and which are stored as children of a common parent node. An ordering aspect of a relationship may also be provided indicating an ordering of child concepts under a common parent node within the tree. Because application specific meanings provided by the relationships may be defined to support various specific applications, the disclosed system is applicable to any kind of information storage and retrieval application. Accordingly, while the illustrative embodiments are described in connection with a product information application, the present invention is not limited to such an application, and may be applied advantageously to any data storage and retrieval application which seeks to provide a meaningful representation of data.
In an illustrative embodiment for storage and retrieval of product information, the disclosed system receives and stores concepts describing product information in a way that enables information suppliers to conveniently and dynamically add to and/or modify those stored concepts. The disclosed system may further be employed to organize the information it receives in a way that reflects both shared attributes and proprietary concepts related to various products. In an illustrative embodiment, a set of concepts is first obtained, as well as associated concept names. Such concepts and associated names may, for example, originate in part or in whole a priori through a committee process in which various product manufacturers provide input and are permitted to vote on a resulting shared concept set. Such predetermined concepts are referred to herein as “shared” concepts. “Private” con
MRO Software, Inc.
Troung Cam-Y
Vu Kim
Weingarten Schurgin, Gagnebin & Lebovici LLP
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