Data entry commentary and sheet reconstruction for multidimensional enterprise system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10387428-B2
Application number	US-201514985932-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2015
Priority date	Dec 4, 2007
Publication date	Aug 20, 2019
Grant date	Aug 20, 2019

Abstract

A computing device is described that includes a user interface to receive contribution data of an enterprise and to display a sheet of the contribution data, an annotation interface module to receive one or more annotations for objects of the contribution data, a planning application to retrieve a context definition defining a context in which each of the annotations was received, and an annotation table to store each of the annotations and the context definition corresponding to each of the annotations. The user interface may be configured to output the annotations. The computing device may improve the collaborative process of developing multidimensional data. Users of the computing device may quickly and easily share their thoughts, questions, and comments about the data through annotations. Recreating an annotated sheet may be done efficiently by storing relevant coordinates.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
retrieving, by one or more processors of a computing system, contribution data from an enterprise system, wherein the contribution data is arranged in N dimensions in a multidimensional database, and wherein N is greater than two;
retrieving, by the one or more processors, a first annotation for an object of the contribution data from the enterprise system, wherein the first annotation for the object was previously entered prior to retrieving the first annotation;
retrieving, by the one or more processors, a context definition defining a context in which the first annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the first annotation, wherein the context corresponds to a particular cell of a sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database, the sheet comprising a two-dimensional cross-section of the multidimensional database characterized by full versions of two of the N dimensions and single values for each of the remaining N dimensions;
generating, by the one or more processors, a link to the context defined by the context definition and corresponding to the particular cell of the sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database;
outputting, by the one or more processors, the link in a graphical user interface; and
displaying the first annotation in the graphical user interface when the link is selected.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising outputting the sheet in accordance with the context definition when the link is selected.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the first annotation in an annotation table.

4. A computing device comprising:
a user interface to receive contribution data of an enterprise and to display a sheet of the contribution data, wherein the contribution data is arranged in N dimensions in a multidimensional database, wherein N is greater than two, and wherein the sheet comprises a two-dimensional cross-section of the multidimensional database characterized by full versions of two of the N dimensions and single values for each of the remaining N dimensions;
an annotation interface module to receive a first annotation for an object of the contribution data, wherein the first annotation for the object was previously entered prior to retrieving the first annotation;
a planning application to retrieve a context definition defining a context in which the first annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the first annotation, wherein the context definition defines a particular cell of the sheet of the contribution data; and
an annotation table to store the first annotation and the context definition corresponding to the first annotation,
wherein the user interface generates a link to the context defined by the context definition and corresponding to the particular cell of the sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database, outputs the link in a graphical user interface, and displays the first annotation in the graphical user interface when the link is selected.

5. The computing device of claim 4 ,
wherein the annotation interface module is configured to receive at least two annotations for an object of the contribution data within the same context,
wherein the planning application is configured to retrieve coordinates defining the object within the context definition, and
wherein the annotation table is configured to store the coordinates.

6. The computing device of claim 4 , wherein the annotation interface module is configured to store, with the first annotation: a user identifier to identify a user who entered the first annotation, a date identifier to identify the date on which the first annotation was entered, a value indicator to identify the value of the object at the time the first annotation was entered, and a comment field to present a comment from the user who entered the first annotation.

7. The computing device of claim 4 , wherein the annotation interface module is configured to provide a commentary browser to output a link to the context defined by the context definition for the first annotation.

8. The computing device of claim 7 , wherein the planning application is configured to cause the user interface to generate the sheet defined by the context associated with the link when the link is selected.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object comprises a first object, wherein the context definition comprises a first context definition, wherein the context comprises a first context, wherein the particular cell comprises a first particular cell, wherein the link comprises a first link, wherein the sheet comprises a first sheet, and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the one or more processors, an indication of a user selection to produce an annotation list for the multidimensional database;
retrieving, by the one or more processors, a second annotation for a second object of the contribution data from the enterprise system, wherein the second annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the second annotation;
retrieve, by the one or more processors, a second context definition defining a second context in which the second annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the second annotation, wherein the second context corresponds to a second particular cell of a second sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database, the second sheet comprising a second two-dimensional cross-section of the multidimensional database characterized by full versions of two of the N dimensions and single values for each of the remaining N dimensions;
generating, by the one or more processors, a second link to the second context defined by the second context definition and corresponding to the second particular cell of the second sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database;
generating, by the one or more processors, an annotation list that includes the first link and the second link;
outputting, by the one or more processors, the annotation list in the graphical user interface; and
displaying the second annotation in the graphical user interface when the second link is selected.

10. The computing device of claim 4 , wherein the object comprises a first object, wherein the context definition comprises a first context definition, wherein the context comprises a first context, wherein the particular cell comprises a first particular cell, wherein the link comprises a first link, wherein the sheet comprises a first sheet,
wherein the user interface further receives an indication of a user selection to produce an annotation list for the multidimensional database,
wherein the annotation interface module further retrieves a second annotation for a second object of the contribution data from the enterprise system, wherein the second annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the second annotation;
wherein the planning application further retrieves a second context definition defining a second context in which the second annotation was previously entered prior to retrieving the second annotation, wherein the second context corresponds to a second particular cell of a second sheet representative of the contribution data in the multidimensional database, the second sheet comprising a second two-dimensional cross-section of the multidimensional database characterized by full versions of two of the N dimensions and single values for each of the remaining N dimensions;
wherein the user interface further generates a second link to the second context defined by the second context definition and corresponding to the

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Ballantine Peter R
• Conic Sasa
• Hodge Johnathan

Classifications

• G06F40/169

  Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes · CPC title

• G06F40/134

  Hyperlinking · CPC title

• G06F16/24573 Primary

  using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata · CPC title

• G06F16/2264

  Multidimensional index structures · CPC title

• G06F16/22

  Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures · CPC title