Building reports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11288290-B2
Application number	US-201514717633-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2015
Priority date	Dec 18, 2014
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for building reports. One of the methods includes creating a model based on relational structured data, the structured data including data structures, each data structure having data elements, each data element having fields, each field having a name. The method includes generating a hierarchy of objects in model, the hierarchy organizing objects the with respect to a starting object according to relationship fields on the objects. The method includes generating a user interface including elements for one or more of the objects in the hierarchy, wherein the user interface enables a user to create a report and filter the report using the new name. The method includes receiving a user selection of an element from the elements. The method also includes generating a report.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method including:
accessing, by a computing system, data structures that are derived either from an underlying data source or from a specification that describes the underlying data source, with the data structures including data elements that have fields and field names;
producing by the computing system from the data structures, a meta-model that is based on the data structures, with producing the meta-model further including:
producing by the computing system from the data structures, objects in the meta-model, which objects represent the data structures, and with producing a given one of the objects for a given data structure including:
translating a field name of a field in the given data structure to a second name; and
producing, on the given one of the objects, a field having the translated second name;

producing a relationship between the given one of the objects and another one of the objects based on a foreign key in the underlying data source, which foreign key defines a relationship between the given data structure and at least one other of the data structures, and a reverse relationship between the given one of the objects and the other one of the objects, with the relationship and the reverse relationship enabling bi-directional navigation between the given one of the objects and the other one of the objects in the meta-model;

generating a user interface that renders a first plurality of elements that use second names representing corresponding objects;
receiving a first user selection of an element from the first plurality of elements;
causing the computing system to process the first user selected element by reference to the meta-model and the produced relationships to generate a hierarchy by determining how to organize the objects in the meta-model;
rendering, in the user interface, a second plurality of elements in accordance with the generated hierarchy;
receiving a second user selection of an element from the second plurality of elements;
based on the received second user selection, identifying a relationship between data structures represented by objects in the meta-model; and
updating the user interface based on the identified relationship.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second name is a natural language name, and wherein the method further includes translating the field name to the natural language name using a look up table.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is a reference field representing a relationship between one data element in a data structure to one second data element in another data structure.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is a collection field representing a relationship between one data element in a first data structure to second data elements in a second data structure.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the user interface includes aggregation functions that can be used on the collection field.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is a parent-child field representing a relationship between one data element in a data structure to a second data element in the data structure.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a data structure is a table in a structured database.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a data structure is one or more files.

9. The method of claim 1 , further including:
causing the user interface to generate one or more columns in a report, with the one or more columns corresponding to selected one or more elements specified by the user selection.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface enables an interactive production of one or more reports, which interface provides visual feedback including data values in near-real-time prior to finalizing the one or more reports.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the user selection of an element from the elements occurs through the user interface.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing system includes a processor and memory operatively coupled to the processor, and the method further includes:
loading the meta-model into a memory of the computing system.

13. The method of claim 1 , further including:
identifying that two or more elements rendered in the graphical user interface are moved onto a canvas portion of the user interface;
generating and executing one or more SQL statements to retrieve data associated with underlying data structures represented by objects corresponding to the two or more elements moved onto the canvas portion, wherein at least one SQL statement describes a relationship between the two or more elements represented in the generated hierarchy of the meta-model; and
updating the canvas portion to display values of the retrieved data associated with the underlying data structures represented by the objects corresponding to the two or more elements on the canvas portion, and a relationship between those underlying data structures based on organization in the hierarchy of the objects representing those underlying data structures.

14. The method of claim 1 , further including:
rendering, in the user interface, an aggregation function section for display of one or more aggregation functions for the plurality of elements, with an aggregation function specifying an operation to be performed on values of one or more fields of one or more objects in the meta-model; and
populating the aggregating function section with one or more aggregation functions that are made available based on an organization of objects with fields in the generated hierarchy and based on analyzing the meta-model for field names, types, and cardinality;
wherein selection of an aggregation function causes performance of an operation on values of one or more fields and display of new data that is distinct from the meta-model.

15. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with computer program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
accessing data structures that are derived either from an underlying data source or from a specification that describes the underlying data source, with the data structures including data elements that have fields and field names;
producing from the data structures, a meta-model that is based on the data structures, with producing the meta-model further including:
producing from the data structures, objects in the meta-model, which objects represent the data structures, and with producing a given one of the objects for a given data structure including:
translating a field name of a field in the given data structure to a second name; and
producing, on the given one of the objects, a field having the translated second name;

producing a relationship between the given one of the objects and another one of the objects based on a foreign key in the underlying data source, which foreign key defines a relationship between the given data structure and at least one other of the data structures, and a reverse relationship between the given one of the objects and the other one of the objects, with the relationship and the reverse relationship enabling bi-directional navigation between the given one of the objects and the other one of the objects in the meta-model;

generating a user interface that renders a first plurality of elements that use second names representing corresponding objects;
receiving a first user selection of an element from the first plurality of elements;
causing the one or more computers to process the first user selected element by reference to the

Assignees

• Ab Initio Technology Llc

Inventors

• Radivojevic Dusan
• Moss Peter

Classifications

• G06F16/21 Primary

  Design, administration or maintenance of databases · CPC title

• G06F16/25 Primary

  Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06F16/2448

  for particular applications; for extensibility, e.g. user defined types · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title