Managing data selection based on attributes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9323824-B2
Application number	US-201113230411-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2011
Priority date	Sep 10, 2010
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

An interface is provided on a computing device for interacting with data stored in a data repository. Input is received including information identifying two or more attributes, and information indicating an order for the identified attributes. A hierarchical data structure is stored, with an order of hierarchy levels corresponding to the indicated order. Multiple attribute values for the attributes are determined. The method includes assigning to each node of a first level at least one of the attribute values of a first attribute, and assigning to each node of a second level at least one of the attribute values of a second attribute, each of the nodes of the second level also being assigned respective ones of the attribute values assigned to one or more nodes of preceding levels. The interface is displayed including displaying interface elements associated with each of the nodes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing an interface on a computing device for interacting with multi-dimensional data stored in a data repository, the method including:
receiving, over an input port of the computing device, input including information identifying two or more attributes of data elements stored in the data repository; and information indicating an order for the identified attributes, in which the two or more attributes include a first attribute and a second attribute, each of the first and second attributes has two or more attribute values;
storing on the computing device a hierarchical data structure, the hierarchical data structure including a hierarchy having a plurality of hierarchy levels that each corresponds to one of the identified attributes, with an order of the hierarchy levels corresponding to the indicated order for the identified attributes, and the first attribute is associated with a hierarchy level higher than the hierarchy level associated with the second attribute;
processing data in the data repository to store information in the hierarchical data structure used to present the interface on the computing device, the processing including
determining multiple attribute values that appear within the data elements, for the identified attributes,
assigning, to each of a plurality of nodes of a first hierarchy level of the hierarchical data structure corresponding to the first attribute, at least one of the determined attribute values of the first attribute, in which a first node is assigned a first attribute value of the first attribute and a second node is assigned a second attribute value of the first attribute, and
assigning, to each of a plurality of nodes of a second hierarchy level of the hierarchical data structure corresponding to the second attribute, at least one of the determined attribute values of the second attribute, each of the plurality of nodes of the second hierarchy level also being assigned respective ones of the determined attribute values assigned to one or more nodes of preceding hierarchy levels, according to the order of the hierarchy levels, for the corresponding attributes, in which a third node is assigned the first attribute value of the first attribute and a first attribute value of the second attribute, a fourth node is assigned the first attribute value of the first attribute and a second attribute value of the second attribute, a fifth node is assigned the second attribute value of the first attribute and a first attribute value of the second attribute, and a sixth node is assigned the second attribute value of the first attribute and the second attribute value of the second attribute; and

displaying the interface on the computing device, including displaying graphical interface elements associated with each of the nodes according to the hierarchy.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including generating a query in response to receiving input that includes a selection of one or more of the nodes of the data structure, each node representing data elements with the combination of attribute values assigned to that node in the hierarchy, with a set of data elements returned by the query corresponding to the union of the data elements represented by each of the individual nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 , further including assigning, to each of a plurality of nodes of each successive hierarchy level of the hierarchical data structure corresponding to respective attributes of the identified attributes, at least one of the determined attribute values of the respective attribute, each of the plurality of nodes of each successive hierarchy level also being assigned respective ones of the determined attribute values assigned to all nodes of preceding hierarchy levels, according to the order of the hierarchy levels, for the corresponding attributes.

4. A method for providing an interface on a computing device for interacting with multi-dimensional data stored in a data repository, the method including:
storing on the computing device an organizational data structure;
processing data in the data repository to store information in the organizational data structure used to present the interface on the computing device, the processing including
determining at least a first attribute of a plurality of attributes of data elements stored in the data repository,
determining multiple attribute values of the first attribute that appear within the data elements,
determining, for each particular attribute value of the multiple attribute values, a numeric value representing how many data elements in a respective subset of data elements include the particular attribute value,
assigning, to each of a plurality of nodes of a first hierarchy level of the organizational data structure corresponding to the first attribute, at least one of the determined attribute values of the first attribute, and respective ones of the determined attribute values assigned to one or more nodes of preceding hierarchy levels, according to an order of a hierarchy of the organizational data structure, for corresponding attributes,
determining at least a second attribute of a plurality of attributes of data elements stored in the data repository,
determining multiple attribute values of the second attribute that appear within the data elements,
determining, for each particular attribute value of the multiple attribute values of the second attribute, a numeric value representing how many data elements in a respective subset of data elements include the particular attribute value,
assigning, to each of a plurality of nodes of a second hierarchy level of the organizational data structure corresponding to the second attribute, at least one of the determined attribute values of the second attribute, and respective ones of the determined attribute values assigned to one or more nodes of preceding hierarchy levels, according to an order of a hierarchy of the organizational data structure, for corresponding attributes, wherein the first attribute has a higher order than the second attribute,
in response to a user input that modifies the ordering of the first and second attributes such that the second attribute has a higher order than the first attribute, dynamically updating the hierarchical data structure and grouping of the data elements, and updating, for each particular attribute value of the multiple attribute values of the first and second attributes, the numeric value representing how many data elements in a respective subset of data elements include the particular attribute value, and
storing in the organizational data structure information based on the determined numeric values in association with information identifying the first and second attributes.

5. The method of claim 4 , further including presenting the interface on the computing device, the interface including a first strip corresponding to the first attribute, the first strip including multiple sections, with a plurality of the multiple sections having a size that is proportional to a corresponding one of the determined numeric values.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interface includes a control for removing one or more of the first strip and the second strip from the interface.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interface includes a control for adding one or more additional strips to the interface, the one or more additional strips each being associated with an additional attribute.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interface further includes a second strip corresponding to the second attribute, the second strip including multiple sections.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein each section of the first and second strips represents a dif

Assignees

• Vigneau Joyce L
• Ab Initio Technology Llc

Inventors

• Vigneau Joyce L

Classifications

• G06F16/24553

  of query operations · CPC title

• G06F16/283 Primary

  Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06F16/00

  Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title