Generating information models in an in-memory database system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9519701-B2
Application number	US-201213673012-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 26, 2012
Priority date	Dec 26, 2012
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems and methods for generating information models in an in-memory database system by importing data foundation from existing Semantic layer files are described herein. The method includes specifying a type of information view to be generated to model content data. Further the method includes invoking the content data from existing semantic layer files using an import option of a content data editor interface. Subsequent to selecting one or more semantic layer files, automatically extracting table objects corresponding to the selected semantic layer files along with data foundation objects from a file source.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of generating information models using a graphical data modeling tool of an in-memory database system, the method comprising:
at a computer, rendering a user interface of the graphical data modeling tool; and
in a modeler perspective of the graphical data modeling tool:
receiving a selection of a type of information view of a plurality of types of information views, to model content data; and
the computer generating the content data to model an information view of the selected type, the generating comprising:
assigning a space in a repository to save generated information models, in response to receiving an input to create a new space;
in response to receiving the selection of the type of information view from the plurality of types of information views, rendering an interface having options to specify a source of table objects for building content data for modeling the information view of the selected type;
in response to receiving a selection of an import option in the interface, launching a file explorer for identifying and invoking semantic layer files from a file source associated with an existing semantic based information model;
receiving a selection of one or more of the invoked semantic layer files that comprise the content data to be modeled;
automatically rendering table objects corresponding to the selected one or more semantic layer files on a corresponding modeler canvas to model the information view of the selected type, wherein relationships and connections between table columns are automatically identified from the semantic layer files and populated in the modeler canvas, and further wherein cardinality between the table columns are automatically read from the semantic layer files and populated in the modeler canvas; and
activating the information view of the selected type in response to receiving an activation input.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the type of information view to model content data invokes a content data editor with the import option to import semantic layer files.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein receiving the selection of the import option launches the file explorer to identify files having .unx and .unv file extensions.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an information model by defining, based on a selection, one or more columns of the table objects as attributes and measures.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising, activating the generated information model in response to receiving a selection of a corresponding item of a context menu of the assigned space in the repository.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein activating the generated information model comprises saving the table objects corresponding to imported semantic layer files.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein saving the table objects in-turn triggers a validation check on the table objects.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein extracting the table objects further comprises annotating the table objects with the identified relationships and connections.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating multiple information models by reusing the semantic layer files from the file source.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the semantic layer files are created using a non-database system.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform operations to generating information models, the operations comprising:
generate an in-memory database system component configured to control the computer to:
assign a space in a repository to save generated information models, in response to receiving an input to create a new space;
in response to receiving a selection of a type of information view from a plurality of types of information views, render an interface having options to specify a source of table objects for building content data for modeling an information view of the selected type;
in response to receiving a selection of an import option in the interface, launch a file explorer for identifying and invoking semantic layer files from a file source associated with an existing semantic based information model;
receive a selection of one or more of the invoked semantic layer files that comprise the content data to be modeled;
automatically render table objects corresponding to the selected one or more semantic layer files on a corresponding modeler canvas to model the information view of the selected type, wherein relationships and connections between table columns are automatically identified from the semantic layer files and populated in the modeler canvas, and further wherein cardinality between the table columns are automatically read from the semantic layer files and populated in the modeler canvas; and
activate the information view of the selected type in response to receiving an activation input.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the semantic layer files are created using a database system built from data stored in an external storage space of the computer.

13. An in-memory database system comprising:
a data source system; and
a computer comprising a memory to store a program code, and a processor to execute the program code to:
assign a space in a repository to save generated information views;
receive a selection of a type of information view from a plurality of types of information views, and in response, render a user interface having options to specify a source of table objects for building content data for modeling an information view of the selected type;
receive a selection of an import option in the user interface, and in response, launch a semantic layer extractor for identifying and invoking semantic layer files from a file source associated with an existing semantic based information model;
receive a selection of one or more of the invoked semantic layer files that comprise the content data to be modeled;
automatically render table objects corresponding to the selected one or more semantic layer files on an initially empty modeler canvas to model the information view, wherein relationships and connections between table columns are automatically identified from the file source and populated in the modeler canvas, and further wherein cardinality between the table columns are automatically read from the file source and populated in the modeler canvas; and
activate the information view in response to receiving an activation input via a context menu of the user interface.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the table objects comprise content data including attributes and measures.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the type of information view includes an attribute view, analytic view, and calculation view.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the content data is a schema that defines relevant tables and connection between columns of the relevant tables.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the assigned space is in the repository of the in-memory database system for saving the generated information views.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the semantic layer files include third-party content data including common warehouse meta-model (CWM) and standard compliant Entity-relationship (ER) Models.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the semantic layer files are created using a disk storage based database system.

Assignees

• Amulu James Michael
• Raghunath Sudarsan Gokhale
• Sap Se

Inventors

• Amulu James Michael
• Raghunath Sudarsan Gokhale

Classifications

• G06F16/28 Primary

  Databases characterised by their database models, e.g. relational or object models · CPC title

• G06F17/30587 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic