Graphical modeling of database query statements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9594802-B2
Application number	US-201414496788-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2014
Priority date	Sep 25, 2014
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 2017

Abstract

Example embodiments involve a system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and computer-implemented method for graphical modeling and editing of database query statements. The method may include accessing a database query statement, and generating an abstract syntax tree (AST) representing a syntactic structure of the database query statement. The method may further include generating a graphical model of the database query statement based on the AST, and rendering the graphical model.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
accessing a database query statement, the database query statement being an executable instruction expressing an action to be performed with respect to a database;
generating, using one or more processors, an abstract syntax tree (AST) corresponding to the database query statement, the AST being a data structure representing a syntactic structure of the database query statement;
generating a domain model using the AST, the domain model describing elements of the database query statement and roles and relationships of each element;
generating a graphical model of the database query statement using the domain model, the graphical model being a graphical representation of the structure of the database query statement; and
causing presentation of the graphical model of the database query statement on a client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a user edit to the graphical representation of the structure of database query statement; and
in response to receiving the user edit to the graphical representation of the structure of the database query statement, updating the database query statement in accordance with the user edit to the graphical representation of the structure of the database query statement.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying an error in the database query statement; and
in response to identifying the error, causing the client device to present a suggestion for correcting the error.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
identifying at least one element in the graphical model of the database query statement corresponding to the error; and
causing the identified at least one element in the graphical model to be visually distinguished from remaining elements in the graphical model.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing the database query statement;
generating a suggestion to optimize the database query statement based on the analyzing of the database query statement; and
causing the client device to present the suggestion to optimize the database query statement.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database query statement is included in a source object, and wherein the accessing of the database query statement includes accessing the source object.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the AST includes parsing the database query statement to identify the syntactic structure.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the domain model includes modifying the AST to include additional attributes.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the domain model is generated to conform to Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the domain model is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) model.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database query statement is an OpenSQL query.

12. A system comprising:
a machine-readable medium storing a source object, the source object including a database query statement, the database query statement being an executable instruction expressing an action to be performed with respect to a database;
a parser, comprising at least one processor, configured to access and parse the database query statement to generate a corresponding abstract syntax tree (AST), the AST being a data structure representing a syntactic structure of the database query statement;
a generation module configured to generate a domain model using the AST, the domain model describing roles and relationships of each element in the database query statement;
a modeling engine configured to generate a graphical model of the database query statement using the domain model, the graphical model being a graphical representation of the database query statement, the modeling engine further to cause presentation of the graphical model.

13. The system of claim 12 , further comprising an editor module configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving user input specifying an edit to the graphical model;
updating the graphical model based on the user input;
converting the updated graphical model to an updated database query statement; and
causing presentation of updated database query statement.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the editor module is further configured to replace the database query statement in the source object with the updated database query statement.

15. The system of claim 12 , further comprising a validation module configured to validate syntax of the database query statement.

16. The system of claim 12 , further comprising a suggestion module configured to provide a suggestion to improve the database query statement based on results of a syntax validation of the database query statement.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the generating of the graphical model performed by the modeling engine includes mapping the AST to a particular modeling framework.

18. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
accessing a database query statement, the database query statement being an executable instruction expressing an action to be performed with respect to a database;
generating an abstract syntax tree (AST) corresponding to the database query statement, the AST being a data structure representing a syntactic structure of the database query statement;
generating a domain model by modifying the AST to include one or more additional attributes, the domain model describing the elements of the database query statement and the roles and relationships of each element;
generating a graphical model of the database query statement using the domain model, the graphical model being a graphical representation of the database query statement; and
causing presentation of the graphical model of the database query statement on a client device.

19. The method of claim 2 , wherein the modifying of the database query statement in accordance with the user edit comprises:
translating the graphical model to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) model; and
converting the XML model to an updated database query statement.

Assignees

• Krishnamurthy Sundaresan
• Balasubramanian Vijayan
• Sap Se

Inventors

• Krishnamurthy Sundaresan
• Balasubramanian Vijayan

Classifications

• G06F16/2428 Primary

  Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms (G06F16/2423 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F16/24526

  Internal representations for queries · CPC title

• G06F17/30398 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30436

  Physics · mapped topic