Interacting with resources exchanged using open data protocol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9846730-B2
Application number	US-201414496624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2014
Priority date	Nov 21, 2013
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to computer-implemented methods and computer systems for providing user-friendly and understandable presentations of Open Data (OData) Protocol resources through an automatic translation and modification process. The present disclosure provides a user interface tool for presenting and browsing OData fees that can provide a visualization of an OData feed structure to users in an otherwise unavailable format. In particular, developers can view and modify resources outside of the underlying format in which such OData feeds are traditionally presented. The user interface tool can provide an out-of-box user interface with which a developer can view and modify resources associated with a feed, browse related entity sets, set filters, and perform other operations. In essence, the user interface tool can decrease user's efforts and difficult in understanding particular OData feeds and the entities associated therewith.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method performed by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving, at a client computer system, a plurality of resources defined according to a first data structure, the plurality of resources received from a server computer system connected to the client computer system through a data network in response to an Open Data Protocol (OData) request for the plurality of resources, and wherein each resource of the plurality of resources is associated with a boundary that specifies resource operations performable on the resource, the first data structure comprising a pre-defined eXtensible Markup Language (XML) structure, the first data structure defining each resource and an associated set of respective metadata and semantics specific to a particular resource, the respective metadata associated with at least one property corresponding to the particular resource;
identifying, from the plurality of resources and for each resource, the boundary associated with each particular resource and defining the resource operations that are performable on that particular resource;
translating, by the client computer system automatically in response to the identifying, the first data structure to a second data structure different from the first data structure, where, in the second data structure, each of the plurality of resources are editable to perform the resource operations on the corresponding resource, the second data structure comprising a tabular structure; and
displaying, in a user interface associated with the client computer system, a subset of the plurality of resources according to the second data structure, and the resource operations that are performable on each particular resource, wherein the second data structure displays each resource of the subset of the plurality of resources in a table including multiple rows and at least one column, each row representing a respective resource of the subset of the plurality of resources from the first data structure and including in at least one column information from the first data structure indicating the resource operations available for the respective resource, wherein, in response to receiving a selection of a particular resource, the client computer system identifies the at least one property corresponding to the particular resource, translates information defining the at least one property into a visual format, and presents the translated information defining the at least one property in the user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of resources is a network-accessible data object or service identified by a respective identifier, and wherein each of the plurality of resources is associated with respective metadata which is received with the plurality of resources.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of resources are associated with a plurality of properties, and wherein the plurality of properties are filterable by a plurality of filters, and wherein the method further comprises:
identifying the plurality of filters by which the plurality of properties are filterable; and
displaying, in the user interface, the plurality of filters.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving input to filter the plurality of properties by a specified filter;
determining whether the specified filter is included in the plurality of filters; and
filtering the plurality of properties by the specified filter in response to determining that the specified filter is included in the plurality of filters.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the boundary represents mandatory parameters that must be provided when performing the resource operations on each of the plurality of resources, and wherein the method further comprises:
displaying, in the user interface, the mandatory parameters;
receiving input to perform resource operations on a particular resource, the input including a parameter; and
performing the resource operations based on the parameter in response to determining that the parameter included in the input is one of the mandatory parameters that must be provided when performing the resource operations on the particular resource.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising displaying, in the user interface, a notification that the parameter is not one of the mandatory parameters, in response to determining that the parameter included in the input is not one of the mandatory parameters that must be provided when performing the resource operations on the particular resource.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a particular resource is selected, and where the particular resource is a first resource, and wherein the method further comprises:
identifying an association defining a relationship between the first resource and a second resource in response to the Open Data Protocol (OData) request for the plurality of resources, wherein the relationship defines a referential constraint that relates the first resource to the second resource; and
displaying, in the user interface, the relationship defined by the identified association.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the plurality of resources defined according to the first data structure comprises:
displaying, in the user interface, a plurality of services, each service being associated with a respective plurality of resources, the plurality of services including a specified resource associated with the received plurality of resources; and
receiving, in the user interface, a selection of the specified resource.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein displaying the plurality of services in the user interface comprises:
receiving, in the user interface, authentication information that authenticates a requestor of the plurality of resources and an identifier identifying a computer-readable medium storing the plurality of resources; and
determining that the requestor is authorized to access resources stored on the computer-readable medium based on the authentication information.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a particular property of the at least one property is annotated with semantic information, the method further comprising:
analyzing, by the client computer system in response to receiving the selection of the particular resource, the semantic information associated with the particular property associated with the particular resource; and
displaying, by the client computer system and in the user interface, a readable presentation of a representation of the semantic information.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a client computer system, a plurality of resources defined according to a first data structure, wherein each of the plurality of resources is a network-accessible data object or service identified by a respective identifier, and wherein each of the plurality of resources is associated with respective metadata which is received with the plurality of resources, the plurality of resources received from a server computer system connected to the client computer system through a data network in response to an Open Data Protocol (OData) request for the plurality of resources, and wherein each resource of the plurality of resources is associated with a boundary that specifies resource operations performable on the resource, the first data structure comprising a pre-defined eXtensible Markup Language (XML) structure, the first data structure defining each resource and an associated set of respective metadata and semantics specific to a particular resource, the respective metadata associ

Assignees

• Nigam Amit
• Mary Divya
• Sap Se

Inventors

• Nigam Amit
• Mary Divya

Classifications

• G06F16/243

  Natural language query formulation · CPC title

• G06F40/157

  using dictionaries or tables · CPC title

• G06F16/20

  of structured data, e.g. relational data · CPC title

• G06F16/2428

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

• G06F16/25 Primary

  Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems · CPC title