Visualizing relationships between data elements and graphical representations of data element attributes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9875241-B2
Application number	US-62946609-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2009
Priority date	Dec 2, 2008
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

In general, metadata is stored in a data storage system. Summary data identifying one or more characteristics of each of multiple metadata objects stored in the data storage system is computed, and the summary data characterizing a given metadata object in association with the given metadata object is stored. A visual representation is generated of a diagram including nodes representing respective metadata objects and relationships among the nodes. Generating the visual representation includes superimposing a representation of a characteristic identified by the summary data characterizing a given metadata object in proximity to the node representing the given metadata object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method including:
storing, in a data storage system, at least three objects, the objects including an object representing transformation of data, and at least two dataset objects representing stored data in datasets;
storing, in a data storage system, data lineage information linking the at least two dataset objects to the object representing the transformation of data;
computing summary data for data corresponding to the at least two dataset objects stored in the data storage system, including computing a percentage of data having valid or invalid values;
generating a data lineage diagram that includes a visual representation of the data lineage information, in which the data lineage diagram includes at least two nodes that represent the at least two dataset objects, a third node that represents the object representing the transformation of data, and directed links between each of the at least two nodes that represent a dataset object and the third node that represents the object representing transformation of data, wherein the directed links represent flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data; and
including in the data lineage diagram, a representation of the summary data in proximity to each of the nodes that represent the dataset objects, in which the nodes that represent the dataset objects are connected to directed links representing flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data, wherein the representation of the summary data is based on the percentage of the data in the respective dataset objects having valid or invalid values.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the summary data is associated with a legend that classifies the representation of the summary data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein hovering a cursor over the visual representation generates a window containing information related to the representation of the summary data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the summary data represents a characteristic that is selectable by a user.

5. A system including:
means for storing, in a data storage system, at least three objects, the objects including an object representing transformation of data, and at least two dataset objects representing stored data in datasets;
means for storing, in a data storage system, data lineage information linking the at least two dataset objects to the object representing the transformation of data;
means for computing summary data for data corresponding to the at least two dataset objects stored in the data storage system, including computing a percentage of data having valid or invalid values;
means for generating a data lineage diagram that includes a visual representation of the data lineage information, in which the data lineage diagram includes at least two nodes that represent the at least two dataset objects, a third node that represents the object representing the transformation of data, and directed links between each of the at least two nodes that represent a dataset object and the third node that represents the object representing transformation of data, wherein the directed links represent flows of data between the dataset objects represented by the nodes and the object representing transformation of data;
and

means for including in the data lineage diagram, a representation of the summary data in proximity to each of the nodes that represent the dataset objects, in which the nodes that represent the dataset objects are connected to directed links representing flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data, wherein the representation of the summary data is based on the percentage of the data in the respective dataset objects having valid or invalid values.

6. A computer system including:
a processor configured to:
store, in a data storage system, at least three objects, the objects including an object representing a transformation of data, and at least two dataset objects representing stored data in datasets;
store, in a data storage system, data lineage information linking at least two dataset objects to the object representing the transformation of data;
compute summary data for data corresponding to the at least two dataset objects stored in the data storage system, including computing a percentage of data having valid or invalid values;
generate a data lineage diagram that includes a visual representation of the data lineage information, in which the data lineage diagram includes at least two nodes that represent the at least two dataset objects, a third node that represents the object representing the transformation of data, and directed links between each of the at least two nodes that represent a dataset object and the third node that represents the object representing transformation of data, wherein the directed links represent flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data;
and

including in the data lineage diagram, a representation of the summary data in proximity to each of the nodes that represent the dataset objects, in which the nodes that represent the dataset objects are connected to directed links representing flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data, wherein the representation of the summary data is based on the percentage of the data in the respective dataset objects having valid or invalid values.

7. A computer-readable device storing a computer program, the computer program including executable instructions for causing a computer to:
store, in a data storage system, at least three objects, the objects including an object representing transformation of data, and at least two dataset objects representing stored data in datasets;
store, in a data storage system, data lineage information linking the at least two dataset objects to the object representing the transformation of data;
compute summary data for data corresponding to the at least two dataset objects stored in the data storage system, including computing a percentage of data having valid or invalid values;
generate a data lineage diagram that includes a visual representation of the data lineage information, in which the data lineage diagram includes at least two nodes that represent the at least two dataset objects, a third node that represents the object representing the transformation of data, and directed links between each of the at least two nodes that represent a dataset object and the third node that represents the object representing transformation of data, wherein the directed links represent flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data;
and

including in the data lineage diagram, a representation of the summary data in proximity to each of the nodes that represent the dataset objects, in which the nodes that represent the dataset objects are connected to directed links representing flows of data between the dataset objects and the object representing transformation of data, wherein the representation of the summary data is based on the percentage of the data in the respective dataset objects having valid or invalid values.

8. The method of claim 1 , further including receiving a selection from a user to determine which of the computed characteristics is the characteristic whose representation is supplemented with the visual representation.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the representation of the summary data is associated with a legend that classifies the representation of the summary data.

10. The syste

Assignees

• Bator Erik
• Gould Joel
• Radivojevic Dusan
• Ab Initio Technology Llc

Inventors

• Bator Erik
• Gould Joel
• Radivojevic Dusan

Classifications

• G06F16/26 Primary

  Visual data mining; Browsing structured data · CPC title

• G06F16/40 Primary

  of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data (retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70) · CPC title

• G06F16/907 Primary

  Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually · CPC title

• G06F17/30572

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30017 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic