Location based services bridge to external data sources

An apparatus for location enabling user profile information in an external database, comprising:

• (a) a computer having a memory attached thereto, wherein the computer is configured to communicate with an external database that comprises a user's profile information;
• (b) a location based services (LBS) database stored in the memory on the computer;
• (c) an LBS application executing on the computer, wherein the LBS application is configured to:
• (i) store a compact definition of a schema of the external database;
• (ii) store data source information that describes how to connect and communicate with the external database;
• (iii) store an SQL statement that, upon execution, extracts properties from the external database corresponding to the compact definition;
• (iv) store, in the LBS database, a foreign key that identifies a record in the external database;
• (v) store, in the LBS database, positional information for the record in the external database as a geocoding index;
• and
• (vi) provide access to the user's profile information using the compact definition, data source information, SQL statement, foreign key, and positional information.

An article of manufacture comprising a program storage medium readable by a computer and embodying one or more instructions executable by the computer to perform a method for location enabling user profile information in a computer system, the method comprising:

• storing a compact definition of a schema of an external database, wherein the external database comprises a user's profile information;
• storing data source information that describes how to connect and communicate with the external database;
• storing a structured query language (SQL) statement that, upon execution, extracts properties from the external database corresponding to the compact definition;
• storing a foreign key that identifies a record in the external database;
• storing positional information for the record in the external database as a geocoding index;
• and
• providing access to the user's profile information using the stored compact definition, data source information, SQL statement, foreign key, and positional information.