Dynamic content generation/regeneration for a database schema abstraction

A method of providing access to a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising:

• providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;
• accessing the respective physical entities of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors of each specification sub-field;
• linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item to generate a respective logical field specification, wherein each logical field specification specifies a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user, wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a first access method type which exposes the respective physical data in its native physical form, and at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which requires the respective physical data to be input to an expression, the result of which expression is exposed to the user;
• wherein value for at least the logical field names and location attributes are provided by the corresponding determined data items;
• and
• providing, for a requesting entity, a query specification comprising a plurality of logical fields comprising at least one logical field, generated from the logical field specification template, for composing an abstract query.

A computer-implemented method of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the method comprising:

• providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor and at least one specification sub-field representing a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor, the logical field specification template further comprising a query;
• accessing the respective physical entities of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor, wherein accessing comprises executing the query;
• linking the dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items;
• and
• generating, based on the corresponding determined data items linked to the specification sub-fields, logical field specifications, each logical field specification specifying a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user, wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a first access method type which exposes the respective physical data in its native physical form, and at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which requires the respective physical data to be input to an expression, the result of wich expression is exposed to the user;
• wherein values for at least the logical field names and location attributes are provided by the corresponding determined data items.

A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

• providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;
• accessing the respective physical entities of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors of each specification sub-field;
• linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item;
• and
• generating, based on the corresponding determined data items linked to the specification sub-fields, logical field specifications, each logical field specification specifying a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user, wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a referennce to a first access method type which exposes the respective physical in its native physical form, and at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which requires the respective physical data to be input to an expression, the result of which expression is exposed to the user;
• wherein values for at least the logical field names and location attributes are provided by the corresponding determined data item.

A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of providing access to a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

• providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;
• the logical field specification template further comprising a query;
• accessing the respective physical entities of data to determine data items associated with the sub-field descriptors, wherein accessing comprises executing the query;
• linking each specification sub-field to a corresponding determined data item to generate a respective logical field specification, wherein each logical field specification specifies a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user, wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a first access method type which exposes the respective physical data in its native physical form, and at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which requires the respective physical data to be input to an expression, the result of which expression is exposed to the user;
• wherein values for at least the logical field names and location attributes are provided by the corresponding determined data items;
• and
• providing, for a requesting entity, a query specification comprising a plurality of logical fields comprising at least one generated logical field for defining an abstract query.

A computer-readable medium containing a program which, when executed on a computer system, performs an operation of generating a logical field specification for a logical field associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the operation comprising:

• providing a logical field specification template comprising a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor and at least one specification sub-field representing a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor;
• the logical field specification template further comprising a query;
• accessing the physical entity of data to determine a plurality of data items associated with the dynamic value sub-field descriptor, wherein accessing comprises executing the query;
• linking the dynamic value sub-field to the determined plurality of data items;
• and
• generating, based on the corresponding determined data items linked to the specification sub-fields, logical field specifications, each logical field specification specifying a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user, wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a first access method type which exposes the respective physical data in its native physical form, and at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which requires the respective physical data to be input to an expression, the result of which expression is exposed to the user;
• wherein values for at least the logical field names and location attributes are provided by the corresponding determined data items.

A computer-readable storage medium containing a data structure representing a logical field specification template for generating a plurality of logical field specifications associated with a physical entity of data in a computer system, the physical entity of data having a particular physical data representation, the logical field specification template comprising:

• a plurality of specification sub-fields, each specification sub-field designated by a sub-field descriptor;
• wherein at least one specification sub-field is a dynamic value sub-field designated by a dynamic value sub-field descriptor for which a value is dynamically generated;
• and wherein each specification sub-field includes a query configured to access data to replace the respective sub-field descriptors with respective data values wherein the template is used to generate, by executing the respective queries, the plurality of logical field specifications, wherein each logical field specifies a logical field name, at least one location attribute identifying a location of physical data corresponding to the logical field name, and a reference to an access method selected from at least three different access method types, wherein each of the different access method types defines a different manner of exposing the physical data to a user;
• wherein at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a first access method type which is executed to form part of a physical query configured to retrieve physical data based on a respective location attribute identifying a location of the physical data, thereby exposing the physical data in its native physical form;
• wherein the at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a second access method type which is executed to form part of a physical query configured to retrieve physical data for each sub-field in the respective logical field specification and input the retrieved data into an expression, the result of which expression is exposed to the user;
• and
• wherein the at least one of the generated logical field specifications contains a reference to a third access method type which is executed to form part of a physical query configured to retrieve physical data based on the respective location attribute identifying a location of physical data and wherein the third access method type is configured to extend the part of the physical query with a selection filter that removes selected portions of the retrieved physical data.