US 8,078,570 B2 · Versioning data warehouses

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed. Exemplary embodiments of the method, system, and computer program product may include hardware, process steps, and computer program instructions for supporting versioning in a data warehouse. The data warehouse may include a data warehouse engine for creating a data warehouse including a fact table and temporary tables. Updated or new data records may be transferred into the data warehouse and bulk loaded into the temporary tables. The updated or new data records may be evaluated for attributes matching existing data records. A version number may be assigned to data records and data records may be marked as being the most current version. Updated and new data records may be bulk loaded from the temporary tables into the fact table when a version number or a version status is calculated.

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Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for use with a data warehouse whose data records are recorded on a storage medium and wherein the data warehouse is managed by a data warehouse engine and wherein the data warehouse includes a fact table including a primary key associated with each respective data record and wherein the fact table organizes respective data records by their respective primary key, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying existing data records in the fact table by their respective primary keys;
assigning a first version number to respective existing data records in the fact table wherein the first version number is tied to a first occurrence of a primary key in the fact table;
extracting new data records from at least one data source;
evaluating each of the new data records for a respective primary key identifying each of said new data records;
setting up temporary tables including a temporary fact table;
loading the new data records into the temporary tables;
assigning an updated version number to new data records with a primary key that matches the primary key of an existing data record;
and
populating the fact table in the storage medium with the new data records wherein the new data records include respective updated version numbers and wherein the fact table further includes the existing data records.

6 more elements

the method comprising the steps of:
identifying existing data records in the fact table by their respective primary keys;
assigning a current version status to respective existing data records in the fact table,
wherein the current version status identifies whether the primary key of an existing data record is a most current version of the primary key;
extracting new data records from at least one data source;
evaluating each of the new data records for a respective primary key identifying each of said new data records;
setting up temporary tables including a temporary fact table;
bulk loading the new data records into the temporary tables;
identifying updated primary keys as the most current version in the new data records when a primary key of a new data record matches the primary key of an existing data record;
and
populating the fact table in the storage medium with the new data records wherein the new data records include the new data records identified as the most current version and wherein the current version status of primary keys associated with the new data records identified as the most current version are updated.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Description6,986 words

Summary1,071 words

#The present invention relates generally to the field of data organization, and more specifically, to the versioning of data in data warehouses.

#Enterprises are building what some would consider significantly sizable data warehouses to enable analytics. Analytic techniques may provide a way to unlock the power of information and improve business performance. For instance, it is known to employ data warehousing and analytics solutions to identify the reputation of a business product by collecting people's opinions on the Web. In some applications, Web data may be constantly collected, ingested and processed into the data warehouses to enable analytics. Throughout such a data flow Web pages may be frequently updated, for example, when new content is added, or existing content is revised or deleted, or while other Web pages might simply be inserted as newly collected Web pages.

#In the field of data warehouse management, it is known to manually update changed records via low-level Relational database management system (RDBMS) operations. This approach may be practical when the number of users is relatively low and there are only occasional and small numbers of updates.

Brief description of the drawings18 figures

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for organizing and updating data records in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of organizing and updating data records in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 3 is an illustration depicting a data warehouse set up in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

Detailed description5,495 words

#The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out exemplary embodiments of the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.

#Various inventive features are described below that can each be used independently of one another or in combination with other features. However, any single inventive feature may not address any of the problems discussed above or may only address some of the problems discussed above. Further, one or more of the problems discussed above may not be fully addressed by any of the features described below.

#Broadly, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a system or computer program product for supporting versioning in a data warehouse. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system that store updated data records along with their associated existing parent data records while tracking versions of a record as it is updated. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may further provide a method and system that may employ temporary staging tables for organizing and analyzing data records and further can bulk transfer data records to their destination reference tables.

Facts

Application

12/434,378Filed 1 May 2009

Published

US 2010/0280991 A14 Nov 2010

Granted

13 Dec 2011

Term ends

4 Feb 2030

Estimated · how

20 years from earliest known nonprovisional domestic filing plus recorded patent term adjustment, including 279 days of adjustment. Maintenance-fee lapses, terminal disclaimers and statutory extensions have not been checked. The continuity chain may be incomplete; this is not an enforceability determination.

Classification2 codes

G06F 16/283
Databases characterised by their database models, e.g. relational or object models: multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or…
G06F
Computing and data processing

Timeline

1 May 2009Application filedUS 12/434,378
1 May 2009Assigned to International Business Machines Corporationassignment of assignor's interest
4 Nov 2010PublishedUS 2010/0280991 A1
13 Dec 2011GrantedUS 8,078,570 B2
12 Oct 2026TodayWithin its term
4 Feb 2030Term endsEstimated, includes 279 days of adjustment

Versioning data warehouses

Life of this patent

Versioning data warehouses

Life of this patent

Life of this patent

Abstract

Drawings

Drawings

Claims20

Description6,986 words

Drawings

Classification2 codes

Life of this patent

Description6,986 words