Central Hub Paging for Multi-Provider Data Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data integration software struggles to provide consistent paging of unified, filterable, and sortable content from multiple backend systems due to dynamic changes in item states and lack of stable pagination protocols, leading to issues like duplicate or skipped items when navigating through pages.
Innovation Solution
A method that queries multiple provider systems for items based on filtering and sorting criteria, merges results, truncates the list to a defined page size, and dynamically generates new lists in response to navigation commands, ensuring deterministic forward and backward paging by adjusting queries based on the last or first item of the current page.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If data integration software aggregates and presents a consolidated list of items from multiple provider systems, then a unified view of content is achieved, but consistent pagination becomes difficult to maintain due to dynamic changes in item states
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing a snapshot of the item list at the time of the initial query, recording the state of all items from multiple provider systems. This snapshot serves as a reference for subsequent pagination operations, allowing the system to maintain consistent page boundaries even when underlying data changes. The snapshot includes item identifiers, states, and positional information that are used to determine which items should appear on which pages throughout user navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism that decouples the pagination logic from the actual data sources. Instead of directly querying provider systems on each page navigation, the system uses an intermediate representation (the snapshot) that mediates between the user's pagination requests and the dynamic provider systems. This intermediary layer allows pagination to proceed consistently while the underlying data may change, resolving the contradiction between unified content aggregation and pagination reliability.
2Measurement precision
If the consolidated list is re-queried in response to navigation commands to update items on pages, then current data is presented, but duplicate or skipped items may occur due to lack of stable pagination protocols
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by making different parts of the pagination system behave differently. When a user navigates to a new page, the system performs a targeted re-query only for the specific page being requested, using the snapshot to determine the appropriate query parameters. This localized approach ensures that each page is refreshed with current data while maintaining the overall pagination structure, preventing duplicates and skips by anchoring each page to its defined position in the snapshot-based sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the system continuously monitors changes in item states from provider systems and uses this information to adjust pagination accordingly. When items are added, removed, or modified in the underlying data, the system receives feedback about these changes and adjusts the snapshot and subsequent page deliveries to maintain consistency. This feedback loop ensures that pagination remains accurate even as data evolves, preventing duplicate or skipped items while keeping data current.
3Ease of operation
If filtering and sorting criteria are applied to items from multiple provider systems, then a customized consolidated list is created, but maintaining stable pagination across dynamic item states becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary filtering and sorting operations when creating the initial snapshot of the consolidated list. All filtering criteria and sorting preferences are applied upfront to establish the ordered sequence of items that will form the basis for pagination. This preliminary processing simplifies subsequent pagination operations, as the system only needs to deliver fixed-size chunks from the already-filtered and -sorted snapshot, rather than re-applying complex filtering and sorting logic on each page navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the filtered and sorted consolidated list into discrete, fixed-size pages based on the snapshot. Each page is a segmented portion of the overall result set, with clear boundaries defined by the snapshot's item sequence. This segmentation approach simplifies pagination management, as the system can deliver pages as independent units without needing to re-evaluate filtering and sorting complexity on each navigation, reducing operational complexity while maintaining customized list views.
Data Source
AI summary
Consolidated lists of items provided by or generated based on data provided by multiple provider systems can be presented, at a requestor system, in a series of pages. Navigation between pages in the series of pages can occur with a re-querying of the multiple provider systems in a manner that correctly populates the requested new page to reflect up to date information about the items that belong on that page.