Database Update Validation via Meta-Product Draft States
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large databases, such as those used in the airline industry for fare management, face challenges in updating new fares and associated data without disrupting real-time operations and ensuring validation before they become visible to end-users.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a unique filing number for draft updates, creating a meta-product for validation, and a customizable flow of validation states to ensure cross-validation before making updates visible, without requiring database replication or additional storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If new fares are filed directly into the production database in real-time, then the database can be updated continuously without interruption, but the data integrity and consistency cannot be ensured before updates become visible to end-users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the database update process into distinct phases: draft state (with unique filing number), validation state, and production state. This segmentation allows real-time updates to be prepared in isolation without affecting production data integrity, while enabling systematic validation before visibility to end-users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary validation actions through the draft state and unique filing number mechanism. Updates are prepared, validated, and tested in advance within the draft state before being committed to production, ensuring data integrity is verified prior to real-time publication.
2Reliability
If a validation process is implemented for new fares before they become visible, then data integrity is improved, but the update time and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic state transition system where data can move between draft, validation, and production states. The validation process is integrated into the workflow rather than being a separate bottleneck, allowing parallel processing and flexible progression through validation stages to minimize delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The unique filing number acts as an intermediary mechanism that links draft updates to their validation process. This intermediary enables efficient tracking and management of updates through multiple validation stages without requiring complete re-processing, thereby reducing overall update time while maintaining integrity.
3Reliability
If multiple validation steps are performed on updates, then the validation thoroughness is improved, but the system complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal validation framework that can handle multiple types of validations (syntactic, semantic, business rules) through a single standardized process. The meta-product concept provides a multi-functional structure that can accommodate different validation requirements without requiring separate processing systems for each validation type.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying to create a draft version of the data structure (meta-product) that mirrors the production structure. This copy can be validated thoroughly without affecting production data, and the validated changes can then be safely applied back to production, reducing system complexity by avoiding parallel production systems.
4Stability of the object's composition
If the database structure is modified to support validation states, then the data coherence is improved, but the storage requirements and structural complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the validation state information and draft data into the existing database structure using the unique filing number as a linking key. Rather than creating separate storage systems for draft and production data, the solution combines them in a unified structure that maintains data coherence while avoiding duplication of storage resources.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of insuring the integrity of a plurality of updates brought in real-time to a large production database concurrently used by one or more software applications. The large production database includes a plurality of products participating to the definition of objects. The method first comprises the step of requesting the issuance of a unique filing number associated to a draft state version of the plurality of updates while keeping them invisible to the end-users of the large production database. Then, a set of product items identified as a whole by the unique filing number and on which the updates applies is created or copied in the large production database and gathered under the form of a meta-product on which the plurality of updates is applied. When updating is complete, the meta-product is successively set into a customizable flow of one or more validation states in order to perform a cross-validation of the plurality of updates. Finally, when validation is complete, the meta-product is set into a production state where the uniquely identified meta-product becomes immediately visible and useable by the end-users of the one or more software applications.