Meta-Product Validation for Production Database Integrity

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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 without disrupting real-time operations and ensuring data integrity, as changes become immediately visible to end-users, leading to potential inconsistencies and lack of validation possibilities before data is usable.

Innovation Solution

A method involving the creation of a meta-product with a unique filing number, allowing updates to be applied and validated in a customizable flow of states, ensuring cross-validation before becoming visible and usable, with options for manual or applicative validation and the ability to revert or update as necessary.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If new fares are filed directly into the production database in real-time, then the database can be updated immediately and remain continuously operational, but the new data cannot be validated before becoming visible to end-users, leading to potential inconsistencies

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvereal-time database update capabilityVSAvoiddata integrity and consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

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 validation to occur separately from the production update, ensuring data integrity while maintaining real-time operational capability. The draft version is isolated from production data until validation completes successfully.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements preliminary validation actions before the new fares are released to production. The draft version with unique filing number undergoes validation checks (cross-validation of fares, rules, and routes) before being committed to the production database, preventing inconsistent data from reaching end-users.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If a validation process is implemented before releasing new fares to production, then data consistency is improved, but the update process becomes more complex and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata validation and consistencyVSAvoidupdate process complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a draft version with unique filing number as an intermediary between data entry and production release. This intermediary structure enables validation without requiring complex process changes, as the draft version serves as a controlled buffer that simplifies the validation workflow while ensuring data consistency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Speed

If the production database is updated with new fares, then the data becomes immediately visible and usable by end-users, but any errors or inconsistencies cannot be detected until after release

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata visibility and usability speedVSAvoiderror detection capability

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs validation actions preliminarily, before the fares become visible in production. The draft version undergoes cross-validation checks for fares, rules, and routes prior to release, enabling error detection while maintaining rapid data visibility once validation succeeds.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Stability of the object's composition

If multiple transactions are required to update fare data consistently, then data coherence is improved, but the update process requires all transactions to complete successfully, increasing the risk of failure

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata coherence and consistencyVSAvoidupdate success rate

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the multi-transaction update process into isolated phases: draft creation (with unique filing number), validation, and production commit. This segmentation ensures that if validation fails, only the draft is affected and production data remains intact, improving update success rate while maintaining data coherence through controlled transaction boundaries.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS8131692B2Method allowing validation in a production database of new entered data prior to their release

Publication Date: 2012.03.06 AMADEUS SAS

AI summary

A method of insuring the integrity of a plurality of updates brought in real-time to a production database concurrently used by one or more software applications is described. The production database includes a plurality of products participating to the definition of objects. The method first includes 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 production database. Then, a set of product items identified as a whole by the unique filing number are created or copied from the production database and gathered under the form of a meta-product on which the plurality of updates is applied. After updating, 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. After validation, the meta-product is set into a production state where the uniquely identified meta-product becomes immediately visible and useable by the end-users.