Multi-layered Data Model for Audience-Specific Document Generation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for generating documents fail to efficiently handle multiple audiences with varying language, regional, cultural, and regulatory requirements across different media types, leading to redundant data entry and manual adjustments, and lack the ability to inherit values based on arbitrary divisions, resulting in significant duplication of effort and inefficiency.
Innovation Solution
A multi-layered data model is used to generate audience-specific documents by subdividing main data tables into manageable families, allowing for hierarchical inheritance of data values and minimizing redundant entries, enabling efficient publication across languages, regions, cultures, and media types, with the ability to automatically update and add support for new audiences without altering the main data table.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If current systems use coarse-grained internationalization capabilities to generate multi-language documents, then documents can be published in multiple languages, but large amounts of duplicate operator entries are required for similar languages and significant data entry duplication occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monolithic data model into multiple layers: a base layer containing common data applicable to all audiences, and multiple audience-specific layers containing only the differences for each audience. This segmentation eliminates data duplication by storing unique variations separately while inheriting from the base layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimension to the data model by introducing audience-specific layers that inherit from a base layer. This multi-layered structure allows the system to handle multiple languages and regional variations without duplicating entire data sets, as each layer only contains deviations from its parent layer.
2Ease of manufacture
If current systems manually create and manage product families with thousands of records, then product information can be organized, but significant duplicate effort is required to update documents targeted at each audience and media type
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by establishing the multi-layered data model structure in advance, with the base layer containing all common product information. This preliminary setup enables automatic inheritance and eliminates the need for manual updates across multiple audience-specific documents, as changes propagate automatically through the hierarchy.
3Ease of operation
If current systems require manual adjustment of each document output for different media types, then documents can be formatted for specific media, but all target media documents must be manually adjusted when data changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal base layer that serves all media types and audiences, containing core product information that is common across all outputs. This universal layer can be independently updated without affecting other layers, enabling efficient maintenance while still supporting media-specific customizations through the inheritance hierarchy.
Data Source
AI summary
Audience specific documents targeted at a plurality of media types are generated by accessing data from a multi-layered data model comprising an audience hierarchy. When obtaining a data value for a particular audience, if that value does not exist for that audience then the audience hierarchy may be utilized to find the data value for an inherited audience. By adding regional, cultural or regulatory subdivisions within the audience hierarchy and inheriting large portions of existing audience specific data entries, a large number of audience specific documents may be generated with a minimal amount of data entry required. Audiences may be specified in a given order for traversal within the hierarchy and displayed in a data entry and editing application utilizing visual characteristics to inform a user if the value for a particular piece of data is inherited from another layer or utilized from the particular layer in use.