Navigation Action Composition for Data Object Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data management systems lack flexibility in navigating and extracting information from data objects related by multiple types of relationships, particularly primary-key/foreign-key relationships, limiting the ability to efficiently locate and process related data objects.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that apply a composition of actions, including navigation actions, to map and filter data objects based on specified relationship types, allowing recursive applications and functions on attribute values to generate desired subsets, thereby enhancing the flexibility in locating and extracting data objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional file system hierarchy navigation is used, then data organization is simple and intuitive, but flexibility in navigating related data objects by multiple relationship types is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a navigation action composition as an intermediary mechanism between the user and the data objects. This composition allows flexible navigation through multiple relationship types without directly exposing the complex underlying data structure, thus resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation system is segmented into discrete navigation actions that can be combined in compositions. Each action handles a specific relationship type, allowing the system to maintain simplicity at the atomic level while achieving complexity in the composed navigation paths, thus balancing versatility and manageability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If recursive application of navigation actions is implemented, then ability to locate related data objects is enhanced, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies navigation actions recursively only when necessary and stops when the desired data objects are located or a predefined depth is reached. This partial application of recursion balances the enhanced location ability with acceptable processing time, avoiding unnecessary computational overhead.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple relationship types are supported, then data extraction flexibility is improved, but difficulty in managing and processing relationships increases
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation action composition framework provides a universal mechanism that handles multiple relationship types through a unified interface. This multi-functionality allows the system to support diverse relationship types without managing them separately, thus improving extraction flexibility while controlling management complexity through standardization.
Data Source
AI summary
Information related to a first set of one or more data objects of a plurality of data objects in a database is determined. A composition of one or more actions is applied to determine the information related to the first set of one or more data objects. At least one of the actions includes a navigation action that maps a set of data objects to another set of data objects related according to a relationship type determined from a specification of the navigation action. Applying the composition of one or more actions may include recursive application of the navigation action. The actions may include a second action that performs a function based values associated with the data objects returned by the navigation action, where each value represents an attribute of the associated data object.