Versioned Resource Path Query Operators
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current operators fail to efficiently associate a particular version of a version-controlled resource with all other versions in the same version history, limiting cross-version queries in a repository.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of new operators vcr_under_path and vcr_equals_path, which use index-based and functional evaluation techniques to associate a version with the paths of all versions in the same version history, enabling efficient cross-version queries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If current operators are used to query across versions, then query functionality is provided, but query efficiency is poor and disk accesses are excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-computes and stores path information for all versions of version-controlled resources in the index structure during database maintenance operations. This preliminary action eliminates the need for expensive disk accesses during query execution, as all version path associations are already available in memory-based index structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates and maintains copy information in index structures that replicates path-to-version associations across all versions of a resource. This copying mechanism allows the query engine to access version path mappings without accessing the actual versioned resources on disk, significantly improving query performance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If current operators are used to associate versions with paths, then basic path matching is achieved, but cross-version path association is not provided
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enhances existing path-based operators to serve multiple functions: they can match paths within a single version, match paths across multiple versions, and automatically associate versions with their corresponding paths. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate operators for different version-scoping scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces version history identifiers as an intermediary mechanism that links multiple versions of a resource. This intermediary allows the query system to efficiently associate and traverse across versions without requiring complex operator logic, as the version history identifier naturally groups related versions.
3Reliability
If all versions are stored as separate entities in resource tables, then version tracking is enabled, but query performance degrades due to data volume
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the versioned resource data into two parts: the actual version content stored in resource tables and the path-to-version associations stored in separate index structures. This segmentation allows queries to operate on the compact index structures rather than scanning all version records, maintaining version tracking accuracy while improving query performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses index structures as an intermediary layer between the query interface and the versioned resource data. These indexes contain pre-computed path associations that mediate between user queries and the underlying versioned resources, eliminating the need for queries to directly process large volumes of version data while preserving accurate version tracking.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique and mechanism for efficiently searching across multiple versions of a resource is provided. New operators are provided that take into account the versions of a particular resource. The query engine evaluates the new operators using either an index-based approach or a functional approach. Under an index-based implementation, a hierarchical index is traversed to find a particular resource (or resources) associated with a specified path and the version history identifier associated with the particular resource(s). A version history table containing references to all versions of the particular resource(s) are then obtained. Under the functional implementation, a link table, which contains all paths in a user's workspace, is examined to determine whether the version history identifier of a particular resource matches a version history identifier of a resource specified in the link table and whether the path to the resource in the link table is related to the path specified.