MXPA05007369A - Method and device for accessing a database - Google Patents

Abstract

A comfortable method and device for searching databases are required. Thus, a database access concept including an interface descriptor (8) is proposed. The interface descriptor (8) may be a XML-file which describes interface categories and database access strategies. The database interface machine (2) may comprise a standard category display method (4) and a standard database access method (6). The database interface machine (2) can use the definitions contained in the interface descriptor (8) to set up a categorized interface to the database (1) and to perform complete database searches.

Description

SI, SK, TR), OAPr patent (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, For two-lctter codes and olher bbrsvialions.) Referred the "GuidGN, GQ, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG). Ance Notes on Codes and Abbreviations "appearing ai te begin- ning ofeach regular issue ofthe. PCT Gazette. Publishcd: - with intemational search repon METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ACCESSING A DATABASE DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for accessing a database, which includes the steps of presenting at least one item or category article that defines a search criteria for the database, the selection of one or more of the less a category item and search in the database according to one or more selected category items. In addition, the present invention relates to a corresponding device for accessing a database. To search for desired data in a database, three methods are available: 1) it is possible to search all the data in the database and find the desired data; 2) it is possible to search the database for entry keywords; and 3) it is possible to search the database through some pre-defined categories. The advantage of method 1 is that you can search all the data in the database. Its disadvantage is that this is an inefficient method in the case of a large database. The advantage of method 2 is that you can quickly search the database for a keyword. _ The disadvantage is that there is no guarantee to find the desired results, if wrong keywords are used. Method 3 makes use of the advantages of method 1 and 2. It uses predefined categories (keywords) to classify and access the data in the database. By using method 3, the user can search the desired data efficiently among all the data in the database. The disadvantage of method 3 is that the predefined categories and the associated implementation of access to the database must be prebuilt in the database / machine interconnection. If users wish to update the categories and / or access methods of the database on their interconnection machine, they must update the related software (hardware) or hardware (hardware). In this context, WO 02/15047 describes an interconnection system for accessing the data stored in a database. The interconnection comprises a data dictionary that structurally defines the database and a dictionary of definition descriptors of the interconnection. The descriptors of the interconnection can be modified, or new descriptors can be added. When searching, the interconnector descriptor has to be combined with the dictionary defined in the database. In general, when the descriptors that define the interconnection are modified or new descriptors are added, the database itself is also modified. An additional document US 602633 describes a data management system comprising a database and a category definition dictionary. The category definition dictionary defines the categories for different periods of time. These definitions are used when the data has to be searched from the database. The category definitions are used to track reclassifications of products from a first category to a second category. An addition of categories is not described. In view of that, the objective of the present invention is to provide more comfortable update possibilities for accessing the databases. Therefore, according to the present invention, a method for accessing a database is provided, including the steps of presenting at least one category item that defines a search criteria for said database, the selection of one or more than at least one category item, and the search in the database, according to one or more selected category items, where at least one category item is provided within the means of interconnection descriptors, which are commonly available for accesses to the databases. data Furthermore, according to the present invention, the above objective is solved for a device for accessing a database that includes the display means for presenting at least one category item that defines a search criteria for said database, the selection of the means connected to the display means for selecting one or more of at least one category item, and the search means connected to the selection means for searching the database according to one or more items of selected category, wherein the display means are connectable to the external interconnect descriptor means that provide at least one category item. In other words, an interconnection descriptor concept for database access is proposed. The interconnect descriptor can be an XML file or a file in another standard programming language, which describes interconnection categories and database access strategies. A database interconnection machine formed in this way contains a standard method of category visualization and a standard method of database access which, however, can use the definition of an interconnection descriptor to establish a categorized interconnection to the database, and complete the search of the database. The advantage of using such an interconnection descriptor is that, when users want to update the interconnection category and the method of accessing the database, they do not need to change the software or hardware of the interconnection machine. They only have to update the interconnection descriptor based on the XML schema. The interconnect descriptor can define complicated database access strategies by providing subcategory items and combined search criteria within a single category item. In this way, large databases, for example, metadata database, can be searched comfortably. The present invention will now be described in more detail in connection with the appended figures which show in: Figure 1 a schematic diagram of an access to the database by predefined categories according to the prior art; Figure 2 a schematic diagram of an access to databases by predefined categories based on an interconnection descriptor according to the present invention; Fig. 3 a schematic design view of an interconnect descriptor; Figure 4 images of a user graphical interconnect to present the interconnection descriptor; Figure 5 images of the user graphical interconnection for a search strategy; and Figure 6 an image of a user graphical interconnect for a combined search. The following described examples are preferred embodiments of the present invention. However, for a better understanding of the present invention, a categorized, traditional database access application is explained in connection with Figure 1. Traditionally, a database 1 can be accessed by an interconnection machine 2. The predefined category 5 items are shown by an associated presentation method 4 via a graphical user interface (GUI) 3. These category 5 items are defined in category classes in the interconnection machine 2. The category items are a fixed part of the interconnection machine 2. Under each category item, an access method 6 to the individual, associated database is defined, or all category items ^ can share a database access method 6 general .

The access method according to the prior art thus includes the following steps. The user can search a category of databases 1, choose a category item and search the database 1 through an access method 6 defined under the current category item. As mentioned above, the disadvantage of this traditional application of categorized access to databases (Figure 1) is that the defined categories and the associated implementation of access to the database must be prebuilt in the interconnection-machine database. If the users wish to update the categories and the method of access to the database on their interconnection machine 2, they must update the related software or hardware. To overcome this disadvantage, a categorized access method based on data, based on an interconnection descriptor, is proposed according to the present invention. As shown in Figure 2, the database 1 can be accessed by the interconnection machine 2. The interconnection machine 2 consists of GUI (graphical user interconnection) 3, a standard method 4 of presentation by categories, a standard method 6 of general access to database and some methods special 7 access to database, if any. However, the interconnection machine 2 does not contain any category definition means. The interconnection machine 2 imports category definitions from an interconnection descriptor 8, which is located outside the interconnection machine 2, the GUI 3 uses a standard method 4 of presentation by categories to import a category message from the descriptor 8. of interconnection. ' When the user searches the database 1 under a selected category, the interconnection machine 2 must import associated messages of the access strategy from the interconnection descriptor 8. Under the instruction of the access strategy message of the interconnect descriptor, the interconnecting machine 2 uses a database access standard 6 method or any special access method 7 for searching the database 1. Preferably, the descriptor Interconnection is an XML file, which is defined by its XML schema. Figure 3 is a schematic design view of the current interconnect descriptor. As shown in Figure 3 (a), the root element is "Descriptive Interconnection". This has two attributes: "version" (required) and "author" (optional). The "version" attribute includes the version message of the current interconnect descriptor. The version message directs the GUI to use its associated application to display the category and display the database. The "author" attribute shows the developer of the current interconnect descriptor. The root element "Descriptive Interconnection" contains one or more sub-elements "Access Method" (minimum 1 ~ maximum not joined). This is indicated by the symbol between "InterConexiónDescriptor" and "AccesoMetdo". Each "Access Method" includes a "name" attribute (required), which gives the name of a method of access to the database. See figure 3 (a). Each "Access Method" has one or more "sub-elements" Category "(min 1 ~ max not joined). Each "Category" contains the attributes "name" (required) and "counter" (optional). The "name" attribute contains the category name displayed. A "counter" attribute contains the number of the last search result. See figure 3 (a). As shown in Figure 3 (b), the "Category" element is a global element, which contains one or more sub-elements "Text Search" (minimum 1 ~ maximum not joined) and optionally one or more sub-elements " Category" (minimum 0 - maximum not joined). The element "Text Search" has the attributes "type" (required), "text" (required) and "mode" (optional). The "type" attribute defines the type of search text, for example a page of a teletext.

Currently, its value can be chosen from "element", "attribute", "value", or "no". The "Text" attribute includes the keyword for the search, for example a specific number of a teletext page. Each "Category" can have "SearchText" not attached, which means that each "Category" can have more than one keyword for the search. The "mode" attribute represents the name of a specific method 7 for accessing the database. When this is by default, a standard method of general access is used. Otherwise, the specific access method 7 will be used. Each "Category" can have its own sub-elements "Category". As shown in Figure 3 (c), the element "Text Search" is a global element, which may contain zero, one or more sub-elements "Text Search" (minimum 0 ~ maximum not joined). The sub-element "Text Search" has the same schema as its parent element "Text Search". This structure makes it possible to refine the search results.

Application example Categorized access to the database based on the interconnection descriptor can be applied to a metadata database interconnection machine. As shown in figure 4, the user can import InterconnectionDescriptor .xml when pressing ComboBox 41. All the current access methods by category included in the InterconnectionDescriptor.xml (InterfaceDescriptor .xml) are shown in 42. When the method of "Developer Access", all its categories are presented in a tree diagram as shown in 43. Here, a standard method of entry by category in the interconnection machine is used for the presentation by categories. Each category can contain sub-category items, as shown additionally at 43. All these category messages are defined in InterfaceDescriptor .xml. The user can search all the predefined categories in the tree diagram. In Figure 5, the user can select the category "Teletext Metadata" 51 and press the 52"Search" button. All the results found are shown in a 53 view box. In this case, a standard method of accessing the database imports the message "Text Search" from the InterfaceDescriptor.xml and searches for the text keyword "Teletextpage" as the type "Element". The respective XML command is: < Category name = "Teletext Metadata" > < SearchText type = "Element" text = "TeletextPage" / > < Category > In figure 5, when the category "Special Page "54 is selected, the" search "button 55 is inactive, which means that the" Special "category Page "54 is defined as not searchable in the InterfaceDescriptor .xml. The respective XML command is: < Category name = "Special Page" > < SearchText type = "no text" = "" / > < Category > In addition, the user can search under the category "Page 100" 56. In this case, as defined in the InterfaceDescriptor .xml, the search engine will search for the keyword "100" as type "value" under the "PageNo" attribute among all the teletext metadata. A found result is shown in a view box 57 The respective XML command is: < Category name = "Page 100" > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" / > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "100" / > < Text Search > < Category > As shown in Figure 6, the user can search under the category "Page 100-109" 61. In this case, as defined in InterfaceDescriptor .xml, a p of "Text Search" is defined so that a corresponding combined search Ten simple searches will be initiated. The search machine will search the teletext pages from number 100 to 109. All the results found are shown in the 62 view box. The respective XML command is: < Category name = "Page 100 - 109" > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" / > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "100" / > < / Text Search < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "101" > < / Text Search > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "102" > < / Text Search < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "103" > < / Text Search < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "104" > < / Text Search < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "105" > < / Text Search > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "106" > < / Text Search < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "107" > < / Text Search > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "108" > < / Text Search > < SearchText type = "Attribute" text = "PageNo" > < SearchText type = "Value" text = "109" > < / Text Search > < Category > In this way, the interconnection descriptor for categorized access to the database allows the development of more complicated data access strategies. The interconnection descriptor according to the present invention can operate independently, since all the relevant dictionary elements such as the search keywords are included in the interconnection descriptor. In addition, the interconnect descriptor can access the database directly, and does not need any additional category definition dictionary.

Claims (12)

1. Method for accessing a database with an interconnection machine, which includes the steps of: - presenting at least one category item that defines a search criteria for said database; - the selection of one or more of at least one category item; and the search in the database, according to one or more selected category items, characterized in that: - at least one category item is provided within the interconnection descriptor medium, independent of the database and the interconnection machine , the means of interconnection descriptors are updatable without updating the database or the interconnection machine.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interconnect descriptor means is a software unit written in a standard programming language.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein the standard programming language is XML.

4. Method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein a plurality of category items and at least one category item of the plurality of category items that includes one or more category items is provided.

5. Method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least one category item includes combined search criteria.

6. Method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the database is a metadata database.

7. Device for accessing a database with an interconnection machine that includes: - display means for presenting at least one category item that defines a search criteria for the database; - selection means connected to the display means for selecting one or more of at least one category item; and - search means connected to the selection means for searching the database according to one or more selected category items, characterized in that - the display means are connectable to the independent interconnection descriptor means of the database and the interconnection machine, to provide at least one category item, the interconnection descriptor means are updatable without updating the database or the interconnection machine.

8. Device according to claim 7, wherein the interconnect descriptor means is a software unit described in a standard programming language.

9. Device according to claim 8, wherein the standard programming language is XML.

10. Device according to any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the external interconnect descriptor means includes a plurality of category items as search criteria and at least one category item of the plurality of category items includes one or more sub items. -category.

11. Device according to any of claims 7 to 10, wherein at least one category item includes combined search criteria.

12. Device according to any of claims 7 to 11, wherein the database is a metadata base.