Enhanced use of tags when storing relationship information of enterprise objects

摘要

A computing system provided according to an aspect of the present invention stores tags associated with relationships specified among objects. The tags can then potentially be used to search for objects of interest. In an embodiment, a search request is received indicating a first object, a second object and a search tag. A response is provided containing a sequence of objects and a sequence of relationships connecting the first object with the second object, with each relationship having an associated tag matching the search tag.

主权项

1. A computing system comprising:
a database server to store data organized according to a plurality of object types and a plurality of relationship types, wherein each of said relationship types is designed to specify relationship between a pair of object types contained in said plurality of object types; a server system to store a plurality of object instances in said database server, each of said plurality of object instances being one of said plurality of object types, wherein pairs of object instances are related by a relationship type corresponding to the object types of the pair to form a plurality of relationships, wherein each of said plurality of object instances and the corresponding ones of said plurality of relationships are created and stored in said database server in response to processing corresponding transactions; and a tag tool operable to:
maintain a tag data containing a plurality of tags, said tag tool to add corresponding set of tags to said plurality of tags in response to processing each transaction, each tag being in the form of text identifying object instances and relationships created for processing a related subset of transactions, wherein each tag is stored associated with a corresponding subset of said plurality of relationships created for processing a corresponding related subset of transactions;receive a search request containing a first object instance, a second object instance and a search tag, wherein said search tag is in the form of a first text;determine a sequence of ordered pairs of object instances, wherein each ordered pair of object instances has a corresponding one of a sequence of relationships, wherein each of said sequence of relationships has an associated tag containing said first text representing said search tag,each ordered pair of object instances containing a first entry and a second entry, the first entry of a first ordered pair of said sequence of ordered pairs equaling said first object instance, the second entry of a last ordered pair of said sequence of ordered pairs equaling said second object instance, the first entry of each of said sequence of ordered pairs equaling the second entry of a previous ordered pair in said sequence of ordered pairs; andsend said sequence of ordered pairs of object instances and said sequence of relationships as a response to said search request, such that a user can be displayed a manner in which said first object instance is related to said second object instance in the context of a desired subset of transactions identified by said search tag.