Method and apparatus for generating an integrated view of multiple databases

摘要

A computer system 1 is operable to receive a plurality of XML (or other marked-up) documents associated with heterogeneous databases 20, 30 and to process these to generate a virtual integrated view presenting a seemingly merged view of the database structures. The computer system includes an input interface for receiving a plurality of marked-up documents, a document object model generation module operable to generate a tree-structured document object model of each marked-up document; an intermediate structure generation module operable to traverse each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprising a list of lists of elements and sub-elements; a syntax tree generation module for generating a syntax tree representation of the intermediate structure; and a virtual integrated view module operable to generate a view of the syntax tree representation which may be conveniently displayed to the user on a graphical display, wherein by providing the system with a plurality of marked-up documents reflecting the structures of a plurality of databases, the virtual integrated view module is operable to provide a virtual integrated view of the plurality of databases.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
generating syntax tree representation of a plurality of marked up documents which reflect structures of databases via a method of generating a syntax tree representation of a plurality or marked-up documents, the method of generating a syntax tree representation of the plurality of marked-up documents including:
in respect of each of the plurality of marked-up documents, generating a tree-structured document object model of the marked-up document;traversing each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprising a list of lists of elements and sub-elements; andgenerating a syntax tree representation of the intermediate structure; wherein the intermediate structure merges the information from the plurality of marked-up documents and wherein the syntax tree representation represents an internal representation of the merged structure; and generating a virtual integrated view of a combination of the databases based on the syntax tree representation of the plurality of marked up documents which reflect structures of databases; wherein said traversing each document object model to generate an intermediate structure comprises:
each time a node is encountered which does not have the same name as any previously encountered node, updating the intermediate structure by referencing the node in question, andeach time a node is encountered which does have the same name as any previously encountered node, comparing its child and attribute lists with those of the or each previously encountered node having the same name and, if there is a match, keeping no record of the newly encountered node, but if there is a mismatch, then keeping a record of the newly encountered node within the same list as the previously encountered node of the same name.