Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/20—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of structured data, e.g. relational data
  • G06F16/25—Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
  • G06F16/252—Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems between a Database Management System and a front-end application

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to the integration of data from multiple sources.
• This data which typically lives in an existing corporate database, may include, for each customer, information such as name, social security number, and/or company-particular information such as frequent flyer miles for a particular airline.
• the corporation would like to integrate this data seamlessly into their personalization solution, avoiding data migration difficulties where possible.
• the present invention includes a system for generating a unified user profile.
• the system includes a first data source and a second data source.
• a server is used to access the first and second data sources.
• the server utilizes a user component adapted to aggregate data from the first and second data sources into a unified user profile.
• the architecture may be built on a base user enterprise Java bean, which is capable of being extended to incorporate existing user data from a user data store.
• a user-specific enterprise Java bean may then be generated, which allows transparent read and write access to the existing user data.
• the present invention also includes a method for generating a unified user profile.
• a base user Java bean is obtained that is adapted to work through a personalization server to access a personalization database.
• the base user Java bean provides a transparent interface through which implicit and explicit properties can be retrieved and updated.
• An enterprise Java bean is then created to extend the base user Java bean such that the implicit and explicit properties can further be retrieved and updated from an external user database.
• Also included in the present invention is a method for transparently accessing multiple data sources.
• a base user Java bean is obtained that is adapted to work through a server to access an internal data source.
• the base user Java bean provides a transparent interface through which implicit and explicit properties can be retrieved and updated to the internal data source.
• the user Java bean is then extended such that said base userjava bean further provides a transparent interface through which implicit and explicit properties can be retrieved and updated from at least one external data source.
• the present invention further includes a system for transparently accessing multiple data sources.
• the system uses a server in communication with multiple data sources.
• An extended userjava bean is included in the system that is adapted to provide transparent access to the data sources through the server.
• Figure 1 is an illustration of a UUP configuration in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
• Figure 2 is an illustration of a UUP configuration in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
• FIG. 3 is an illustration of a UUP configuration in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
• Figure 4 is an illustration of a UUP configuration in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
• Figures 5(a) and 5(b) are flowcharts showing steps for calling a setUserPoints() method for implicit and explict cases, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
• Figure 6 is a flowchart showing steps for operating an ejbFind routine in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
• An architecture of the present invention defines the way in which existing user data may be incorporated with more dynamically- changing personalization data.
• a server such as a personalization server that is used to personalize content or services for a particular use or group of users
• system users are typically represented by user profiles.
• a user profile provides an ID for a user and access to the properties of a user, such as age or email address.
• Property values can be single-valued or multi-valued, and may be requested via a getPropertyQ function or similar method which takes a property name as a key.
• An advantage of a user profile of the present invention is that it may be extended and customized to retrieve user information from an existing data source.
• a user profile that ships with a server or solution, such as a personalization server may combine user properties, such as properties from a personalization server database with user properties from an LDAP server or legacy database as are known in the art, into a single user profile for use within an application. Developers and system users then need not worry about the different underlying data sources.
• the user profile is the only place necessary to go for user information.
• a unified user profile (UUP) of the present invention includes this aggregation of properties from an existing data source and the personalization server database tables into a single, customized user profile. More specifically, a UUP marries existing user/customer data by extending a user component. By installing the personalization server database tables into the existing database instance and extending a user implementation, developers can quickly create a customized UUP that is capable of retrieving properties from, and storing/updating properties to, an existing database. This flexibility is desirable because it allows access to existing data without any migration of data or disruption of existing applications using that data. It should be understood, however, that existing data may be migrated into a separate personalization server database instance if desired.
• UUP requires no database scheme updates or data migration within a data management system, such as a customer Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).
• RDBMS customer Relational Database Management System
• the UUP is preferably created by writing an extension EJB, rather than by updating database tables, or running data migration scripts. Servers of the prior art often require the updating of the user database table schema for additional user properties.
• FIGS 1 -4 show possible configurations for a UUP system of the present invention.
• a corporate, legacy, or other external database 102 and personalization server database 104 provide property data to a personalization server 110.
• the personalization server 110 also receives information from a user data store 106, such as authentication information, user lists, group lists, and group membership.
• the user data store may be any appropriate system, such as an LDAP, Unix, or NT system as are known in the art.
• the user data store 106 also includes a security realm 108 for authentication.
• the personalization server database 104 and security realm 108 are kept separate in this configuration, as such separation of authentication and retrieval may be desirable, though not necessary to practice the invention.
• This configuration may be used where users and groups already exist in some type of data store, such as an LDAP directory. This existing user property data is then taken by the personalization server 110 and merged with the personalization data to generate the UUP 112.
• a second configuration 200 may be useful where users and groups already exist in a user data store 204, such as an LDAP directory, and no existing user data must be incorporated into the UUP 210. All user and group property data is then preferably stored in the tables of the personalization server 202 database.
• the personalization server 208 in this configuration still preferably utilizes a security realm 206 of the user data store 204.
• a third configuration 300 may be useful where there is no existing store of users and groups.
• the tables of the personalization server database 302 contain all user and group data, as well as preferably housing a separated security realm 304.
• the personalization server 306 then only need to look to the personalization server database 302 in generating the UUP 308.
• a fourth configuration 400 may be useful where user, group, and property data are in an existing corporate, legacy, or other external database 402 and must be incorporated into the UUP 410 by the personalization server 408.
• a custom security realm 404 must then be created in order to use the existing users and groups with the personalization server.
• the custom security realm need not necessarily be stored with the external database 402, but may be incorporated into the personalization database 406. Again, the retrieval and authentication realms are preferably kept separate.
• One embodiment of an architecture of the present invention relies on three primary contributors for incorporating data in a UUP: (1 ) a base user enterprise Java bean (EJB), (2) an user data store, and (3) a user-specific enterprise Java bean (EJB).
• EJB enterprise Java bean
• EJB enterprise Java bean
• a base user EJB is a Java class which is preferably extended by a personalization customer to incorporate existing user data into the personalization solution.
• the base user EJB preferably provides a single, transparent interface through which both implicit properties and explicit properties can be retrieved or updated.
• the base user EJB utilizes a property set, which may be used to give namespace qualifications to properties, as well as to define property types, allowable values, etc.
• a property set acts like a data schema for user properties.
• transparency generally refers to the fact that a user or application can make a call or request without care as to where the data is stored or what naming convention the data may use. If the data is in a legacy database instead of a personalization database, the UUP will automatically process the request without the user or application ever needing to know about the location or name.
• User EJB use two methods to retrieve or update: getProperty and setProperty. These methods may retrieve and/or update both implicit and explicit properties.
• the methods may be set as follows:
• the propertySetName attribute specifies the data schema to which the invocation applies. In this way, the propertySetName acts as a namespace for the property that is to be retrieved or updated.
• the propertyName attribute specifies the name of the property to be updated or retrieved.
• One advantage of the using the propertySetName- propertyName pair is that a single propertyName may be used across multiple applications, or sub-application scopes. The multiple instances of the property names may also correspond to differing definitions. Properties retrieved from the base User bean shall be referred to as implicit properties.
• the user data store which may be in existence prior to the incorporation, is typically a database or table where data is held that may relate to current users or customer data. This table may be colocated in a database instance of the personalization server.
• the existing user data store may hold user data which exists independent of the personalization server database tables.
• the personalization server may require the existing user data store to live in the same RDBMS instance as the personalization server tables.
• This table defines three values for each customer: (1 ) Customer_Name, (2) Acme_Points, and (3) Acme_Discount.
• Customer_Name is used as a unique identifier for each customer. This unique identifier, once integration is complete, is preferably used to uniquely identify a user throughout the Personalization server.
• Acme_Points is a sample customer value. An Acme customer might collect points as he or she makes purchases of Acme products. Acme_Discount is the discount the customer receives on each Acme product purchase.
• an EJB may be written to extend the user bean, which may be provided with the personalization server.
• the personalization server client has transparent read and write access to properties previously stored in the user-specific database table (explicit properties), and to properties stored in the set of property tables of the Personalization server (implicit properties).
• AcmeUser EJB may be written that provides data update and retrieval mechanisms for the existing table. To operate within constraints of the present invention, the AcmeUser EJB may define the following methods:
• public Long qetAcmePointsO Returns the number of Acme points collected to date by the customer. • public void setAcmePointsfLonq newAcmePointsValue) - Updates the number of Acme points for the customer. public Double qetAcmeDiscountO - Returns the current discount for the customer. public void setAcmeDiscountO - Updates the customer's Acme discount.
• Properties retrieved from the extended user bean are called explicit properties.
• both the Acme points and the Acme discount may be retrieved with the inherited getProperty() and setProperty() methods implemented by the base User EJB.
• the UUP preferably uses the notion of Java reflection to determine whether a property is explicit before treating the property as implicit and employing the notion of Property Sets. Reflection is a feature of the Java programming language that allows an executing Java program to examine or introspect upon itself in order to manipulate internal properties of the program.
• An explicit property is preferably updated or retrieved before an implicit property, if the propertyName corresponds to an explicit property. Because of this search order, the actual property set name is of no consequence if an explicit property is being updated or retrieved.
• the following example demonstrates a fictitious company's use of the UUP to take advantage of existing customer data.
• the example extends the User bean and retrieves data from a preexisting database. This example shows how, with relative ease, a customized UUP can be created that meets an application's persistence needs.
• Table 2 explains what may be extended in order to create a custom UUP.
• UUP is a ConfigurableEntity
• Explicitly setting a property as used herein means calling a setter method for a property directly.
• Implicitly setting a property means setting a property via the setProperty() method where no explicit setter method is available. For example, if a UUP contains a "userPoints" property, calling setUserPoints()directly would explicitly setthe userPoints property. Calling setPropertyO with the "userPoints" key would implicitly set the userPoints property. When called, setPropertyO first looks for a setUserPoints() setter method to call in the user profile.
• Figures 5(a) and 5(b) diagram both an explicit 550 and implicit 500 call to setUserPoints(), respectively. In both cases, it is the responsibility of the UUP bean to store the userPoints value. If no setUserPoints() method had existed in the UUP bean, the ConfigurableEntity implementation would have handled storing the userPoints value.
• a call is made to setPropertyO 502. The system checks to see if a setUserPoints() method exists 506. If so, setUserPoints() is called 506. If not, the system continues executing setProperty 510. For the explicit case of Figure 5b, a call made to setUserPoints() 552 will simply call setUserPoints() 554.
• PropertyNameO approach is followed for all explicit property setting and getting in a UUP. If a UUP has an explicit userPoints property, an explicit getUserPointsO method is provided, as retrieveUserPoints() would not work. Similarly, setting userPoints is done with a setUserPoints() method. In this embodiment, the getProperty() and setPropertyO methods look for getters and setters that follow this convention when getting and setting properties via implicit calls. Overriding setPropertyO or getProperty() is not permitted. The getting and setting of explicit properties is done through getter and setter methods. Explicit getters and setters take and return objects. Primitives such as long and float are wrapped, such as in Java. lang. Long and Java. lang. Float objects, to be compatible with ConfigurableEntity's getProperty() and setPropertyO methods.
• a getter method it may be a good idea to provide a setter method, and vice versa, as it cannot be predicted when a user or application will try to set or get a property. For example, if a getter is provided that retrieves a property from a database table without a corresponding setter, a call to setPropertyO will store that property in a Personalization Server table. This is undesirable, as the value is retrieved from one place and set in another. The next time the property is retrieved, it would have its original value - not the value that was set. If a read-only property is to be provided, an empty setter method may be implemented.
• a preferred definition of ConfigurableEntity's getProperty() method is as follows: public Object getProperty(String propertySet,
• the getPropertyO method preferably searches for properties in a specific order. For example, if a property is not found for a User, a Group may be queried forthe value. In this case the User would inherit the property value from a Group. In ConfigurableEntity terms, the Group would be the User's "successor". If a property is not found in a ConfigurableEntity, then the successor to ConfigurableEntity may be queried. This way, ConfigurableEntities can inherit and override values from a parent entity. [0046] Successors can be either implicit or explicit. An implicit successor is a default successor to a ConfigurableEntity, or a successor that is set for a specific Property Set. An explicit successor is preferably a ConfigurableEntity that may be passed as a parameter to the getPropertyO method. Following is the order of the getPropertyO property search as it exists in a preferred ConfigurableEntity:
• ConfigurableEntity's setPropertyO method is as follows: public Object setProperty(String propertySet,
• the property value may be set in the null Property Set, referred to as the default Property Set.
• the default property set is preferably searched before looking for the property value in the "Reserved" Property Set and successor.
• the "Reserved" Property Set is preferably a read-only
• the "Reserved" Property Set may be used in the Personalization Server, such as when properties are retrieved from an LDAP directory. Attempting to set a property in the "Reserved” Property Set may result in an exception being thrown. Properties in the "Reserved” Property Set and the Reserved Property Set itself may not be editable via User Management tools. Preferred User Management tools allow the specification of attributes to be retrieved from an LDAP or other server for users and groups. These attributes may then be the only ones retrieved at runtime.
• Properties may be set via setPropertyO with a Property Set specified that does not exist. This may be undesirable. When done, a
• Property Set is not created "on-the-fly" forthe specified Property Set name.
• the specified Property Set name serves only as a namespace for the property.
• a call to getPropertyO preferably returns a Java. lang. Long object if setPropertyO ' s called passing a Java. lang. Integer object value.
• Code retrieving such a property may be written as follows:
• a call to getPropertyO preferably returns a Java. lang. Double object if setPropertyO is called with a Java. lang. Float object.
• Code retrieving such a property may be written as follows:
• a User object preferably offers functionality for EJB find operations that makes integrating a UUP with the Personalization Server easy.
• Figure 6 shows a flowchart for an ejbFind() operation.
• An extended UUP ejbFind() searches for records in the existing data store 602. If successful, a call will be made to super.ejbFind() 604, the User object ejbFind(). If successful, the User object ejbFind() will create the necessary records for the UUP in the Personalization Server database tables if they do not yet exist 610 and return the appropriate primary key. If the User object ejbFind() fails, it may check the underlying security realm 608 to determine whether the username corresponds to a valid user.
• the User object ejbFind() creates the necessary records 610, thereby eliminating finder errors and the time needed initially to migrate user data into the Personalization Server User database tables. If either ejbFind() fails or the user does not exist in the realm, a Finder Error is encountered 606. If no Finder Error is encountered, the appropriate primary key is returned 612.
• the last step in one embodiment of creating a custom UUP requires the UUP to be registered with a personalization or other server, such as through user management tools.
• a personalization or other server such as through user management tools.
• preferred user management tools utilize the following, in Table 3:
• a unified user profile mechanism facilitates the retrieval of user information from an LDAP server, with no Java code required from the personalization server customer.
• a set of administration tools allows specification of user and group properties to be retrieved from the LDAP server at a property request during application run time.
• the only requirement of the Personalization Server customer for LDAP property retrieval is that the customer employ an LDAP security realm.
• the UUP queries certain configuration information to detect whether the LDAP security realm is currently in use. If so, the names of the user and group properties to be retrieved may be obtained from an LDAPConfiguration session EJB, and the appropriate properties for the current user retrieved. The customer may not be required to use the LDAP security realm to receive the benefit of other UUP capabilities.

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