Patents Represented by Law Firm Compurter Law
  • Patent number: 5878419
    Abstract: Methods for creating and using a relational description of a formatted transaction while maintaining data element context are provided. The formatted transaction can be in electronic data interchange (EDI) format or another structured transaction format. A computer receiving the formatted transaction generates or is provided with a set of assignments of unique persistent tags to all possible data element contexts that are of interest. As the transaction is being parsed, each of its data elements is tagged with the appropriate unique persistent tag that identifies its context. Each data element is then written to a field in a relation in which the column name of the field matches the unique persistent tag. Data elements that can occur only once in a transaction are written to a root relation, while data elements that can occur multiple times are written to a subrelation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 2, 1999
    Assignee: Novell, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen R. Carter