Patents by Inventor Eric W. Will

Eric W. Will has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7574423
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides methods, articles of manufacture and systems for exposing, on a client device, fields of a data model representing an underlying database for use in building queries against the database. For some embodiments, the client device may be a device having limited resources, such as a handheld computing device. Therefore, rather than load and expose the entire data model on the client at once, a limited portion of the data model may be exposed on a client in a “just in time” (JIT) basis. The limited portion may be determined, for example, based on input received from a user and system parameters, such as the system memory and network bandwidth available to the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090112838
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for searching for a documents residing on a network comprises receiving a search request from a user. The search request comprises one or more search terms of an ontology. The ontology includes a plurality of terms. One or more of the plurality of terms includes a plurality of sub-category terms. One or more documents residing on the network is identified based on the one or more search terms and an ontology index. The ontology index comprises a plurality of relationships between the plurality of terms and sub-category terms of the ontology and a plurality of documents residing on the network. One or more search results that describe the one or more documents is presented to the user. The one or more documents contain the one or more search terms, or one of the plurality of sub-category terms of the one or more search terms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Inventors: Thomas John Eggebraaten, Jeffrey Wayne Tenner, Shannon Everett Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090106217
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for searching for a documents residing on a network comprises receiving a search request from a user. The search request comprises one or more search terms of an ontology. The ontology includes a plurality of terms. One or more of the plurality of terms includes a plurality of sub-category terms. One or more documents residing on the network is identified based on the one or more search terms and an ontology index. The ontology index comprises a plurality of relationships between the plurality of terms and sub-category terms of the ontology and a plurality of documents residing on the network. One or more search results that describe the one or more documents is presented to the user. The one or more documents contain the one or more search terms, or one of the plurality of sub-category terms of the one or more search terms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2007
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Inventors: Thomas John Eggebraaten, Jeffrey Wayne Tenner, Shannon Everett Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090083548
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Publication date: March 26, 2009
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7496916
    Abstract: Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for performing multiple request processing. Redundant instances of executing entities service requests in a time-delayed fashion, relative to one another. In this way, a user can be returned to an earlier state by switching to the execution flow of one of the other executing entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20080228711
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for maintaining a data warehouse having a plurality of fields updated with data from one or more data sources. Rather than automatically update every field of data available in the warehouse, a limited subset of fields identified through their involvement in queries issued against the warehouse are updated. By limiting the fields that are updated, the network bandwidth required to transmit the updates to the data warehouse may be reduced. Further, by removing fields from the data warehouse that are not in use, the size of the data warehouse may be reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2008
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Inventors: RICHARD D. DETTINGER, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7418600
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20080155548
    Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture for event management in data processing systems and more particularly to managing events occurring in data processing systems in order to provide an effective logging mechanism. One embodiment provides a method of generating log file entries for events occurring during execution of a process in a data processing system. The method includes determining an importance level for an occurred event on the basis of trend analysis indicating evolution of the process and creating a log file entry for the occurred event if the determined importance level exceeds the predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20080148070
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Publication date: June 19, 2008
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20080148071
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Publication date: June 19, 2008
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20080016047
    Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for executing database queries where the data being queried resides in both relational databases and other external data sources, and, more particularly, for creating a dynamic, just in time, database table using data retrieved from an external source. One embodiment provides a method of processing a database query. The method includes receiving, from a requesting entity, an abstract query of data contained in a database and an external data source, the abstract query being defined using logical fields of a data abstraction model abstractly describing the data in the database and the external data source.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2006
    Publication date: January 17, 2008
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Erik E. Voldal, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7200619
    Abstract: A method, a data structure, a computer program product and a computer-readable medium for correlating at least a first plurality of data records and a second plurality of data records, each data record of the first plurality of data records being uniquely identified within a corresponding data source by an associated internal identifier and each data record of the first and second plurality of data records comprising at least one external identifier. According to one embodiment, the method comprises determining a data record of the first plurality of data records and at least one data record of the second plurality of data records having an identical external identifier; and mapping the at least one determined data record of the second plurality of data records to the internal identifier associated with the determined data record of the first plurality of data records.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Wayne Tenner, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7146376
    Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for accessing data in a database independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented and for modeling a physical representation of the data in the database for architecting a relationship between the physical representation of the data in the database and a logical representation of the data. One embodiment provides a method for architecting a relationship between a physical representation of data in a database and a logical representation of the data. The method comprises providing the logical representation defining logical fields; and then providing, on the basis of the logical representation, the physical representation for the data, whereby the logical fields defined by the logical representation provide an abstract view of the data and map logical fields of abstract queries to respective data in the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7143081
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to methods, articles of manufacture and systems for automatically generating abstract representations of a limited subset of data repository fields accessed by a particular application. The limited subset of fields may be identified by monitoring queries issued against the data repository by the application. The abstract representations may be grouped in a data repository abstraction (DRA) component that serves as a data definition framework allowing data from the fields to be accessed independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented in the data repository. By limiting the fields exposed to the application to the limited subset of fields actually accessed by the application, the DRA component, in effect, provides the application with a custom database tailored to its particular needs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7107262
    Abstract: Methods, systems and articles of manufacture are provided for query evaluation. The query is evaluated upon inputting each incremental query element (or combination of element). Generally, for each incremental query element added, a query performance analysis is performed with respect to one or more runtime metrics such as total execution time and runtime resource consumption. The results of the analysis are provided as feedback to the user constructing the query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7062496
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to a system, method and article of manufacture for generating a data repository abstraction (DRA) component that may be used to access data independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented. In one embodiment, a DRA generator identifies a set of logical field candidates for possible use in generating the DRA component. The DRA generator may then generate the DRA component with a subset of the logical field candidates determined by a weighting algorithm based on usage information collected from available database schema and associated objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20040254916
    Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture and systems for presenting, to a user, a limited subset of fields and associated values of an underlying base data model are provided. The limited subset of fields and associated values may be selected based on a relationship with one or more specified concepts, for example, of interest to a user. Thus, fields and associated values not related to the one or more specified concepts are filtered out (e.g., not available to the user).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2003
    Publication date: December 16, 2004
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20040225689
    Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture for event management in data processing systems and more particularly to managing events occurring in data processing systems in order to provide an effective logging mechanism. One embodiment provides a method of generating log file entries for events occurring during execution of a process in a data processing system. The method includes determining an importance level for an occurred event on the basis of trend analysis indicating evolution of the process and creating a log file entry for the occurred event if the determined importance level exceeds the predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2003
    Publication date: November 11, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20040215629
    Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for accessing data in a database independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented and for modeling a physical representation of the data in the database for architecting a relationship between the physical representation of the data in the database and a logical representation of the data. One embodiment provides a method for architecting a relationship between a physical representation of data in a database and a logical representation of the data. The method comprises providing the logical representation defining logical fields; and then providing, on the basis of the logical representation, the physical representation for the data, whereby the logical fields defined by the logical representation provide an abstract view of the data and map logical fields of abstract queries to respective data in the database.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2003
    Publication date: October 28, 2004
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20040186825
    Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for accessing data in a database independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented and for preventing alterations of data in the database when a query is executed against the database are provided. One embodiment provides a method of preventing alterations of data in a database when a query is executed against the database. The method comprises providing a logical representation of the data defining a plurality of logical fields abstractly describing associated physical entities of the data; receiving an abstract query comprising at least one logical field of the plurality of logical fields; and locking the at least one logical field before executing the abstract query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2003
    Publication date: September 23, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation,
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will