Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture for managing query results and, more particularly, for sorting data records contained in a query result obtained in response to execution of a query against a database. In one embodiment, the data records in the query result are sorted on the basis of related information which is retrieved from a corresponding data source. In another embodiment, the sorting is performed on the basis of a value variance which is determined for each of the data records in the query result. In still another embodiment, the sorting is performed on the basis of a requested value range coverage. In yet another embodiment, the sorting is performed on the basis of suitability scores which are determined with respect to analysis routines which are configured for processing the query result.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable medium for preserving an association between electronic documents are provided. In one embodiment of the invention, an electronic document is stored at a storage media address, the electronic document containing a citation, the citation containing a link to a network address of a remotely located electronic document. A copy of the remotely located electronic document is stored, and the electronic document is associated with the copy. A request is received for the remotely located electronic document, and an attempt to access the remotely located electronic document is made. If the remotely located electronic document cannot be accessed, a copy of the remotely located electronic document is returned.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, create an amalgamated file based on differences between versions of files. When an edit command directed to the amalgamated file is received, the file to which the edit command applies is determined and a change tag is added to the amalgamated file. The change tag includes at least an identification of the file to which the edit applies. In various embodiments, the file to which the edit command applies is determined based on a specification in the edit command or based on the location in the amalgamated file to which the edit command is directed. Data in the amalgamated file is saved by finding the change tags in the amalgamated file, and saving the associated data to the files identified in the change tags. The amalgamated file may be displayed in a number of different views, where the views display respective subsets of the differences based on the files to which they apply.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment save presented clips of a program and delete unpresented clips of the program. Meta-data associated with the program or embedded in the program to delineate the presented clips. The meta-data are created in response to commands that cause or end the presentation of the program, such as play, slow motion, skip, fast forward, or rewind commands.

Abstract: Methods, computers and articles of manufacture for testing and validating user interface content. Documents can be tested for both structure and content. In one embodiment, documents are parsed and compared to determine whether the documents are at least structurally equivalent. Parsed documents may also be compared to determine whether the documents are content the equivalent. In another embodiment, one or more test expressions are executed against one or more of the documents being compared.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment select a program based on a criteria if a storage threshold is exceeded and change the compression level of the selected program. Changing the compression level reduces the amount of storage consumed by the program. In various embodiments, the criteria may be based on a ranking of a category to which the program belongs, based on whether the program previously had the compression level changed, based on the age of the program, based on the difference between the current compression level of the program and the minimum compression level of the program, and/or the amount of storage space saved by changing the compression level of the program. In this way, storage may be made available for saving future programs without necessarily deleting current programs.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for data processing in databases and, more particularly, for providing natural language support in a database environment. One embodiment provides a method of providing natural language support for users running queries against a database. The method comprises providing a data abstraction model comprising a plurality of logical fields abstractly describing physical data residing in the database, and associating the data abstraction model with a language resource component defining a natural language expression for each of the plurality of logical fields.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus and article of manufacture for modifying query elements to produce a desired result size. A requesting entity specifies a desired result set size to be returned for a given query. One or more elements specified in the query are modified until a resulting modified query is produced which, when executed produces the desired result set size.

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.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture for query execution management in a data processing system and more particularly for scheduling execution of queries against one or more databases in a data processing system. One embodiment provides a method for managing query execution in a data processing system. The method comprises providing at least one query execution schedule configured to schedule specific queries against a database in the data processing system, receiving a query against the database, and managing execution of the received query on the basis of the at least one query execution schedule.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for mapping schemas to one another. The fields of a target schema are characterized by constraint metadata. The constraint metadata represents rules or guidelines used to identify source fields in a source schema, which source fields are candidates for being mapped to the target fields.