|Numéro de publication||US7917548 B2|
|Type de publication||Octroi|
|Numéro de demande||US 10/714,541|
|Date de publication||29 mars 2011|
|Date de priorité||14 nov. 2003|
|État de paiement des frais||Payé|
|Autre référence de publication||US20050108267, WO2005050488A1|
|Numéro de publication||10714541, 714541, US 7917548 B2, US 7917548B2, US-B2-7917548, US7917548 B2, US7917548B2|
|Inventeurs||Alexander G. Gibson, Anne Schur, James C. Brown, Wendy E. Cowley, Nicholas O. Cramer, Dennis L. McQuerry, Patricia A. Medvick, Mark A. Whiting, Marie V. Whyatt|
|Cessionnaire d'origine||Bottelle Memorial Institute|
|Exporter la citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Citations de brevets (18), Citations hors brevets (2), Référencé par (7), Classifications (6), Événements juridiques (4)|
|Liens externes: USPTO, Cession USPTO, Espacenet|
1. Field of Invention
The invention is related to analyzing a plurality of information sources having different formats. More particularly, the invention is related to systems and methods that parse the plurality of information sources into a common format.
2. Description of Related Art
Data that is analyzed by a user often arrives from various sources in various forms and in massive amounts. Typically, users struggle with the problem of getting the proper amount of the proper pieces of the desired data into the proper format for a particular software application. To overcome this problem, users spend a substantial amount of time finding the desired data, and then formatting the data for a particular software application. This problem is referred to hereinafter as the data ingest problem.
One of the most significant problems with the data ingest problem is identifying the desired data and then converting the desired data into a format that can be imported to the appropriate software application. For example, many software applications used in scientific and business settings can import certain types of formatted data automatically. However, substantially similar data, which is not formatted properly must be reformatted for importing into the desired software application. This process of reformatting is an expensive process that occupies the user's time and demands a software programmer's expertise.
Typical solutions for the data ingest problem are often hard coded for a single purpose and there is no reusability of the software. Additionally, slight variation in data can cause significant problems to solutions that are hard coded for a single purpose. In many instances commercial parsing software for reformatting data does not exist. Thus, the burden is on the user to re-format the desired data. Alternatively, the user may hire a programmer to generate or modify software that can reformat the desired data. Both of these solutions are relatively expensive because they take time to implement and require user resources, require developer time, and give the user a solution, which the user can not modify.
A method for extracting and converting data from one or more information sources into a common format. The method comprises receiving the information sources, receiving at least one pattern descriptor selected from a graphical user interface, and receiving one or more templates with each template having at least one pattern descriptor. The method then proceeds to apply the one or more templates to the information sources. The method generates the plurality of data in a common format by parsing the information sources with the templates. The method stores the data in the common format.
A system for extracting and converting data from one or more information sources into a common format is also disclosed. The system includes a memory, an input device and a processor. The memory is configured to receive the information sources and store the templates. The input device is configured to receive the pattern descriptors from a user interacting with the graphical user interface. The processor is programmed to apply the templates to the information sources, to generate data in a common format by parsing the plurality of information sources with the templates, and communicate the data in the common format for storage.
The graphical user interface comprises a first button that permits the user to receive the information sources, a second button that permits the user to select a pattern descriptor, a third button that permits a user to select one or more templates, and a display window configured to display the data in the common format.
Embodiments for the following description are shown in the following drawings:
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural, logical and electrical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limited sense.
Note, the leading digit(s) of the reference numbers in the Figures corresponds to the figure number, with the exception that the same reference numbers identifies identical components, which appear in multiple figures.
The parsing systems and methods have been developed to provide a user-defined, flexible, template-based approach to information extraction, and translation for structured, semi-structured and unstructured information sources. Thus, the illustrative systems and methods described herein are configured to handle structured information sources and semi-structured information sources. For purposes of this patent, the term “structured information sources” refers to information that is organized in one or more databases and has clearly defined fields, columns and rows. The term “semi-structured information sources” refers to information sources that are less organized than structured information sources, but which remains more organized than unstructured information sources. “Unstructured information sources” are information sources that do not appear to follow any rules, format, or sequence.
It shall be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the illustrative systems and methods described herein may be adapted to apply to unstructured information sources. The unstructured information sources may possess one or more patterns that were not visible during initial observations, but which become visible using the template based parsing techniques described hereinafter. Thus, unstructured information sources may also be parsed using elements of the systems and methods described in this patent application.
Furthermore, those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure shall appreciate that these illustrative systems and methods can be applied to a variety of applications that require parsing information sources and generating a data output which has a common format. Further still, the illustrative embodiment describes an illustrative graphical user interface (GUI) for parsing information sources.
The bus 30 typically includes data, address, and control signals. Although the general purpose computer 10 illustrated in
The system for extracting a plurality of structure data from a plurality of information sources may be embodied in the general purpose computer 10. A memory such as RAM 18, ROM 22, hard disk 20, or any other such memory device can be configured to store data for the methods descried.
In the illustrative system, the memory is configured to receive the plurality of information sources and to store the templates that are used to generate the data having a common format. For the illustrative embodiment, the structured and semi-structured information sources comprise text data that is configured in a variety of different formats. The systems and methods then parse the structured information sources and semi-structured information sources using templates. The templates may be stored in a template library or may be generated for a particular group of text documents.
After parsing the information sources, a plurality of data is generated in which the content is organized, ordered and grouped according to a plurality of pattern descriptors. The data is stored in a common format, which in the illustrative example is an extensible markup language (XML) format. As described in further detail below, the data having a common format can be stored in a storage bin such as an input bin, a wait bin, an incomplete bin, and a complete bin.
The input device 15 receives an instruction from the user through the GUI. The GUI is configured to receive an instruction in which the user selects or defines one or more pattern descriptors. A pattern descriptor is a pattern that is used by the universal parsing agent to parse information sources. A pattern descriptor shares some of the functions of a “tag”. A tag is a command inserted in a document that specifies how the document or portion of the document should be formatted. Tags are used by format specifications such as Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to providing some of the functions of a tag, a pattern descriptor permits a user to define one or more tags and/or patterns using a graphical user interface. As described here, a user accessing the graphical user interface can define the pattern descriptor.
An illustrative user employs the pattern descriptor to generate templates which enable the parsing of data from information sources without having the user program or understand the algorithms used to perform the reformatting of the information sources. By way of example and not of limitation, the illustrative user may be an information analyst. In another illustrative example, the user may be a system integrator or operations analyst.
The processor 12 is programmed to apply the templates to the information sources. A plurality of data having a common format is generated by parsing the information sources with one or more templates. In the illustrative example described in further detail below, the generated data having a common format is stored as a text file. The processor then proceeds to communicate the generated data having a common format to an application configured to receive data having the common format. By way of example and not of limitation, the application is a database application.
In the illustrative client-server system 50, the client 54 has enabled a web browser that downloads a Java applet from server 56. The downloaded Java applet displays the GUI that is described in further detail below. The client 54 is in communication with server 56, which for this illustrative embodiment is a web server configured to use TCP/IP communication protocols. The web server is configured to host a number of programs such as Java servlet, Java applets, configuration files and other such files. In the illustrative client-server system 50, the server 56 is configured to parse information sources and generate data having a common format. The server 56 then proceeds to communicate the data having a common format to a file server (not shown), which stores the data having a common format as a text file. Those skilled in the art shall appreciate that the parsing can be performed in batches or on a real-time basis.
In operation, the general purpose computer 10, client/server network system 50, and peer-to-peer network system (not shown) execute a sequence of machine-readable instructions. These machine readable instructions may reside in various types of signal bearing media. In this respect, one aspect of the present invention concerns a programmed product, comprising signal-bearing media tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital data processor such as the CPU 12 for the general purpose computer 10.
It shall be appreciated by those of ordinary skill that the computer readable medium may comprise, for example, RAM 18 contained within the general purpose computer 10 or within a server 56. Alternatively the computer readable medium may be contained in another signal-bearing media, such as a magnetic data storage diskette that is directly accessible by the general purpose computer 10 or the server 56. Whether contained in the general purpose computer or in the server, the machine readable instruction within the computer readable medium may be stored in a variety of machine readable data storage media, such as a conventional “hard drive” or a RAID array, magnetic tape, electronic read-only memory (ROM), an optical storage device such as CD-ROM, DVD, or other suitable signal bearing media including transmission media such as digital and analog and communication links. In an illustrative embodiment, the machine-readable instructions may comprise software object code from a programming language such as C++, Java, or other such languages.
The data associated with the information sources is then communicated to the universal parsing agent 108. The universal parsing agent enables the user to define patterns within structured information sources, semi-structured information sources and unstructured information sources. The universal parsing agent looks at patterns and symbols rather than semantic meanings. For structured information sources and semi-structured information sources the universal parsing agent uses the inherent structure of each information source to identify parseable components within the information source. Those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure shall appreciate that the processes that are used for parsing structured and semi-structured information sources may be adapted to unstructured information sources.
To process the information sources the universal parsing agent downloads a template from the template library 109. The template may have previously been generated and is selected by the user from a template library, or the template may be generated by the user from one or more documents.
After receiving the information sources and the user selected template, the universal parsing agent 108 parses the text documents and generates the data having a common format 110. The data having a common format 110 is organized, ordered and grouped according to the template. The data is stored in a common format, which in the illustrative example is an extensible markup language (XML) format. The plurality of data is configured in a common format that can be used to automatically populate an application 112 such as a database 114. Those skilled in the art shall appreciate that a plurality of applications and databases may be populated with the data having a common format that was generated from the universal parsing agent.
The user-defined pattern descriptors are then used to generate a user-defined template as shown in block 156. In the illustrative embodiment the information sources comprise text documents. The template matches any pre-defined pattern of ASCII text or symbols with the text documents in the information sources. The template can be generated by having the user select one file, and then having the user select one or more pattern descriptors from within the selected file. Thus, the user is permitted to define one or more pattern descriptors without the assistance or intervention of a programmer. Alternatively, the user can select a template from a template library, and the process of generating a user-defined template shown in block 156 is not necessary.
At block 158, the method applies one or more templates to the information sources and generates a plurality of data in a common format such as XML. In the illustrative embodiment, each template is comprised of an XML schema that is defined by the user with pattern descriptors. Schemas define the characteristics of classes of objects. For example in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) terminology, a text document has a document type and the formal definition that describes each document type is referred to as a document type definition (DTD). Thus, the DTD defines a set of valid tags for a document using standardized semantics and language.
In XML, the schemas define the characteristics of classes of objects. XML schemas permit XML document types to be described using flexible XML tags rather than the standardized SGML tags. Typically, programmers develop the XML schemas and the algorithms for implementing the XML schemas are coded by a programmer. The universal parsing agent permits users with limited programming skills to use a GUI to modify or generate XML schemas, which are also referred to as templates. After applying the templates to the information source, the method proceeds to block 160.
At block 160, the plurality of data having a common format is generated by parsing the information sources with one or more templates. The parsing of the information sources can be performed in any natural language such as Chinese, Japanese, French, and English at one time. The parsing of the information sources may be performed without having to replicate the parsing process. Thus, the parsing process is not repeated for each natural language.
At decision diamond 162, the user decides whether to modify the template that was employed to perform the parsing. If the user decides to modify the template, the method proceeds to block 164 where a new template may be generated or an existing template can be modified. The new or modified template can then be applied to the information sources.
If the user decides not to modify the template, the method proceeds to block 166 where the data is stored in a common format. In the illustrative example, the data having a common farmat may be stored in one of four possible storage bins that comprise an input bin, a wait bin, an incomplete bin and a complete bin. The storage options are described in further detail below. In the illustrative example, the data having a common format is stored as a text file on a file server. The user then has the opportunity to communicate the data havin a common format to an application that is configured to receive data having the common format. For illustrative purposes only, the application may be relational database application or other database application.
At block 260, the user analyzes the selected file and creates a template or modifies a template. In the illustrative embodiment, the new template is created by having the user select an area in the selected file that contains a plurality of pattern descriptors the user desires to add to a template. The user selects the patterns, i.e. pattern descriptors, within the template. In the illustrative embodiment, the pattern descriptors using regular expression operators such as standard PERL pattern operators or alternatively ASCII text. The generation of the template is based on identifying patterns in the illustrative text documents. With respect to text documents, the defining of patterns may be performed using the traditional structure of the document. In an illustrative example, a user defines a header area, a main message area, and a footer area for the document.
At block 262, the user can take newly created templates and assign them to the illustrative Input bin. For the illustrative embodiment, the template is be used to perform batch processing of any of the selected information sources. Additionally, templates that have been found to be unsuccessful may be removed.
At block 264, the data having a common format is generated using the method described above. The generated data having a common format can then be stored in the wait bin, the incomplete bin, or a complete bin. The waiting bin permits the user to view files that matched required items in a template, thereby permitting the user to manually revise the pattern descriptor for a modified template or to designate the file as complete. The incomplete bin lists all files where no direct matches were found with the available templates. For files in the incomplete bin, the user views these files and creates templates to parse these “incomplete” files, and uses new templates to reprocess any failed files. The complete bin lists files that have been successfully parsed and the template that was used to parse it. Additionally, for each storage bin the user has the ability to generate statistical information.
Note,for purposes of this patent, the term “button(s)” include buttons displayed on the GUI, switches, selections made from pull-down menus, and any other user input that is associated with the GUI receiving a user command to perform a task.
Using the GUI, the user can create templates with existing templates or by starting with a blank template. A pattern helper (not shown) is provided to assist the user in defining patterns or expression that will look for specific information contained in a file. While defining patterns, the user applies principles applied in traditionally structured documents. By way of example and not of limitation, the user may define a header area, the message area, and the footer area of a document. Within each of these main areas the user can perform searches for specific information content.
Additionally, users have the ability to make and save draft templates to work on later. They can also create statistical data about the files being processed. This information tells the user how many files have been parsed in the various categories. It shall be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that statistical data can be aggregated to enable the analyst to view trends about user-specified data.
It shall be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the illustrative systems and methods described above have been developed to receive a plurality of information sources that are inconsistently formatted. The universal parsing agent proceeds to apply a user-defined template to generate data configured in a common format that can be used to automatically populate an application such as a database.
Although the description above contains many limitations in the specification, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the description. Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
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|Classification aux États-Unis||707/805, 707/804, 715/234|
|15 déc. 2003||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:GIBSON, ALEXANDER G.;SCHUR, ANNE;BROWN, JAMES C.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:014927/0203
Effective date: 20031204
|25 août 2005||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: ENERGY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Free format text: CONFIRMATORY LICENSE;ASSIGNOR:BATTELLE MEMORIALINSTITUTE, PACIFIC NORTHWEST DIVISION;REEL/FRAME:016668/0413
Effective date: 20040805
|31 mai 2011||CC||Certificate of correction|
|25 août 2014||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4