Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim
174 words
A method for a data management system having a plurality of data managers, comprising the steps of providing said plurality of data managers in one or more layers of a layered architecture, and performing with a data manager and with a user input via an API a plurality of processes on data residing in heterogeneous data repositories of said computer system including promotion, check-in, check-out, locking, library searching, setting and viewing process results, tracking aggregations, and managing parts, releases and problem fix data under management control of a virtual control repository having one or more physical heterogeneous repositories, and storing, accessing, tracking data residing in said one or more data repositories managed by said virtual control repository, and wherein said virtual control repository comprises virtual tables and all virtual control repository access functions are implemented as transactions constructed using a generic SOL-based structure, and command translators are employed to map generic SQL-based virtual control repository transactions into any required command interface needed to interact with the corresponding physical implementation of said virtual control repository.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
174 words
A method for a data management system having a plurality of data managers, comprising the steps of providing said plurality of data managers in one or more layers of a layered architecture, and performing with a data manager and with a user input via an API a plurality of processes on data residing in heterogeneous data repositories of said computer system including promotion, check-in, check-out, locking, library searching, setting and viewing process results, tracking aggregations, and managing parts, releases and problem fix data under management control of a virtual control repository having one or more physical heterogeneous repositories, and storing, accessing, tracking data residing in said one or more data repositories managed by said virtual control repository, and wherein said virtual control repository comprises virtual tables and all virtual control repository access functions are implemented as transactions constructed using a generic SOL-based structure, and command translators are employed to map generic SQL-based virtual control repository transactions into any required command interface needed to interact with the corresponding physical implementation of said virtual control repository.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
49 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein any type of data can be mapped into a package, Filetype, variance and a PFVL Level whereby within a variance there exists one or moire data objects of a given type residing at one or more levels with one or more versions.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method according to claim 2 wherein packages are hierarchical and contain other Packages, and wherein a given package can contain any combination of data objects and/or packages.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of to claim 1 comprising a plurality of data managers are configurable and can be dynamically or statically combined as modules of a scalable system ranging up to a high-end enterprise wide DMS.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
55 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein is provided a User Interface Layer for interaction with said user via said API which enables mapping of a methodology, process, use-model or environment into a generic PFVL paradigm using tools which can be manipulated by said user, including menus, GUIs, Web Browsers, command line interfaces, and scripts.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein is provided with one or more DMS application layers which contains utilities that a user requires to interact with the DMS processes of promotion, check-in, check-out, locking, library searching, setting and viewing process results, tracking aggregations, and managing parts, releases and problem fix data.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
48 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein data is stored in one or more data repositories constructed with one or more tools including simple directory trees, commercially available PDMs (storage engines), and the WWW and each repository may employ a common or unique storage and data access method.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method according to claim 7 wherein each data object is classified by PFVL and unique File Reference regardless of the physical data repository in which the data object resides.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method according to claim 6 wherein said DMS application layers contain applications, each of which is composed of one or more application modules which interact with the data managers in one or more ways of interaction including: non-manager interaction; single manager interaction; multiple manager interaction; and control repository access coupled with manager interaction.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
60 words
The method according to claim 9 wherein said DMS applications and data manager functions can be accessed using a common API based on the PFVL paradigm whereby all functions require a minimum of package, Filetype, variance, and level but may permit additional optional parameters, and any combination of wildcards or placeholder characters may be used on any of the parameters.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
56 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein complex applications are constructed using state tables to invoke pre-defined functions contained in one or more data managers thus permitting applications to be to be executed in an interpretive manner and allowing them to be customized or altered in the field without the need to recompile any object code.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
43 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said virtual control repository's physical repositories include relational databases, object oriented databases, flat files, table formatted files, meta data files and proprietarily formatted files and said Control Repository classifies all data according to the PFVL paradigm.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
43 words
The method according to claim 1 further comprising a scalable client/server interface permitting the DMS to use local services to run in a client-only mode and permitting a combination of local & remote services to run in a fully secure distributed client/server mode.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
61 words
The method according to claim 1 wherein said virtual control repository is accessed by an application via an access layer which segregates transactions used to store, access or modify CR information from the DMS Applications this permitting a library of transactions to be shared among a plurality of DMS Applications and wherein said transactions may reside within one or more Managers.