Universal drill-down system for coordinated presentation of items in different databases

摘要

A system for capturing the context of, and translating, or mapping, from data in an originating database presentation, or in an originating format, to data in a target database presentation, or target format. The translation uses the context of the originating report/query in terms of the originating database as a basis for the translation. The originating context is translated to the target context and is used to accurately map data from one presentation to another. By using a context and a translation map, which define specifics of the translation between contexts against different data sources, the invention is able to achieve a mapping engine that can efficiently map data between databases of different types. The translation map includes rules set automatically by the system, or set by a human administrator. The rules permit special treatment of different mapping scenarios. For example, specified types of mappings can be prevented so that selected users will be denied the ability to access restricted target information. Member exceptions are used that permit mapping between different data models, as, for example, where rows or columns in an originating data source (e.g. OLAP) are not present in a target data source (e.g. Relational). Other aspects of the invention include using supplemental member translations, translating items in an OLAP level to more than one translation object, delegating data items in cases where there is little or no correspondence between data models, translating a data item to a plurality of data items, translating a data item to a range, and additional aspects. An administrator interface is provided to create, modify, monitor and manage a mapping system.