Computer-readable data product for managing sales information

Abstract

A computer system and method are used for managing product knowledge related to products offered for sale by a selling entity. The computer system includes a memory arrangement. At least one processing unit is coupled to the memory arrangement. A data model is defined that describes relationships between data categories. A data instance is input that corresponds to one or more of the data categories. The data instance represents at least part of the product knowledge. The computer system can also create a user-defined relationship item for the data instance and present the product knowledge to a user of the system in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship. The product knowledge that is presented includes information that corresponds to the data instance.

Description

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 08/926,870, filed Sep. 10, 1997, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,658, which establishinginstancesright-checkingadministrationAppendix A contains a listing of various example objects that can be used to implement the present invention. The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention. For example, the particular user interfaces described above and depicted in the figures are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the present invention without strictly following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a set of computer instructions implementing a method for managing product knowledge comprising a plurality of data items related to products offered for sale by a selling entity, the computing system including a memory arrangement and at least one processing unit, the method comprising:

defining a data model of data categories, the data model establishing relationships between data categories;

receiving in the computer system one or more particular data items corresponding to one or more of the data categories;

receiving user-defined relationship information for the particular data item, the relationship information relating the particular data item to one or more other data items; and

presenting the product knowledge, including information about the particular data item, to a user of the system in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship;

wherein the data model is constructed from one or more data instance items interconnected using the user-defined relationship items for each data instance item.

2. A computer program product, according to claim 1 24, further comprising providing one or more data instances to at least one of the memory arrangement and the at least one processing unit.

3. A computer program product, according to claim 1, further comprising selectively presenting at least a portion of the product knowledge to a plurality of users of the system, each of the plurality of users receiving a respective portion of the product knowledge in a format selected as a function of the respective portion of the product knowledge.

4. A computer program product, according to claim 1, further comprising creating data objects representing the data categories.

5. A computer program product, according to claim 4, wherein the data objects contain rule objects that describe the relationships between the data categories.

6. A computer program product, according to claim 5 24, further comprising:

creating data objects representing the data categories, wherein the data objects contain rule objects that describe the relationships between the data categories; and

defining pointers for use in describing the relationships between the data categories, the pointers linking the data objects.

7. A computer program product, according to claim 1, further comprising selecting a portion of the product knowledge for presentation to the user.

8. A computer program product, according to claim 7, further comprising selecting the portion of the product knowledge in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship.

9. A computer program product, according to claim 8 24, further comprising:

selecting the portion of the product knowledge in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship;

wherein the data instance contains attribute objects for use in selecting the portion of the product knowledge for presentation to the user.

10. A computer program product, according to claim 9, further comprising allowing the user to select one or more of the attribute objects.

11. A computer program product, according to claim 1, further comprising presenting differentiated portions of the product knowledge to each of a plurality of users of the system in manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship.

12. A computer program product, according to claim 1, further comprising using a graphic user interface configured and arranged to facilitate creating the user-defined relationship item.

13. A computer program product, according to claim 12 24, further comprising:

using a graphic user interface configured and arranged to facilitate creating the user-defined relationship item;

wherein the graphic user interface comprises at least one of a wizard, a shortcut, a builder, and a user-defined form.

14. A computer program product, according to claim 1 24, further comprising defining an association between a descriptor and an associated value.

15. A computer program product, according to claim 1 24, further comprising selectively granting differentiated access rights to respective data instances corresponding to one or more of the data categories.

16. A computer program product, according to claim 1 24, wherein the computer data product comprises a set of computer instructions encoded and stored onto a computer-readable storage medium.

17. A computer program product, according to claim 1 24, wherein the computer data product comprises a set of computer instructions encoded within a carrier wave for transmission between two computing systems.

18. A non-transitory computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a set of computer instructions implementing a method for managing product knowledge comprising a plurality of data items related to products offered for sale by a selling entity, the computing system including a memory arrangement and at least one processing unit, the method comprising:

defining a data model of data categories, the data model establishing category relationships between data categories;

receiving in the computer system one or more particular data items corresponding to one or more of the data categories;

receiving user-defined item relationship information for a received particular data item, the user-defined item relationship information relating the received particular data item to one or more other received particular data items; and

presenting the product knowledge, including the user-defined item relationship information about the received particular data item, to a user of the computing system in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined item relationship information;

wherein the data model is constructed from one or more data instance items interconnected using the user-defined item relationship information for each data instance item, and

displaying a graphical user interface having an edit menu bar;

wherein the edit menu bar includes:

a) a File active screen region;

b) a Commands active screen region configured to:

display, upon selection of the data model, a hierarchy of instances of data objects in the data model using a cascading popup menu; and

remove, upon receiving a removal command from the user with sufficient access rights, locks left in a database by abnormal exiting;

c) a Shortcuts active screen region;

d) a Reports active screen region configured to:

first generate, upon selection of a first format, a first format report listing: names of each data object in the database, a parent object corresponding to each object in the database, and a number of attributes of each object in the database;

second generate, upon selection of a second format, a second format for report listing: reported lists of all attributes of each object in the database, and properties of each object in the database; and

third generate, upon selection of a third format, a third format report listing contents of every instance of every object in the database;

e) a Language active screen region configured to allow the user to select a language for interfacing with the database.

19. A non-transitory computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a set of computer instructions implementing a method for managing product knowledge comprising a plurality of data items related to products offered for sale by a selling entity, the computing system including a memory arrangement and at least one processing unit, the method comprising:

defining a data model of data categories, the data model establishing category relationships between data categories;

receiving in the computer system one or more particular data items corresponding to one or more of the data categories;

receiving user-defined item relationship information for a received particular data item, the user-defined item relationship information relating the received particular data item to one or more other received particular data items; and

presenting the product knowledge, including the user-defined item relationship information about the received particular data item, to a user of the computing system in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined item relationship information;

wherein the data model is constructed from one or more data instance items interconnected using the user-defined item relationship information for each data instance item, and

displaying a children graphical user interface including the following features:

a) a selector for selecting a structure for viewing children of a selected object;

b) a tree-like structure display including:

a collapse button for the selected object,

a name of the selected object, and

an expansion button for each of the children listed under the name of the selected object;

c) a navigational grid, activated by highlighting an object in the tree-like structure display to select the highlighted object for in-depth viewing, the navigational grid being populated with children objects or instances of the selected object, wherein the navigational grid includes:

an indicator column for the children of the selected object;

a description type column for descriptions of the children of the selected object; and

an instance type item column; and

d) a secondary function popup menu configured to provide access to:

a deleting objects operation;

a sorting objects operation; and

a filtering objects operation.

20. A computer program product, according to claim 19, wherein the secondary function popup menu is further configured to invoke a dialog box, the dialog box including:

a text entry field for entering the name of a new instance;

an instance type list box for selecting a type of the new instance; and

an actuate button to add the new instance and exit the dialog box.

21. A computer program product, according to claim 19, wherein the secondary function popup menu is further configured to invoke a dialog box for attaching an existing instance to a selected instance, the dialog box including:

an instance type list box; and

an available instances list box having:

a select object to attach to a selected instance button;

a name column; and

a description column.

22. A computer program product, according to claim 19, wherein the secondary function popup menu is further configured to invoke a dialog box for duplicating instances, the dialog box including:

a expansion button associated with an illustrated object;

a collapse button associated with the illustrated object;

duplication icons for duplicating the selected object, the duplication icons including:

a copy all attributes icon configured to duplicate the selected object including all attributes of the selected object, and excluding all links of the selected object;

a copy all links icon configured to duplicate the selected object including all links of the selected object, and excluding all attributes of the selected object;

a copy all links and attributes icon configured to duplicate the selected object including all links of the selected object, and including all attributes of the selected object; and

an instance only icon configured to duplicate only the selected object, excluding all links of the selected object, and excluding all attributes of the selected object; and

an identical instance icon configured to create an instance that is identical to the selected object.

23. A computer program product, according to claim 19, wherein the secondary junction popup menu is further configured to invoke a dialog box for attaching an instance to a predefined group, the dialog box comprising:

an instance type box configured to select a type of the instance to be attached;

an available group list box configured to, upon selection of the type of instance to be attached, list available groups to which the type of instance may be attached, the available group list box including:

a name column;

a description column;

an instance column; and

a check box column configured to select a group to which the selected type of instance is to be attached; and

an actuation button configured to attach the selected type of instance to the selected group.

24. A non-transitory computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a set of computer instructions implementing a method for managing product knowledge comprising a plurality of data items related to products offered for sale by a selling entity, the computing system including a memory arrangement and at least one processing unit, the method comprising:

defining a data model for a plurality of data categories, the data model establishing relationships between the data categories;

receiving in the computer system a plurality of particular data items corresponding to the plurality of data categories;

receiving user-defined relationship information for the plurality of particular data items, the relationship information relating each of the plurality of particular data items to another of the plurality of particular data items;

presenting the product knowledge, including information about the particular data items, to a user of the system in a manner established by the data model and the user-defined relationship information, said presenting being in a selected graphical user interface view defining a hierarchy of the data items from a designated starting point within the hierarchy;

wherein the data model is constructed from a plurality of data instance items interconnected using the user-defined relationship information for each data instance item, each data instance item being an input that corresponds to one or more of the data categories and representing at least part of the product knowledge.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the user-defined relationship information is represented in the data model as pointers between the data instance items.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein presenting the product knowledge includes using the relationship information to construct a graphic user interface for presenting the product knowledge to the user.

27. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein presenting the product knowledge includes using the relationship information and business rules to construct a graphic user interface for presenting the product knowledge to the user.

28. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the relationship information is used to govern navigation of the product information as displayed in a graphic user interface.