DE19635351C2 - Format conversion procedure - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method for format conversion of files and not file-related methods between two applications or software packages that are under use different data formats, according to claim 1.

The invention addresses the fundamental problem of the incompatibility of data or Data formats from different applications or software packages. Lots Programs have their own data format for internal processing of the data. This is rarely readable by other programs for further processing. The The user faces the problem of transferring any data from application A to application B to transport, generally the data formats of applications A and B are not known. The data to be transported is mostly data banks, but application data can also occur in the broadest sense, such as Example text files, CAD data, sound formats, calculation programs and others.

To be able to implement the data transfer described above, modern and flexible programs the possibility to read data in the most common formats and in their to process your own format. To exchange between different To enable applications, for example from other operating systems, is at some software packages have an import and export function in ASCII format or another common format provided.

In addition, there are many utilities that convert data from one format Allow A according to format B. These have a fixed conversion algorithm implemented which corresponds to the respective application. The user can now choose between which data formats A and B the program Should perform conversion. These utilities can partially determine the type of file or the type of application A automatically based on simple specific features with the file form, such as the file extension and fixed information structures and Detect version identifiers within the file.  

A special method for data conversion is already known from DE 41 28 940 A1 known. With the help of this method, digital data that has been prepared for printing is combined with a a text and / or graphics software on the screen of a data processing system created document converted into facsimile-specific transmission data. This The procedure replaces the cumbersome, time-consuming and error-prone method, an on Screen of a data processing system on a document created on the data printer connected to the processing system and then print it on paper printed document by an optoelectronic unit of a facsimile device to feel. The scan data of the optoelectronic unit then become facsimile-specific encoded and transmitted.

No. 5,261,080 also describes the structure of an object-oriented, networked data systems, in which objects as a representation of application data in a special Procedures are filed. The aim of this data system is to provide special editing functions To provide application data of various origins and nature in one Embed another type of application and process it or turn it into one summarize several components of different origin existing document and achieve what is known as resource sharing.

Prerequisites for the interchangeability and multiple use of the data objects are in the US patent the so-called object managers with their permanently programmed and on a special data format of a specific application specified functions that before provide interfaces to all to edit a specific object. Will be a new one Object or a new application introduced into the data network, a new one must also Object managers can be installed or modified.

To view the application data of an application in other applications of the In the case of US 5,261,080, being able to use the data network is an exchange device that uses the data selected by the user of an application transferred to another application. The data exchange device is supported by a so-called matchmaker, which is essentially a data conversion device contains. The data processing system also has a data format display device for every application or every object manager and a data format adjustment device for selecting a suitable common data format. Because of the the matchmaker can supply the corresponding information to these devices Select and carry out a preprogrammed conversion that achieves the best possible conversion Attention achieved when copying.

Furthermore, from US 5,497,491 a system and a method for importing and  Exporting data between different computer environments known as one Data verification, conversion and change control mechanisms for Objects in so-called metadata. To export data, the internal Name from a data list and the corresponding metadata object identified. The Conversion parameters in the metadata object are based on the data of the output object is applied and the data is thereby converted into external data. The Conversion and verification rules and methods are already in the object-oriented computing environment implemented and do not need for any external Environment can be regenerated. In this way, interfaces for new external Environments can be added and modified with minimal programming effort.

Both the conversion programs integrated in the applications and the Independent data conversion utilities both have the disadvantage that only a limited selection of data formats is provided that are compatible with the fixed Algorithms of the program can be converted. These conversions are taken into account do not usually view the element contents and their links, such as e.g. character content and character length, linguistic aspects, rules of existence, Element transformations, language space, element pattern and element interpretation. Moreover most data formats are not very well standardized, and bring many applications their own data structures. The data elements are optimized for the source application and can cause processing errors in the target application, which is expensive must be corrected by the user by hand or even further processing of the Make data impossible.

It is an object of the invention to provide the user with a method for data conversion To provide a flexible alignment of data formats from different Allows application programs with relatively simple means, the method no preprogrammed conversion algorithms to be selected by the user Should be available, but the process automatically or semi-automatically Determine format conversion between basically any application and by should lead.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a method with the features of Claim 1 solved.

Further developments and refinements of the invention are in the sub claims described.

The conversion method according to the invention is able to transfer data from one  any format A in data of any format B semi and fully automatic to transfer, with in principle no restriction regarding the possible Data formats occur. Since the data formats A and B of the invention Conversion software beyond the rough structure of the data, both half and are analyzed automatically in their fine structure is the possible error rate at Data transfer from application A to. Application B significantly less than the usual Aid programs. In addition, data changes and data adjustments are diverse Levels, for example in the file, set, element level and others, provided to the Reduce error rate in target application.

The structure of the method for format conversion according to the invention is shown in Drawing shown and explained below. In it show:

1 shows the information flow diagram of the method for data transfer;

Fig. 2 is a diagram for analyzing the structure of the process with detailed structural assembly;

Fig. 3 shows the course of the synthesis of the method for the formation of the data B from the data A; and

FIG. 4 shows the information flow diagram according to FIG. 1 in a more detailed representation.

Fig. 1 shows in the form of an information flow diagram the procedure of a data transfer by the method of the invention or the conversion software 1 of the invention. A user would like to transport any source data Q 2, which are generated and exported by the application A 3, to the application B 4 in order to process them there. Each of the applications A 3 and B 4 can import and export their data in a format that they can understand; this is implemented in applications 3 and 4 to exchange data between applications of the same kind on different workplaces.

The user can now generate a sample export of, for example, approximately 500 data records from the data stock of application A 3 and that of application B 4 (method step a). This results in the template file or template file VA 5 from application A 3 and the template file or template file VB 6 from application B 4 (method step b). A prerequisite for the functioning of the data conversion method is that the application B 4 can import its own template file VB 6 , which it has generated and exported, but this should of course work. Now the template files VA 5 and VB 6 can be analyzed using the conversion software 1 ( 7 ).

Basically it would also be a data exchange from application A 3 to application B 4  directly possible without going through the file (for example OLE, DDE and others) go. So here the detour via the files is saved, while the analysis and Linking processes naturally remain effective.

Since the user generally knows nothing about the structure of the data structures and the data structures of the applications A 3 and B 4 and does not want to know anything about them, complex algorithms are required for the analysis in order to relieve the user of decisions and the analysis as much as possible - Automate and link process 8 or at least partially automate. The implemented algorithms can be easily expanded to be able to analyze new, future data structures. The scope of the analysis 8 of the structures is explained in more detail below with reference to FIG. 2. After the analysis and linking process 8 , the conversion software 1 knows the data structure of the template files VA 5 and VB 6 and also the necessary links between the elements of the template files VA 5 and VB 6 . This conversion pattern for the transfer of the data from application A 3 to application B 4 is stored as a sample sequence file M.

If the user wants to carry out further data transfers between the same applications A 3 and B 4 as explained above at a later point in time, it is possible for the template files VA 5 and VB 6 to be generated in the next conversion process by means of the above-mentioned stored pattern sequence data M 9 superfluous and the conversion software 1 can directly access the saved pattern sequence data M 9 during data transfer without analysis process 8 and can read in the pattern sequence data M 9 again 10.

As shown in particular in FIG. 4 in addition to FIG. 1, the analysis phase of both the template file VA 5 and the template file VB 6 is subdivided into a rough analysis, a subsequent fine analysis, a further subsequent sub-analysis and so on, and finally in the result to arrive at the final analysis (process step c). The linking phase then follows the analysis phase, in which the analyzes of the template files are linked (method step d).

In the synthesis phase 11 , a conversion of the source data Q 2 into the target data Z 12 is achieved with the aid of the determined analysis and linking result (method step e). Finally, application B 4 can import the target data Z 12, since it is in the data format that can be imported and exported by application B ( 4 ), and can further process it.

In this method according to the invention for data conversion, it is also possible for the user to make data changes by using special rules defined by the user in the synthesis 11 of the source data Q 2 into the target data Z 12. As examples, and by no means fully enumerated, here are only the replacement of ä, ö, ü by ae, oe ue and the transformation of the elements [Dear] and [Mr. xyz] into the elements [Dear Mr.] and [xyz] called. Of course, very complex data changes are also possible, which can best be compared with the term "morphing" from image processing, which describes the change from pattern A to pattern B without loss of information.

As shown in FIG. 1, the source file 28 of the application A 3 to be exported is placed in the source analysis 29 . After analysis for automatic rule formation and links in block 8 , the target analysis 11 is created. The converted data is then placed in the importable target file 30 . In the process of exporting the source file 28 into the target file 11 using the pattern flow data M, a source or target analysis is no longer required. In this case, the rule formation and the links were already created with the template files VA 5 and VB 6 . During the synthesis, the source file Q 2 is read and processed with the data filter from the sample sequence data M. The generated data records are written to the target file. The data filter can use external files for comparison as well as internal files for searching and sorting.

In FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram showing the structure of structure of a general data transfer file in detailed form. Analysis 8 of template files VA 5 and VB 6 is divided into several phases. On the basis of the first recognition of the rough structure 13 , the file form is first pre-classified, as in the case of conversion programs known hitherto. The intelligent conversion software now additionally provides a set of algorithms which is able to automatically recognize the fine structure 14 of the data present. The analysis 8 is continued in order to also recognize the substructures 15 within the data elements 17 .

As can also be clearly seen from FIG. 3, the rough structure 13 serves to recognize the file structure, the separators, the element identifiers, the character length, etc. in the file space and in the sentence space 16 . In the rough structure 13 , files are distinguished according to their file form. The differences can be seen, for example, from file extensions or information structures within the entire file.

The fine structure 14 serves to recognize element existence, element character contents, element character length, etc., such as element space 19 and drawing space 20 . The fine structure 14 relates to the sentence level, which contains the structure of a single data record in the so-called sentence space 16 from the elements 17 , as well as the links between the sentence elements 17 , the so-called sentence control space 18 . When determining the characteristics for the data record structure and the data record structure, field names in a data record 16 are analyzed, the use of special separating symbols for elements 17 and data records 16 , the use of start and stop symbols for the structuring within the elements 17 and the number of elements 17 per Record 16 determined.

The substructure 15 is used to recognize words and sub-elements with sub-separators in the individual elements, such as element space 19 , drawing space, word space. The substructure is thus subdivided into the element level, element space 19 , and the drawing level, the drawing space with number space 20 . In element level 19 , the existential characteristics for an element 17 are defined.

For example, the following exist as characteristics: minimum and maximum data element character length, data element existence requirements (must, can, may), permissible and occurring characters in a data element 17 , language space used, limited list structures within data elements 17 , word analyzes, etc. The character level 20 specifies the possible selection spaces for numbers, letters, special characters, OEM characters and others.

For example, the "Working Time" element can be a

1st movement: "Meier / Müller / Graf / Kemper", one
2nd movement: "8h / 7h / 9h / 8h", and one
3rd movement: "5h / 9h / 11h / 7h"

contain.

As a result, there are apparently substructures in the element "Working Time" which are characterized by the Characters "/" are separated. Such and similar substructures are recognized and in the Analysis such as additional elements with identifiers, namely Meier, Müller, Graf, Kemper, and related content.

As mentioned above, the "Salutation" element contains several words:

1st sentence: "Dear Sir",
2nd movement: "Dear Mrs.",
3rd sentence: "Hello, Lord" and
4th sentence: "Dear Mr. Dipl.-Ing".

These substructures are adopted as words in word lists and, if necessary individually further analyzed according to additional patterns and rules.

Another example serves to illustrate this. The "Street" element contains the patterns

1st movement: "Hofweg 13",
2nd movement: "At the long Kant 77", and
3rd movement: "Bremer Strasse 19".

These substructures 15 are analyzed as words and examined for patterns. For example, street names and house numbers can be split.

It is of great importance that the substructures 15 relate to objects in one level under the sentence elements. Here the element contents are searched for further patterns.

In the case of the pattern structure, the pattern and linkage analyzes are carried out with the aforementioned analysis results (sentence space 16 , sentence rule space, element space 19 , word space). Overarching patterns and rules are determined using fixed algorithms and neural as well as fuzzy algorithms.

In order for the pattern recognition in the linguistic analysis 8 of fine structure 14 and substructure 15 to run as automatically as possible, the algorithms require the use of modern techniques, such as neural networks and fuzzy logic, in addition to fixed algorithms. If one omits such approaches, the user may have to make individual links manually.

Fig. 3 shows, in diagram form, then the synthesis history 11 for the formation of the data elements 21 to the application B 4 3 from the data elements 22 of the application A from the analysis described above, 8 of the template files VA 5 and VB 6 results in a data filter 23, which contains the previously determined linking rules 24 between the data elements 21 and 22 . If data records 25 are sent from application A 3 through this data filter 23 , new data records 26 with new data elements 21 are obtained which are in a data format that can be imported and exported by application B 4. The number of data elements 22 of data records 25 from application A 3 is not necessarily the same as the number of data elements 21 of data records 26 for application B 4, the number of data records 25 and 26 is generally the same for both applications A 3 and B 4 .

In addition to the data filter 23 for the data transfer from application A 3 to application B 4, which results from the analysis 8 of the template files VA 5 and VB 6 , a comparison of the data elements 21 and 22 with an external database or several external databases 27 is also possible, for example the mixture of several databases, such as customer file + invoice file. Such an external comparison can be used, for example, to check the postcodes of the data records 25 and 26 by comparing the data elements 21 and 22 of the country, city, street and postcode with those of the external database 27 .

In addition, the creation of one or more internal intermediate databases for searching and sorting on file level possible. This is necessary for a quick search and To enable sorting, for example according to the alphabet or special characteristics.

If the element, substructure and file descriptions obtained from the analysis and possibly also external data sources, for example of databases, by a implementable procedural script or programming language logically linked to calculated and generally changed, this creates the opportunity a simple process control for the conversion using such a script language to provide. In such a language, procedures, functions and loops are supposed to controls for logical linking, calculation and modification of determined Analysis data are available, and there should also be a link to external Databases may be possible.

It has been shown that a script language can quickly become complex if by Element widths to record widths, file widths and finally up to file widths of the Functions from external databases is expanded. Here the advantage of the in the features described in claims 12 and 13.

The script language or programming language is explained in more detail below using examples. The data mentioned are examples and any correspondences with living people are purely coincidental.

With a link "Element-wide", for example with a change of element data, and a Filter_PLZ (Pos) = Ort (Pos) with the sub-element (2 von Ort (Pos)), the following results for the individual Pos. 1, 2 and 3:

Location (Pos) after Filter_PLZ: Hagen Cologne Huerth

When linking "set-wide" functions with the creation of new intermediate elements and the exemplary data:

Total sales (item) = total (sales1 (item) ... sales3 (item))
Max. Order value (item) = Max (sales1 (item) ... sales3 (item))
Order tendency (item) = 1 if (sales1 (item) <sales3 (item))
-1 if (sales1 (item) <sales3 (item)) 0, otherwise

logically, the following results for the individual positions:

Pos 1: total sales 350; Max. Order value 150; Tendency 0
Pos 2: total sales 50; Max. Order value 50; Trend 1
Pos 3: total sales 300; Max. Order value 100; Tendency 0.

These examples can be continued with appropriate application of what is disclosed above for example for sales. Here it could be assumed that the Sales for all items are from 0 to 20 or from 20 to 40 or from 30 to 40, etc.

Finally, the functions "File-wide" for external databases are exemplary for the question "Existiert_PLZ (Pos) = if (Suche_Ort (Subelement (2 von Ort (Pos)) und Subelement (1 von Ort (Pos)) und Existiert_In_Ort), then Existiert_PLZ = TRUE; otherwise FALSE "as follows:

Pos. 1 Existiert_PLZ (Pos) = FALSCH
Pos. 2 Existiert_PLZ (Pos) = FALSCH
Pos. 3 Existiert_PLZ (Pos) = TRUE.

With all intermediate elements you can continue to calculate as with the original Element data. It should be emphasized that with the features in claim 12 all Types of linkage are under patent protection, namely "element-wide", "Record-wide", "File-wide" and "File-wide" with external databases.  

Reference list

1

Conversion software or process

2nd

Source data Q

3rd

Application A

4th

Application B

5

Template file VA

6

Template file VB

7

Receipt of analysis templates

8th

Analysis, analysis process

9

Sample expiry dates M

10th

Save the pattern run data

11

Synthesis, synthesis phase

12th

Target data Z

13

Rough structure

14

Fine structure

15

Substructure

16

record

17th

(Data) element

18th

Sentence control area

19th

Element level

20th

Drawing level

21

Data elements

22

Data elements

23

Data filter

24th

Links, link rules

25th

Records

26

Records

27

external database

28

Source file

29

Source analysis

30th

Target file

Claims (13)

1. Method for converting the format of files and non-file-related methods between two applications or software packages, with the method steps:

• a) generating a sample export of data records of a relatively small amount from the data stock of the first application A ( 3 ) and a sample export of data records of a relatively small amount from the data stock of the second application B ( 4 );
• b) forming a template file VA ( 5 ) from application A ( 3 ) and a template file VB ( 6 ) from application B ( 4 ), application B ( 4 ) being able to reimport the template file VB ( 6 ) it has formed;
• c) first analyzing the template files VA ( 5 ) and VB ( 6 ) to determine their data structures and patterns;
• d) then analyzing the first analysis result (c) to determine links between the data structures and patterns of the two template files VA ( 5 ) and VB ( 6 ); and
• e) converting a source file Q ( 2 ) from application A ( 3 ) using the second analysis result (d) into a target file Z ( 12 ) which can be imported by application B ( 4 ).

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the second analysis result (d) is stored as a conversion pattern for the transmission of the data of the first application A ( 3 ) to the second application B ( 4 ) in the form of pattern sequence data M ( 9 ). 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the source file Q ( 2 ) after passing through the first and second analysis (c, d) is given in a target synthesis ( 11 ), from which it is converted into the target file Z ( 12 ) . 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the first analysis (c) of the template files VA ( 5 ) and VB ( 6 ) is divided into several, in particular three phases, after recognizing the rough structure ( 13 ) the file form is first pre-classified, then a set of algorithms for automatically recognizing the fine structure ( 14 ) is made available by the conversion software and finally, in continuation of the analysis, the substructures ( 15 ) are recognized within data elements ( 17 ). 5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that in the rough structure ( 13 ) the files are differentiated according to their file form. 6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the fine structure ( 14 ) relates to the sentence level, which includes the construction of a sentence ( 16 ) from elements ( 17 ) and the links of the sentence elements ( 17 ) with each other. 7. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the substructure ( 15 ) is subdivided into the element level ( 19 ) and in the drawing level ( 20 ) with drawing space and number space, wherein in the element level ( 19 ) the existential characteristics for an element ( 17th ) be determined. 8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized, that in the algorithms for pattern recognition the linguistic and logical Analysis (c, d) the technologies of neural networks and / or fuzzy logic be set. 9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a data filter ( 23 ) is formed from the analysis result (c, d) of the template files VA ( 5 ) and VB ( 6 ), the elements of the linking rules ( 24 ) between the data ( 21 , 22 ) at the file level or together with one or more external data sources (comparison), whereby after passing through data records ( 25 ) from application A ( 3 ) through the data filter ( 23 ) new data records ( 26 ) with new data elements ( 21 ) are obtained which are in a data format that can be imported and exported by application B ( 4 ). 10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data elements ( 21 , 22 ) with an external database ( 27 ) can be compared. 11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized, that one or more internal intermediate databases for searching and sorting Data records is or will be set up. 12. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized, that the element, substructure and file descriptions obtained from the analysis as well as external data sources through a procedural script or programming language logically linked, converted and generally changeable. 13. The method according to claim 12, characterized, that the script or programming language general functions, procedures and Has loop controls for processing the user data.