SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ACCESS TO XML DATA

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed to efficiently arbitrate access contention on a XML data between a plurality of users. A system for controlling access to XML data, includes a management section for managing holders of exclusive access rights of corresponding partial data for each of at least one partial data included in the XML data. A delegation section changes the holder of a second exclusive access right on second partial data, which is a part of first partial data, from a first holder to a second holder in order to delegate a part of a first exclusive access right held by the first holder on the first partial data. An access control section inhibits access to the second partial data from the first holder and permits access to the second partial data from the second holder on condition that the first exclusive access right is delegated.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of an architecture of an information processing system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an XML document stored in an XML document DB;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the logical structure of the XML document of FIG. 2 stored in the XML document DB;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data structure suitable for an exclusive access right DB in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of an access controller in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right and includes a DB access control in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating details of step S600 of one embodiment of the method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating details of step S610 of one embodiment of the method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating details of step S620 of one embodiment of the method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right of FIG. 6;

FIG. 10 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating details of step S630 of one embodiment of the method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right of FIG. 6;

FIG. 11 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right that includes delegating an exclusive access right to a plurality of users sequentially in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating alternative details of step S620 of one embodiment of the method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right of FIG. 6;

FIG. 13 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right in which the return of one exclusive access right delegated from the other exclusive access right is preceded by the return of the other exclusive access right in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right in which one exclusive access right is delegated to a plurality of users sequentially in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of system for acquiring and releasing an exclusive access right to portions of an XML document including one suitable a hardware configuration of an information processor 500 operating as the access controller in accordance with the present invention.

Claims

1. A system for controlling access to extensible markup language (XML) data,: comprising: a management section configured to manage holders of exclusive access rights of corresponding partial data for each of at least one partial data included in the XML data;a delegation section configured to change the holder of a second exclusive access right on a second partial data, which is a part of a first partial data, from a first holder to a second holder in order to delegate a part of a first exclusive access right held by the first holder on the first partial data; andan access control section configured to inhibit access to the second partial data from the first holder and permit access to the second partial data from the second holder on condition that the first exclusive access right is delegated.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising: a return section configured to change the holder of the second exclusive access right from the second holder to the first holder in order to return the second exclusive access right to the first holder; anda release control section configured to permit a release of the first exclusive access right on condition that the second exclusive access right is returned.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein: the delegation section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the first holder to the second holder on condition that the first holder permits the delegation; andwherein the return section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the second holder to the first holder and reflects a change of the second partial data in the first partial data on condition that the first holder permits the return, the change caused by the second holder.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the return section maintains the second exclusive access right held by the second holder without reflecting the change of the second partial data caused by the second holder in the first partial data in response to the first holder rejecting the return.

5. A system according to claim 3, wherein: the delegation section changes the holder of a third exclusive access right on a third partial data nested within the second partial data from the second holder to a third holder in order to delegate a part of the second exclusive access right on condition that the second holder permits the delegation;wherein the access control section inhibits access to the third partial data from the second holder and permits access to the third partial data from the third holder on condition that the second exclusive access right is delegated; andwherein the return section changes the holder of the third exclusive access right from the third holder to the second holder and reflects a change of the third partial data caused by the third holder in the second partial data on condition that the second holder permits the return.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the return section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the second holder to the first holder on condition that the third exclusive access right is returned and that the first holder permits the return of the second exclusive access right.

7. A system according to claim 5, wherein: the access control section permits access from the first holder to data in the first partial data and data in the second partial data for which the second exclusive access right is returned and inhibits access from the first holder to the third partial data on condition that the return of the third exclusive access right is preceded by the return of the second exclusive access right; andwherein the return section returns the third exclusive access right to the first holder on condition that the first holder permits the return so long as the return of the third exclusive access right is preceded by the return of the second exclusive access right.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein: the delegation section further delegates a part of the first exclusive access right such that a part of the first exclusive access right is delegated to the third holder so that the third holder holds the third exclusive access right, the delegation section generates a second exclusive access right having a limitation of the third exclusive access right, and allows the second holder to acquire the limited second exclusive access right; andwherein the return section returns the third exclusive access right to the second holder and allows the second holder to acquire the second exclusive access right with out the limitation of the third exclusive access right on condition of permission of the second holder for return of the third exclusive access right.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein: the XML data has a tree structure that includes nodes defined as a plurality of data and edges representing hierarchical relations determined between the plurality of data;the first partial data is a first subtree in the tree structure and the second partial data is a second subtree nested in the first subtree;the delegation section selects the second subtree out of the plurality of subtrees included in the first partial tree and changes the holder of the second exclusive access right on the second subtree from the first holder to the second holder; andthe access controller inhibits access from the first holder and permits access from the second holder on the data included in the second subtree even though the data in the second subtree is within the first subtree.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein: the management section manages holders of the exclusive access rights on the subtree with the holders associated with identification information on a root node of at least one subtree;the delegation section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the first holder to the second holder by allowing the management section to manage the identification information on a root node of the second subtree with the identification information associated with the second holder; andthe access control section traces back and scans the tree structure based on a data access request for a node associated with the data access request matching a subtree root node managed by the management section and permits access from the holder corresponding to the first detected subtree root node.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein: the XML data is an XML document described in an Extensible Markup Language (XML);the first subtree is data described between a first start-tag and a first end-tag corresponding to the first start-tag;the second subtree is data described between a second start-tag and a second end-tag, which are described between the first start-tag and the first end-tag; andthe management section associates the holders with path information from a root node of the XML document to a root node of each subtree and manages the holders of the exclusive access rights of data described between a start-tag and an end-tag specified by the path information.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer usable program code programmed for controlling access to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data, the operations of the computer program product comprising: a management section for managing holders of exclusive access rights of corresponding partial data for each of at least one partial data included in the database;a delegation section for changing the holder of a second exclusive access right on second partial data, which is a part of first partial data, from a first holder to a second holder in order to delegate a part of a first exclusive access right held by the first holder on the first partial data; andan access control section for inhibiting access to the second partial data from the first holder and permitting access to it from the second holder on condition that the first exclusive access right is delegated.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the first partial data is on a first hierarchical level of the XML data and the second partial data is on a second hierarchical level of the XML, the second partial data nested within the first partial data.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein: the return section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the second holder to the first holder in order to return the second exclusive access right to the first holder; andthe release control section permits a release of the first exclusive access right on condition that the second exclusive access right is returned.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein: the delegation section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the first holder to the second holder on condition that the first holder permits the delegation; andwherein the return section changes the holder of the second exclusive access fight from the second holder to the first holder and reflects a change of the second partial data in the first partial data on condition that the first holder permits the return, the change caused by the second holder.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the return section maintains the second exclusive access right held by the second holder without reflecting the change of the second partial data caused by the second holder in the first partial data in response to the first holder rejecting the return.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein: the delegation section changes the holder of a third exclusive access right on a third partial data nested within the second partial data from the second holder to a third holder in order to delegate a part of the second exclusive access right on condition that the second holder permits the delegation;wherein the access control section inhibits access to the third partial data from the second holder and permits access to the third partial data from the third holder on condition that the second exclusive access right is delegated; andwherein the return section changes the holder of the third exclusive access right from the third holder to the second holder and reflects a change of the third partial data caused by the third holder in the second partial data on condition that the second holder permits the return.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the third partial data is on a third hierarchical level of the XML data, the third partial data comprising descendents of the second hierarchical level and the second partial data comprising descendents of the first hierarchical level.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the return section changes the holder of the second exclusive access right from the second holder to the first holder on condition that the third exclusive access right is returned and that the first holder permits the return of the second exclusive access right.

20. A computer implemented method for controlling access to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data by an information processor, comprising: managing holders of exclusive access rights of corresponding partial data for each of at least one partial data included in the database;changing the holder of a second exclusive access right on second partial data, which is a part of first partial data, from a first holder to a second holder in order to delegate a part of a first exclusive access right held by the first holder on the first partial data; andinhibiting access to the second partial data from the first holder and permitting access to it from the second holder on condition that the first exclusive access right is delegated.