Processing Consistency Validations of Conditional Foreign-Key Relations

20210349879

16/868993

May 07, 2020

Configuration data is received characterizing configuration information of at least one application process executing on a target system. The configuration data includes a first table, a second table, and a third table. The first table includes a first conditional dependency on the second table and a second conditional dependency on the third table. The receiving is performed prior to transmission of the configuration data to the target system for application of the configuration data to the target system. At least one validation definition including a header and table elements specifying the first conditional dependency and the second conditional dependency is determined using the configuration data. Whether to validate the configuration data to ensure consistency within the target system is determined using the at least one validation definition. The determination of whether to validate the configuration data is provided. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.

1. A method comprising: receiving configuration data characterizing configuration information of at least one application process executing on a target system, the configuration data including a first table, a second table, and a third table, the first table including a first conditional dependency on the second table and a second conditional dependency on the third table, the receiving performed prior to transmission of the configuration data to the target system for application of the configuration data to the target system; determining, using the configuration data, at least one validation definition including a header and table elements specifying the first conditional dependency and the second conditional dependency; determining, using the at least one validation definition, whether to validate the configuration data to ensure consistency within the target system; and providing the determination of whether to validate the configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to validate includes determining to validate the configuration data in response to determining that the first table depends on the second table or the third table, and determining that the second table or the third table has been modified.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first conditional dependency is a first conditional foreign-key relationship and the second conditional dependency is a second conditional foreign-key relationship.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the validation definition includes condition values, check tables, and check table fields.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the validation definition further characterizes logic associated with the first conditional dependency, the logic for checking consistency of the first table.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the logic includes filtering logic and/or concatenation logic.

7. The method of claim 1, where the first conditional dependency and the second conditional dependency, when evaluated, indicate that the first table depends on the second table or the third table but not both.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to validate includes: determining a delta between the received configuration data and last validated configuration data; selecting first validations where the table of configuration data is in scope; selecting, from the selected first validations, second validations that are relevant from the first table, the second table, and the delta between the received configuration data and last validated configuration data, wherein second validations are relevant when they include dependent tables.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to validate includes: determining a delta between the received configuration data and last validated configuration data; selecting first validations where a configuration table from the validation definition is in a set of configuration tables characterized by the delta between the received configuration data and last validated configuration data; and selecting second validations from the first validation and which include a respective first table of a respective validation definition that is included in the received configuration data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the validation definition characterizes a type of validation as associated with a conditional foreign-key relation, and the first table including key fields and non-key fields as column names and the configuration information as records in the at least one first table.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application process includes an application business process and the target system is executing a plurality of application business processes.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, the determining of the at least one validation definition, and the determining of whether to validate the configuration data is performed by a configuration consistency validation processor forming part of a business configuration framework that includes an associated persistency of all configuration data of the target system, the business configuration framework providing consistency of configuration data across all application business processes in an enterprise software system.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: validating, based on the determination of whether to validate the configuration data, the configuration data; and deploying the configuration data to the target system.

14. A system comprising: at least one data processor; and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one data processor, causes the at least one data processor to perform operations comprising: receiving configuration data characterizing configuration information of at least one application process executing on a target system, the configuration data including a first table, a second table, and a third table, the first table including a first conditional dependency on the second table and a second conditional dependency on the third table, the receiving performed prior to transmission of the configuration data to the target system for application of the configuration data to the target system; determining, using the configuration data, at least one validation definition including a header and table elements specifying the first conditional dependency and the second conditional dependency; determining, using the at least one validation definition, whether to validate the configuration data to ensure consistency within the target system; and providing the determination of whether to validate the configuration data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the determining whether to validate includes determining to validate the configuration data in response to determining that the first table depends on the second table or the third table, and determining that the second table or the third table has been modified.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the first conditional dependency is a first conditional foreign-key relationship and the second conditional dependency is a second conditional foreign-key relationship.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the validation definition includes condition values, check tables, and check table fields.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the validation definition further characterizes logic associated with the first conditional dependency, the logic for checking consistency of the first table.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the logic includes filtering logic and/or concatenation logic.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing executable instructions which, when executed by at least one data processor forming part of at least one computing system, causes the at least one data processor to perform operations comprising: receiving configuration data characterizing configuration information of at least one application process executing on a target system, the configuration data including a first table, a second table, and a third table, the first table including a first conditional dependency on the second table and a second conditional dependency on the third table, the receiving performed prior to transmission of the configuration data to the target system for application of the configuration data to the target system; determining, using the configuration data, at least one validation definition including a header and table elements specifying the first conditional dependency and the second conditional dependency; determining, using the at least one validation definition, whether to validate the configuration data to ensure consistency within the target system; and providing the determination of whether to validate the configuration data.

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edspap.20210349879