Patent ID: 7634492

Claim:
A system for generating aggregate data views comprising: at least one processor; a memory containing instructions executable by the at least one processor, the instructions comprising: an I/O module for receiving input and displaying output, wherein a specification selected by a user is received in said I/O module, wherein said specification comprises data to be retrieved from a plurality of data sources, and wherein said data is stored in a plurality of computer language formats and the data includes field link data; an inference module for generating data source relationship inferences by screening a plurality of data sources in said specification for one or more foreign keys, wherein said data source relationship inferences based upon said one or more foreign keys are displayed via said I/O module to allow selection of at least one of said data source relationship inferences; a retrieval/conversion module for automatically retrieving said data from said plurality of data sources, and automatically transforming said data from a plurality of computer language formats to a common format; a view generation module for generating an aggregate data view based upon said data from said plurality of data sources, and said at least one of said data source relationship inferences selected, and the field link data, wherein the field link data is used to equate fields from different data sources having different names but a same type of content; and a publication module for publishing the aggregate data view.