Patent ID: 8108396

Claim:
A method of controlling data aggregation implemented on a computing device, the method comprising: receiving an individual data record that includes multiple input fields; upon receiving the individual data record, selecting a subset of the multiple input fields within the individual data record as a resultant key according to a user defined aggregation parameter set, the user defined aggregation parameter set including: a key control previously defined by the user to specify one or more of the multiple input fields as key components within the individual data record, the key control having key control options for specifying key values of at least the key components, the key control options including an unmapped option, a mapped option and a composite option, wherein when one of the key control options is specified as: mapped, a look up is performed to specify the key value for a corresponding one of the key components used to specify the resultant key; unmapped, the key value for a corresponding one of the key components used to specify the resultant key is unmodified; and composite, the key value for a corresponding one of the key components used to specify the resultant key is created by combining other keys having a same composite specification; and an aggregation control previously defined by the user to specify a function or an action to be applied to one or more of the multiple input fields, the resultant key being specified based in part on the key control options specified in the user defined aggregation parameter set; and producing collections of aggregations populated as specified by the aggregation parameter set defined by the user.