Data streaming for interactive decision-oriented software applications

Abstract

Providing data to a computer software application by intercepting a request made by a computer software application to retrieve a first data set from a first data storage location, accessing a record, defined in advance of the request, that includes a reference to the first data set and a reference to a second data set, retrieving the first data set from a data storage location other than the first data storage location, and retrieving the second data set from a data storage location other than the first data storage location in advance of a request by the computer software application to access the second data set at the first data storage location.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing data to a computer software application, the method comprising:
 defining a first record that refers to a data item requested during execution of a computer software application, wherein the first record is associated with a first decision path of the computer software application;   defining a second record that refers to the same data item requested during execution of the computer software application, wherein the second record is associated with a second decision path of the computer software application;   associating with each of the records an indicator indicating that the data item is associated with multiple decision paths; and   associating the records with a data retrieval plan for providing data during a subsequent execution of the computer software application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said defining and associating are implemented in any of
 a) computer hardware and 
 b) computer software embodied in a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium. 
 
     
     
         3 . A computer program product for providing data to a computer software application, the computer program product comprising:
 a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium; and   computer-readable program code embodied in the computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to
 define a first record that refers to a data item requested during execution of a computer software application, wherein the first record is associated with a first decision path of the computer software application, 
 define a second record that refers to the same data item requested during execution of the computer software application, wherein the second record is associated with a second decision path of the computer software application, 
 associate with each of the records an indicator indicating that the data item is associated with multiple decision paths, and 
 associate the records with a data retrieval plan for providing data during a subsequent execution of the computer software application.