Java application response time analyzer

• US 20020174421A1
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Cline, Troy L., Zhao, Ling Z., Braddy, Rick G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,461,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0266 using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/028 for synchronisation between service call and response
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/103 with adaptive polling, i.e. dynamically adapting the polling rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring the performance of client-server transactions from the perspective of a client. In one embodiment, a JARTA (Java Application Response Time Analyzer) component (which may include JavaScript) is installed on an end user'"'"'s browser to collect various response time measurements and certain client system information and transmit this information to a server. A JARTA utility on the web server can manage the actions (e.g., insert, modify, and delete) associated with web pages that are ear-marked for JARTA testing at the client browser. The JARTA component may include a Java™ applet that can be downloaded to a client computer along with a web page. In one embodiment, a certain percentage ofweb transactions to be monitored can be designated using, e.g., a sampling algorithm.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a software application from a server to a client, wherein the software application is configured to monitor one or more performance parameters of the client, perform one or more computations on the monitored performance parameters and transmit results of the computations to the server; and

receiving the results of the computations at the server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the results of the computations to a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the software application comprises a Java applet or Java script.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a browser.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a web page.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the software application on the client.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising executing the software application in a web browser and wherein the server comprises a web server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the software application is configured to save a timestamp in the browser'"'"'s cookie jar and to use the timestamp to compute performance data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring two or more performance parameters.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application is configured to perform one or more computations at the client based upon monitored parameters to generate derived performance data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising restricting execution to a portion of the potential execution time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the execution time of the software application is limited by sampling a timestamp, converting a millisecond portion of the sampled timestamp to a percentage of a full second, and executing the software application only if the percentage is within a predetermined range.

14. The software application of claim 13, wherein at least a portion of the software application comprises a Java applet or Java script.

15. The software application of claim 13, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a browser.

16. The software application of claim 13, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a web page.

17. The software application of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises executing the software application in a web browser and wherein the server comprises a web server.

18. The software application of claim 17, wherein the software application is configured to save a timestamp in the browser'"'"'s cookie jar and to use the timestamp to compute performance data.

19. The software application of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises monitoring two or more performance parameters.

20. The software application of claim 13, wherein the software application is configured to perform one or more computations at the client based upon monitored parameters to generate derived performance data.

21. The software application of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises restricting execution to a portion of the potential execution time.

22. The software application of claim 21, wherein the execution time of the software application is limited by sampling a timestamp, converting a millisecond portion of the sampled timestamp to a percentage of a full second, and executing the software application only if the percentage is within a predetermined range.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising a client which is operable to execute the software application.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the software application.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein at least a portion of the software application comprises a Java applet or Java script.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a browser.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein at least a portion of the software application is embedded in a web page.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising executing the software application in a web browser on the client.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the software application is configured to save a timestamp in the browser'"'"'s cookie jar and to use the timestamp to compute performance data.

31. The system of claim 23, further comprising monitoring two or more performance parameters.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein the software application is configured to perform one or more computations at the client based upon monitored parameters to generate derived performance data and to transmit the derived performance data to the server.

33. The system of claim 23, further comprising performing a sampling algorithm, herein the execution time of the software application is limited to a portion of the potential execution time.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the sampling algorithm comprises sampling a timestamp, converting a millisecond portion of the sampled timestamp to a percentage of a full second, and executing the software application only if the percentage is within a predetermined range.

13. A software application having one or more instructions embodied therein, wherein the software application is configured to be loaded into a web browser and wherein the instructions are configured to cause a data processor to perform the method comprising:

monitoring one or more performance parameters of a client on which the web browser is executing;

performing one or more computations on the monitored performance parameters; and

transmitting results of the computations to a web server.

23. A system comprising:

a web server which is operable to send web pages to a client;

send a software application to the client, wherein the software application is executable by the client computer to monitor web browsing activities on the client computer and report the monitored activities to the web server; and

receive data from the software application executing on the client.