User-centric policy creation and enforcement to manage visually notified state changes of disparate applications

• US 20050060721A1
• Filed: 09/16/2003
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Choudhary, Samar, Muguda, Naveenkumar V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,919 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A user centric policy creation and enforcement system, method and apparatus. The method can include observing state changes and action invocations in disparate applications through visual views of the applications. Correlations can be established between the observed state changes and action invocations. Rules can be formulated in a policy based upon user selected ones of the established correlations. Each of the rules can specify a state change in at least one of the applications. Each of the rules further can specify at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of the applications. Finally, the policy can be applied so as to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

Claims

1. A user centric policy creation and enforcement method comprising the steps of:

observing state changes and action invocations in disparate applications through visual views of said applications;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in at least one of said applications, and at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of said applications; and

,

applying said policy to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of observing comprises the steps of:

page crawling markup defining a visual view of said applications; and

,

demarcating segments of said markup as segments which visually indicate state changes in said applications.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing comprises the steps of:

noting a time for each of said observed state changes;

further noting a time for each of said action invocations; and

,

correlating said observed state changes with said action invocations based upon said noted times.

4. A user centric policy creation and enforcement system comprising a policy interface unit coupled to a plurality of user interface views into corresponding disparate applications, said policy interface unit having a configuration both for establishing a policy to respond to observed state changes in selected ones of said applications with action invocations in others of said applications, and also for enforcing said established policy by applying said action invocations responsive to observing said state changes.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said user interface views comprise portlet views.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein said policy interface unit is disposed within an integrated solutions console.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein said policy interface unit comprises a learning component, a user dialog component and an enforcement component, said learning component having a configuration for correlating observed events with action invocations to formulate proposed rules, said user dialog component having a configuration for accepting a user selection of said proposed rules, said enforcement component having a configuration for enforcing selected ones of said proposed rules.

8. A machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for user centric policy creation and enforcement, said computer program comprising a routine set of instructions for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

observing state changes and action invocations in disparate through visual views of said applications;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in at least one of said applications, and at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of said applications; and

,

applying said policy to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

9. The machine readable storage of claim 8, wherein said step of observing comprises the steps of:

page crawling markup defining a visual view of said applications; and

,

demarcating segments of said markup as segments which visually indicate state changes in said applications.

10. The machine readable storage of claim 8, wherein said step of establishing comprises the steps of:

noting a time for each of said observed state changes;

further noting a time for each of said action invocations; and

,

correlating said observed state changes with said action invocations based upon said noted times.

11. A method for user centric policy creation and enforcement comprising the steps of:

observing in an initial policy interface unit state changes and action invocations in at least one application through a visual view of said at least one application;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in said at least one application, and at least one resulting action invocation in one of said at least one application and at least one other application; and

,

distributing said policy to at least one other policy interface unit.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of enforcing said policy in said initial policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of enforcing said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of limiting said enforcing of said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit based upon pre-defined permissions.

15. A machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for user centric policy creation and enforcement, the computer program comprising a routine set of instructions for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

observing in an initial policy interface unit state changes and action invocations in at least one application through a visual view of said at least one application;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in said at least one application, and at least one resulting action invocation in one of said at least one application and at least one other application; and

,

distributing said policy to at least one other policy interface unit.

16. The machine readable storage of claim 15, further comprising the step of enforcing said policy in said initial policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

17. The machine readable storage of claim 15, further comprising the step of enforcing said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of limiting said enforcing of said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit based upon pre-defined permissions.