Methods and apparatus to determine a software application data file and usage

• US 20070136235A1
• Filed: 12/14/2005
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unify Patente GmbH & Co. KG (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Hess, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,451,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to monitor usage of software applications and services. According to some embodiments, it may be determined that an application event has occurred. At least a portion of a file name may be accessed and compared to one or more actual file identifiers. An actual file identifier may then be selected based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining that an application event has occurred;

accessing at least a portion of a file name;

comparing the at least a portion of a file name to one or more actual file identifiers; and

selecting an actual file identifier based on said comparing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application event comprises a file system event, and further comprising:

in response to the file system event, updating the one or more actual file identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining comprises:

accessing a published interface of the application and reading the at least a portion of the file name from the interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the interface is associated with at least one of:

(i) a proprietary messaging protocol, (ii) a common object request broker architecture, (iii) a common object model, (iv) a Web service, (v) a message queue, or (vii) a network connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining comprises:

intercepting a file access command at a file system driver.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining comprises:

receiving information from a library linked into an application that intercepts file access commands from other applications.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application event is associated with a graphical user interface event, and said determining comprises:

capturing the graphical user interface event from an operating system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said accessing comprises:

reading the at least a portion of the file name from a pre-determined area of a graphical user interface window.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the pre-determined area is associated with a title bar object.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the pre-determined area is associated with an icon representing an email attachment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining is associated with temporal relationship between a file system event and a graphical user interface event.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the actual file identifier comprises a file path and name within a file system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actual file identifiers is further associated with files that have been recently accessed.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actual file identifiers is further associated with an event signaling an operation on a file object.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically collecting information associated with use of data objects by a user;

analyzing the collected information to determine relevance evidence between data objects;

storing the relevance evidence;

determining a first data object of interest to the user based on the actual file identifier;

based on the stored relevance evidence, selecting a second data object associated with the first data object; and

presenting to the user an indication of the second data object.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically collecting information associated with use of data objects by a user;

analyzing the collected information to determine relevance evidence between data objects; and

storing the relevance evidence along with the actual file identifier.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a graphical user interface monitoring component to determine at least a portion of a file name associated with a graphical user interface window; and

a file activity monitoring component to facilitate a determination of an actual file identifier based on the at least a portion of the file name.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

an evidence store to contain evidence entries indicating associations between pairs of data objects, wherein at least some entries are associated with the actual file identifier; and

a selection engine to select a set of data objects associated with a data object being accessed by a user.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface monitoring component is to read the at least a portion of the file name from an area of the window.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface monitoring component is to intercept a rendering system message to detect a change in the at least a portion of the file name.

21. A medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method, said method comprising:

determining that a file system event has occurred;

in response to the file system event, updating one or more actual file identifiers;

determining that a graphical user interface event has occurred;

in response to the graphical user interface event, accessing at least a portion of a file name;

comparing the at least a portion of a file name to the list associated with actual file identifiers; and

selecting an actual file identifier based on said comparing.

22. The medium of claim 21, further comprising:

using the actual file identifier to facilitate a determination of context relevant evidence.

23. The medium of claim 21, further comprising:

using the actual file identifier to facilitate a presentation of context relevant information.

24. A medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method, said method comprising:

determining that a file system event has occurred;

in response to the file system event, accessing at least a portion of a file name;

comparing the at least a portion of a file name to the actual file identifier in the file system event; and

selecting the actual file identifier based on said comparing.