EXTENSIBILITY FOR WEB BASED DIAGRAM VISUALIZATION
First Claim
1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for extensible web based diagram visualization services, the method comprising:
- in response to receiving a request for a diagram including references to external data sources, providing the request to an update engine for determination of supported data sources and custom data modules for non-supported data sources;
receiving a custom data module identifier from the update engine;
invoking a custom data module indicated by the identifier;
receiving one of data and exception from the custom data module;
if data is received, forwarding the data to the update engine; and
mediating presentation of the requested diagram at a client application by receiving a rendering of the diagram updated based on the forwarded data from the update engine.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Extensible architecture and data flow in a web based diagram visualization service is accomplished by enabling a diagram update engine to launch custom data modules. Data modules for data sources that are not inherently supported are created by third parties through a specially defined interface (e.g. .NET® assemblies) and made visible for the web based diagram services and callable from a diagram update engine. Thus, a number of data sources from which diagram data can be retrieved and the way incoming data is manipulated and aggregated is extensible through code.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for extensible web based diagram visualization services, the method comprising:
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in response to receiving a request for a diagram including references to external data sources, providing the request to an update engine for determination of supported data sources and custom data modules for non-supported data sources; receiving a custom data module identifier from the update engine; invoking a custom data module indicated by the identifier; receiving one of data and exception from the custom data module; if data is received, forwarding the data to the update engine; and mediating presentation of the requested diagram at a client application by receiving a rendering of the diagram updated based on the forwarded data from the update engine. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15)
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11. A system for executing a diagram service for extensible web based diagram visualization, the system comprising:
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a web front end (WFE) server configured to; in response to receiving a request for a diagram from a browser including a reference to an external data source, forward the request to an update engine; receive a connection string referring to a custom data module from the update engine; invoke the custom data module for retrieval, generation, and aggregation of data from the external data source; receive data in a predefined format from the custom data module; forward the received data to the update engine; receive rendered diagram from the update engine; and provide the rendered diagram to the browser; and a backend server configured to execute the update engine, wherein the backend engine is arranged to; for each diagram element with a reference to a supported external data source, return a connection string for the supported data source to the WFE; for each diagram element with a reference to a non-supported external data source determine a connection string for a custom data module; and if a custom data module is found, return the connection string for the custom data module to the WFE;
elsereturn an error code to the WFE. - View Dependent Claims (12, 16)
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17. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for extensible web based diagram visualization services, the instructions comprising:
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receiving a request for a diagram including references to external data sources; for references to supported data sources; determining the referenced data source; connecting to the referenced data source; retrieving data by executing a query; and validating the retrieved data; for references to non-supported data sources; determining custom data modules for data from referenced non-supported data sources; invoking the determined custom data modules by passing a network context of a requesting client application and connection/query information to the custom data modules; and receiving data from the custom data modules; parsing and extracting visual definitions for data-connected diagram elements; computing publish-time formulas for the diagram elements; rendering the requested diagram based on the updated publish-time formulas; and providing the rendered diagram to the requesting client application. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification