SAMPLE DRIVEN VISUAL PROGRAMMING SYSTEM FOR NETWORK MANAGEMENT

• US 20140280831A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Netbrain Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lingping Gao
• Inventors: GAO, LINGPING, Liao, Guangdong
• Granted Patent: US 9,438,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/20 Network management software packages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Methods and system for sample-driven visual programming system. A Parser Utility and a Trigger Utility are provided. The Parser is defined based on a sample output from a device in real time, and data are parsed into a set of variables. The Trigger Utility visually displays the set of variables and automatically encodes a set of logic loops to analyze the data. A network engineer is therefore liberated from writing scripts for network data analysis. A system is provided to run in debugging mode for visually debugging the automatically generated programs.

Claims

1. A sample-driven visual programming system for network management system, comprising:

a sample collecting unit for issuing a command and collecting and displaying a sample output from a device; and

a Parser Utility for defining a Parser for parsing an output data as a parsed data, wherein said Parser Utility saves the parsed data into a set of data variables.

2. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, wherein said sample output is collected in real time.

3. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, wherein said Parser Utility includes a Keyword Parser, wherein a text-string is copied from said sample output as a Keyword marker for collecting a value adjacent to said Keyword marker from a data output.

4. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, wherein said Parser Utility includes a Paragraph Parser, wherein a pair of paragraph border-strings are copied from said sample output as paragraph markers for collecting a data within a marked paragraph by said paragraph markers.

6. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, wherein said Parser Utility includes a Filter Parser, wherein a pair of a beginning-string and an end string are copied from said sample output as filter markers for collecting a data from said beginning-string to said end string.

7. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, wherein said Parser Utility includes a Table Parser, wherein a set of table headers are copied from said sample output as markers for a table to collect table data.

8. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, further comprising:

a visually defined Trigger Utility that analyzes said set of data variables and automatically encodes a set of logic control flows to analyze said parsed data in said set of data variables.

9. The Trigger utility of claim 8, wherein said Trigger Utility includes a Threshold Trigger which compares a data variable with a threshold value.

10. The Trigger utility of claim 8, wherein said Trigger Utility includes a Delta Trigger which checks a data variable within a time period.

11. The Trigger utility of claim 8, wherein said Trigger Utility includes a Compare Trigger which checks a data variable against a baseline data.

12. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of components which automatically add logic loops through an array or a table of variables for a list of network devices.

13. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 1, further comprising:

a system for displaying all loops and the parsed data of said set of variables for each loop when the system is run in a debugging mode.

5. The sample-driven visual programming system of claim 5, wherein said Paragraph Parser includes one or more child Keyword Parsers for further parsing a marked paragraph.

14. A sample-driven method for visual programming in network management, comprising the steps of:

collecting a sample output from a target device by issuing a command;

displaying said sample output in text format;

defining a Parser Utility using said sample output as a guide;

executing a Procedure on the target device;

collecting and parsing an output data, using said Parser Utility, into a set of variables; and

automatically visually programming a Trigger Utility by using said set of variables.

15. The sample-driven method of claim 14, wherein said sample output is collected in real time.

16. The sample-driven method of claim 14, wherein said Parser Utility includes a Keyword Parser, a Paragraph Parser, Filter Parser or Table Parser, or a combination thereof,

wherein for Keyword Parser, a text-string is copied from said sample output as a Keyword marker for collecting a value adjacent to said Keyword marker from a data output;

for Paragraph Parser, a pair of paragraph border-strings are copied from said sample output as paragraph markers for collecting a data within a marked paragraph by said paragraph markers;

for Filter Parser, a pair of a beginning-string and an end string are copied from said sample output as filter markers for collecting a data from said beginning-string to said end string;

for Table Parser, a set of table headers are copied from said sample output as markers for a table to collect table data.

17. The sample-driven method of claim 14, wherein said Trigger Utility includes a Threshold Trigger, a Delta Trigger, a Compare Trigger, or a combination thereof, wherein the Threshold Trigger compares a data variable with a threshold value, the Delta Trigger checks a data variable within a time period, and the Compare Trigger checks a data variable against a baseline data.

18. The sample-driven method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

providing a set of components which automatically add logic loops through an array or a table of variables for a list of network devices.

19. The sample-driven method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

providing a system for displaying all loops and the parsed data of said set of variables for each loop when the system is run in a debugging mode.