AUTO DRAW FLOW

• US 20150067553A1
• Filed: 02/06/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: GRIEVE, RICHARD STEPHEN, Hogg, Martin, Lord, Simon Leaver, O'Neill, Conor, Steadman, James, Chesney, Adam, Karmakar, Suman, Vangasse, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 9,454,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/221 Column-oriented storage; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2456 Join operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A computing device can automatically generate a flow diagram showing statuses that objects in a system can possess, and the possible transitions between these statuses. Using snapshots of database data, the device can determine how the statuses of these objects have changed over time. The device can analyze the data to suggest which database fields likely represent object status. The device can render the flow diagram to illustrate system states at different selected times. Each rendered flow diagram can indicate, for the selected time point, the quantity of objects that possessed each status at that time, and, for a selected time interval, the quantity of objects that changed from each status to each other status during that time interval. The statuses can be represented in the flow diagram as status bubbles having sizes that are based on the quantities of objects have those bubble'"'"'s statuses at the selected time point.

Claims

1. A method of automatically rendering a flow diagram, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, user input that specifies a key status;

generating a network of relationships between the key status and one or more other statuses;

determining flows for connections between the statuses in the network based on quantities of objects that flowed between the statuses in the network during a specified time period;

ranking the connections based on flows determined for the connections;

selecting a subset of the ranked connections;

determining a critical path based on the subset of the ranked connections; and

rendering the flow diagram including the critical path.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user command to automatically draw the flow diagram; and

generating the network of relationships in response to receiving the user command.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of ranked connections comprises selecting at least a specified minimum quantity of the ranked connections.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input that requests increase in zoom; and

in response to receiving the user input that requests increase in zoom, re-rendering the flow diagram at a different zoom level than a zoom level at which the flow diagram had been rendered.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the network of relationships comprises:

receiving user input specifying the time period;

gathering, from snapshots, data pertaining to points in time during the specified time period;

for each particular status in a set of selected statuses that initially includes only the key status, determining, based on the snapshots, a first set of other statuses objects possessed prior to assuming the particular status, and a second set of other statuses objects assumed after possessing the particular status;

determining whether a current zoom level is equal to a target zoom level;

in response to determining that the current zoom level is not equal to the target zoom level, incrementing the current zoom level, including at least some of the first and second sets of statuses in the set of selected statuses, and repeating said determining of said first and second sets.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

automatically selecting, based on specified criteria, and from a set of statuses, a subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses;

automatically positioning flow elements corresponding to statuses from the subset of statuses in a portion of a diagram that is initially presented on a display;

automatically positioning one or more flow elements contained in the set of statuses, but not in the subset of statuses, in a portion of the diagram that is not initially presented on the display; and

presenting, on the display, the portion of the diagram that is initially presented on the display.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving user input that specifies a network depth; and

automatically generating, in the diagram, chains of connected flow elements limited to quantities of flow elements that are based on the user input.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving user input that specifies a threshold that represents a detail level;

automatically selecting, for representation in the diagram, from the set of statuses, only statuses that are endpoints of connections through which a quantity of objects that is greater than or equal to the specified threshold flowed during a specified time period.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein automatically selecting the subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses comprises:

for each particular status in the set of statuses, determining a quantity of objects that changed from that particular status to another status during a specified time period; and

ranking statuses in the set of statuses based on said quantities of objects that changed from those statuses to other statuses during the specified time period; and

selecting one or more statuses from the set of statuses for inclusion in the subset of statuses based on said rankings of statuses in the set of statuses.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein automatically selecting the subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses comprises:

for each particular status in the set of statuses, determining a quantity of objects that changed from another status to that particular status during a specified time period; and

ranking incoming statuses in the set of statuses based on said quantities of objects that changed from other statuses to those incoming statuses during the specified time period; and

selecting one or more statuses from the set of statuses for inclusion in the subset of statuses based on said rankings of incoming statuses in the set of statuses.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

excluding, from the diagram, connections through which less than a specified quantity of objects flowed between flow elements during a specified time period.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

prior to adding any other connections to the flow diagram, adding, to the flow diagram, direct connections between pairs of flow elements corresponding to pairs statuses that are both in the subset and that are related due to objects changing from one status in the pair directly to another status in the pair; and

after adding the direct connections to the flow diagram, adding, to the flow diagram, one or more additional connections needed to ensure that at least one path exists between each element in the flow diagram to each other flow element in the diagram.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

automatically selecting, based on specified criteria, and from a set of statuses, a subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses;

automatically positioning flow elements corresponding to statuses from the subset of statuses in a portion of a diagram that is initially presented on a display;

automatically positioning one or more flow elements contained in the set of statuses, but not in the subset of statuses, in a portion of the diagram that is not initially presented on the display; and

presenting, on the display, the portion of the diagram that is initially presented on the display.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, said operations further comprising:

receiving user input that specifies a network depth; and

automatically generating, in the diagram, chains of connected flow elements limited to quantities of flow elements that are based on the user input.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, said operations further comprising:

receiving user input that specifies a threshold that represents a detail level;

automatically selecting, for representation in the diagram, from the set of statuses, only statuses that are endpoints of connections through which a quantity of objects that is greater than or equal to the specified threshold flowed during a specified time period.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein automatically selecting the subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses comprises:

for each particular status in the set of statuses, determining a quantity of objects that changed from that particular status to another status during a specified time period; and

ranking statuses in the set of statuses based on said quantities of objects that changed from those statuses to other statuses during the specified time period; and

selecting one or more statuses from the set of statuses for inclusion in the subset of statuses based on said rankings of statuses in the set of statuses.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein automatically selecting the subset of statuses designated to be significant statuses comprises:

for each particular status in the set of statuses, determining a quantity of objects that changed from another status to that particular status during a specified time period; and

ranking incoming statuses in the set of statuses based on said quantities of objects that changed from other statuses to those incoming statuses during the specified time period; and

selecting one or more statuses from the set of statuses for inclusion in the subset of statuses based on said rankings of incoming statuses in the set of statuses.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, said operations further comprising:

excluding, from the diagram, connections through which less than a specified quantity of objects flowed between flow elements during a specified time period.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, said operations further comprising:

prior to adding any other connections to the flow diagram, adding, to the flow diagram, direct connections between pairs of flow elements corresponding to pairs statuses that are both in the subset and that are related due to objects changing from one status in the pair directly to another status in the pair; and

after adding the direct connections to the flow diagram, adding, to the flow diagram, one or more additional connections needed to ensure that at least one path exists between each element in the flow diagram to each other flow element in the diagram.