Generic Cloud Service For Publishing Data To Be Consumed By RSS Readers

• US 20150244763A1
• Filed: 02/24/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parikh, Prashant, Vosburgh, Craig, Kleinschnitz, Don
• Granted Patent: US 9,948,693 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Data from applications is published using a web feed document such as according to the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) protocol. The applications can be information technology (IT) services, such as an Application Performance Management program and a Service Desk program, which are used by an organization. The data is received at an Application Programming Interface (API) and stored in a database in a format which is usable by the web feed document. For example, the data can provide a parameter name, parameter label, severity and user type which are associated with placeholder elements in the web feed document. The user type may be used to restrict the publishing of certain parameters to certain users based on their business roles in an organization. The feed server may provide additional details in response to the user selecting a hyperlink in the web feed document.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining periodically-updated data from a first information technology service, the periodically-updated data comprises successive entries which indicate a time-varying performance of the first information technology service, each entry of the successive entries comprises a plurality of data fields; and

for each entry of the successive entries, storing the plurality of data fields in a format which is compatible with a web feed document, the web feed document comprises a plurality of placeholder elements, and the storing comprises associating each data field of the plurality of data fields with a corresponding placeholder element of the plurality of placeholder elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data fields comprise an identifier and a metric of a first parameter, the method further comprising:

based on the identifier of the first parameter, preparing a first instance of the web feed document comprising the metric of the first parameter, for at least one entry of the plurality of entries.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of data fields comprise an identifier and a metric of a second parameter, the method further comprising:

based on the identifier of the second parameter, preparing a second instance of a web feed document comprising the metric of the second parameter, for the at least one entry of the plurality of entries.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the plurality of data fields comprise an identifier and a metric of a second parameter; and

based on the identifier of the second parameter, the first instance of the web feed document comprises the metric of the second parameter, for the at least one entry of the plurality of entries.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of data fields comprise a text label and a numerical data value of a first parameter.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the plurality of data fields comprise a severity level associated with the first parameter.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the plurality of data fields comprise text labels and numerical data values of subparameters of the first parameter.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining periodically-updated data from a second information technology service, separate from the first information technology service, the periodically-updated data of the second information technology service comprises successive entries which indicate a time-varying performance of the second information technology service, each entry of the successive entries of the second information technology service comprises a plurality of data fields; and

for each entry of the successive entries of the second information technology service, storing the plurality of data fields of the second information technology service in the format which is compatible with the web feed document, the storing of the plurality of data fields of the second information technology service comprises associating each data field of the plurality of data fields of the second information technology service with a corresponding placeholder element of the plurality of placeholder elements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data fields comprise an identifier of a user type, the method further comprising:

restricting the web feed document for viewing by users associated with the user type.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the web feed document comprises an extensible markup language; and

the plurality of data fields are provided in at least one of a title or a description of the extensible markup language.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the web feed document comprises an extensible markup language in a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the web feed document comprises a URL; and

the URL is a link to web data which indicates a history of the time-varying performance.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the plurality of data fields comprise a data field which identifies a display format for the web data; and

the data field which identifies the display format for the web data is provided in the URL.

14. A system, comprising:

a storage device comprising a database, the database comprising an entry of a first information technology service, the entry comprises a text label of a first parameter, a metric of the first parameter, and a data field which identifies a display format, the storage device also comprising a web feed document, the web feed document comprises an extensible markup language, and the web feed document comprises a placeholder element for the text label of the first parameter, a placeholder element for the metric and a placeholder element for the data field which identifies the display format; and

a processor in communication with the storage device, the processor programmed to prepare an instance of the web feed document, wherein to prepare the instance of the web feed document, the processor;

replaces the placeholder element for the text label of the first parameter with the text label of the first parameter from the entry,

replaces the placeholder element for the metric of the first parameter with the metric of the first parameter from the entry, and

replaces the placeholder element for the data field which identifies the display format with the data field which identifies the display format from the entry.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the placeholder element for the data field which identifies the display format is part of a URL in the web feed document;

the URL comprises a link to web data which provides further details regarding the metric of the first parameter; and

the data field which identifies the display format comprises a request to display the web data according to the display format.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the display format comprises one of a bar chart, a line chart, a list and a pie chart.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the display format identifies a time period to display a history of the metric of the first parameter.

18. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive entries from an information technology service, the entries comprise a metric of a first parameter, an identifier of a first user type for the metric of the first parameter, a metric of a second parameter, and an identifier of a second user type for the metric of the second parameter;

computer readable program code configured to prepare a first instance of a web feed document from the entries and transmit the first instance of the web feed document to one or more client computing devices which are associated with the first user type, the first instance of the web feed document comprising the metric of the first parameter; and

computer readable program code configured to prepare a second instance of the web feed document from the entries and transmit the second instance of the web feed document to one or more client computing devices which are associated with the second user type, the second instance of the web feed document comprising the metric of the second parameter.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein:

the first instance of the web feed document comprises a URL which links to historical data for the metric of the first parameter.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein:

the web feed document comprises an extensible markup language in a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format.