CONTINUOUS COLLECTION OF WEB API ECOSYSTEM DATA

• US 20150363493A1
• Filed: 06/12/2014
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Laredo, Jim A., Muthusamy, Vinod, Slominski, Aleksander A., Srivastava, Biplav, Vukovic, Maja, Wittern, John E. Q.
• Granted Patent: US 9,715,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2291 User-Defined Types; Storage management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention comprises a method associated with a Web API ecosystem and API users includes identifying specified events over a period of time that respectively affect the ecosystem. Events can comprise an interaction between the ecosystem and a Web API user or a specified Web API. The embodiment further includes constructing a data structure that contains a data element representing each identified event. An interface is used to translate respective data elements between the data structure and a data store, wherein the data store represents translated data elements in a form different from that used to represent the data elements in the data structure.

Claims

1. In association with a Web API ecosystem and one or more Web API users, a computer implemented method comprising the steps of:

identifying specified events over a given period of time that respectively affect the Web API ecosystem, wherein at least one of the events comprises an interaction between the Web API ecosystem and either a Web API user, or a specified Web API, selectively;

constructing a data structure that contains a data element representing each identified event; and

using a specified interface to translate respective data elements between the data structure and a specified data store, wherein the specified data store represents each translated data element in a form which is different from the form used to represent the data element in the specified data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

data elements representing identified events are continuously collected for the specified data structure during the given period of time, wherein identified events further comprise relationships between Web API users and Web APIs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

identified events include, selectively, at least registration of a Web API, registration of a Web API user, provision of a Web API, and invocation of a Web API.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data structure comprises a Web API graph core structure having nodes and edges, wherein a given node selectively comprises a Web API, an application, or a Web API user, and a given edge comprises a relationship that can be at least a relationship between a Web API and a Web API user, a relationship between different Web API users, or a relationship between different Web APIs.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the Web API graph core structure has at least one node comprising a characteristic node, wherein each characteristic node represents a functionality or a non-functionality that is shared among multiple Web API nodes, selectively, a Web API user node has a contact relationship with each of one or more other Web API users, and a Web API node has a connection relationship with each of one or more other Web APIs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a timestamp indicating the time at which an identified event occurs is applied to the data element representing that identified event.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

translated data elements in the specified data store are represented in the form of a Resource Description Framework (RDF) graph.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the constructed data structure comprises a property graph having nodes and edges, wherein each property of respective nodes and edges has a key-value pair, and the key-value pair of a given property is used to represent specified information pertaining to the given property in the RDF graph.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the specified interface allows selected intermediary components to be introduced at one or more points in the translation of a given data element between the data structure and the specified data store, without changing the interfaces between components.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the specified interface comprises a representational transfer (REST) interface.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

specified data pertaining to the API ecosystem, which was previously translated to the specified data store from the data structure, is delivered by an interface for use in carrying out a specified analysis operation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the specified analysis operation comprises a query pertaining to a particular web API or to a particular web API user, selectively, of the Web API ecosystem, and results of the query are routed to the data structure.

13. In association with a Web API ecosystem and one or more Web API users, a computer program product executable in a computer readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for identifying specified events over a given period of time that respectively affect the Web API ecosystem, wherein at least one of the events comprises an interaction between the web ecosystem and either a Web API user, or a specified web API, selectively;

instructions for constructing a data structure that contains a data element representing each identified event; and

instructions for using a specified interface to translate respective data elements between the data structure and a specified data store, wherein the specified data store represents each translated data element in a form which is different from the form used to represent the data element in the specified data structure.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

data elements representing identified events are continuously collected for the specified data structure during the given time period, wherein identified events further comprise relationships between the Web API users and Web APIs, registration of a Web API, registration of a Web API user, provision of a Web API, and invocation of a Web API.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

the data structure comprises a Web API graph core structure having nodes and edges, wherein a given node selectively comprises a Web API, an application, or a Web API user, and a given edge comprises a relationship that can be at least a relationship between a Web API and a Web API user, a relationship between different Web API users, or a relationship between different Web APIs.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

a timestamp indicating the time at which an identified event occurs is applied to the data element representing that identified event.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

translated data elements in the specified data store are represented in the form of a resource description framework (RDF) graph.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein:

the constructed data structure comprises a property graph having nodes and edges, wherein each property of respective nodes and edges has a key-value pair, and the key-value pair of a given property is used to represent specified information pertaining to the given property in the RDF graph.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

specified data pertaining to the API ecosystem, which was previously translated to the specified data store from the data structure, is delivered by an interface for use in carrying out a specified analysis operation.

20. In association with a Web API ecosystem and one or more Web API users, a computer system comprising:

a bus;

a memory connected to the bus, wherein program code is stored on the memory; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the program code;

to identify specified events over a given period of time that respectively affect the Web API ecosystem, wherein at least one of the events comprises an interaction between the web API ecosystem and either a Web API user, or a specified Web API, selectively;

to construct a data structure that contains a data element representing each identified event; and

to use a specified interface to translate respective data elements between the data structure and a specified data store, wherein the specified data store represents each translated data element in a form which is different from the form used to represent the data element in the specified data structure.