Method and apparatus for a real-time data collection and display system

• US 5,748,881 A
• Filed: 11/03/1995
• Issued: 05/05/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Hamilton, Graham, Lewis, Brian T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hoa T.
• Application Number:
  US08/552,971
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 395/184.01, 395/650, 395/700, 395/155, 364/267.2, 345/334, 345/335, 345/336, 345/338, 345/339, 345/340, 345/347
• US Class Current: 714/47.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed which provide solutions to the problems which are encountered in an object oriented, distributed computer system in which attempts are made to monitor and display performance characteristics of objects in the system, where no prior knowledge of the objects exists. The invention disclosed herein is a generic monitoring and display system which can obtain performance data from and about objects and display the data in an appropriate manner without having to create special one time data acquisition and display programs, and which can select an appropriate display type based upon a display indicator contained in the captured data. Additionally, a tabular object is disclosed which can be used by operating objects to facilitate operating data collection and reporting.

Claims

1. A process for monitoring a target program in a computer system while running programs, the process comprising the steps, performed by the computer system while executing the programs, of:

a. acquiring data from the target program without using any prior knowledge of said data, said data including a display hint suggesting an appropriate way to display said data;

b. determining from said display hint, an appropriate display of the acquired data;

c. generating a graphic representation of the acquired data based upon said appropriate display; and

d. displaying the graphic representation.

2. The process of claim 1 further comprising the (additional) step of determining if said acquired data is of a type which said process is capable of displaying.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein the target program provides a tabular object and the monitoring process is a tabular object monitoring process.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said acquired data includes statistical data.

5. A computer system with a central processing unit (CPU) for executing one or more programs, said computer system comprising:

a) a data acquisition device configured to;

acquire data from a target one of said programs without using any prior knowledge of said data, said data including a display hint suggesting an appropriate way to display said data, and

determine from said display hint an appropriate display of the acquired data;

a graphic representation generator coupled to the data acquisition device and configured to generate a graphic representation of the acquired data based upon said determined appropriate display; and

c) a display device, coupled to the graphic representation generator, configured to display the graphic representation of the acquired data.

6. The computer system of claim 5 wherein the computer system is a distributed computer system.

7. The computer system of claim 5 wherein the one or more programs are object oriented programs, and the target program provides a target object.

8. The computer system of claim 7 wherein the target object is a tabular object, and wherein the data acquisition device is a tabular object monitor.

9. The computer system of claim 5 further comprising a display type selector coupled to the generic graphic representation generator for selecting a type of display instrument associated with said display device for displaying the acquired data based upon said display hint.

10. The computer system of claim 5 wherein said acquired data includes statistical data.

11. A computer system having a computer program product on a computer readable medium with computer programs each including computer instructions recorded on said medium, said computer programs being executable by said computer system, said computer system having a display device, at least one CPU, at least one main memory unit connected to the at least one CPU, with the at least one CPU being capable of executing at least one of said programs, said computer system further comprising:

a) a generic data acquisition device configured to;

acquire data from a target program of said at least one program, said data being acquired without using any prior knowledge of said data, said data including a display hint which suggests an appropriate way to display said data, and

determine from said display hint an appropriate display of the acquired data; and

b) a generic graphic representation generator coupled to the generic data acquisition device for generating a graphic representation of the acquired data based upon said determined appropriate display, said graphic representation for displaying on said display device.

12. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the computer system is a distributed computer system.

13. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the target program is an object oriented program, and the target program provides a target object.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the target object is a tabular object, and wherein the data acquisition device is a tabular object monitor.

15. The computer system of claim 11 further comprising a display type selector coupled to the generic graphic representation generator for selecting a type of display instrument associated with said display device for displaying the acquired data based upon said display hint.

16. The computer system of claim 11 wherein said acquired data includes statistical data.

17. A method for monitoring a target program and displaying a graphic representation of data using a computer system having a central processing unit (CPU), a memory coupled to the CPU, and a display device for displaying said graphic representation of said data, the data including a display hint from a target program, the method comprising the steps of:

recognizing a request for monitoring said target program;

capturing data from said target program, said data being captured without any prior knowledge of the data, said data including the display hint which suggests an appropriate way to display said data;

determining an appropriate display of the captured data based on the display hint; and

generating said graphic representation of the captured data based upon said determined appropriate display; and

displaying said graphic representation on said display device.

18. An apparatus for monitoring a target program and displaying a graphic representation of data using a computer system having a central processing unit (CPU) a memory coupled to the CPU, and a display device for displaying said graphic representation of said data, the apparatus comprising:

a selector for recognizing a request for monitoring said target program;

a generic data capture system for capturing data from said target program, said data being captured without any prior knowledge of the data, said data including a display hint which suggests an appropriate way to display said data;

an interrogator for determining an appropriate display of the captured data based on the display hint;

a graphic generator for generating said graphic representation of the captured data based upon said determined appropriate display, said graphic representation to be displayed on said display device.