Graphical interface system monitor providing error notification message with modifiable indication of severity

• US 7,203,930 B1
• Filed: 12/31/2001
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kirkpatrick, Mark, Morrow, Darrin, Strohmeyer, John
• Primary Examiner(s): STEELMAN, MARY J
• Application Number:
  US10/029,799
• Time in Patent Office: 1,926 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-128, 717/131, 714/38, 714/48, 714/57
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

An interface is provided between a running computer application and a system monitor. The system monitor handles notification messages generated by the computer application. The interface includes an import module to scan a source file, extract notification messages from the source file and store the notification messages in a scan file. The interface includes a manager module to display each notification message in the scan file in a table in a graphical user interface to allow modifications to the data in the table. The data is exported to an export stage. The export module performs any translation required to create a file of the notification messages in a format that is acceptable to the system monitor.

Claims

1. A method for interfacing to a system monitor, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) scanning source code of at least one source file of a computer application to be monitored for one or more error notification messages that are contained within the source code of the at least one source file, the source file being stored in a first location;

(b) extracting the error notification message from the source file;

(c) displaying the error notification message in a graphical user interface;

(d) displaying in the graphical user interface simultaneously with the error notification message, a modifiable severity and a modifiable second location corresponding to the error notification message whereby the modifiable second location comprises a path to a log file location where the error notification messages are stored in a file system directory when output by the computer application upon the computer application experiencing an error that causes the computer application to output to the log file location an error notification message of the source file corresponding to the experienced error;

(e) generating an export file in a format compatible with the system monitor, the export file comprising the modifiable severity and the modifiable second location; and

(f) accessing the export file by the system monitor to determine where the log file location is by reading the modifiable second location, monitoring by the system monitor the log file location as specified by the modifiable second location, and providing by the system monitor an indicator of the severity based on the modifiable severity of the export file for the error notification discovered from the log file location.

2. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of assigning a default value to the modifiable severity.

3. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying the notification message, the modifiable severity and the modifiable location in a table in the graphical user interface.

4. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of modifying the modifiable severity, wherein the export file comprises the modified modifiable severity.

5. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of modifying the modifiable location, wherein the export file comprises the modified modifiable location.

6. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(b1) storing temporarily the notification messages in a data file in a third location; and

(b2) extracting the notification messages from the data file for display in the graphical user interface.

7. The method recited in claim 6, further comprising the step of removing duplicate notification messages from the data file.

8. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of translating a representation of the severity from numerical to textual to be compatible with the system monitor.

9. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of translating a representation of the severity from textual to numerical to be compatible with the system monitor.

10. A system for providing indications of severity of an error of a computer application, comprising a computer, a display and a storage disk;

a source file integral to a computer application to be monitored which is stored in a first location, the source file containing source code that includes error notification messages that the computer application accesses and outputs to a log file location of a file system directory in response to experiencing a corresponding error;

an import module to extract notification messages from the source code of the source file and store the notification messages in a scan file;

a manager module to display each of the notification messages stored in the scan file in a table in a scrollable window in a graphical user interface and to concurrently accept a user modifiable severity level and a modifiable second location which comprises a path to the log file location where the error notification messages will be output by the application once an error is experienced; and

an export module to store data in the table in a format acceptable to a system monitor; and

the system monitor that accesses the data in the table to determine to monitor the log file location as indicated by the modifiable second location for error notification messages, and such that the system monitor provides an indication of a severity of an error upon discovering an error notification message.

11. The system recited in claim 10, further comprising means for modifying the data in the table.

12. The system recited in claim 10, further comprising means for converting data in the table to the format acceptable to the system monitor.

14. The system recited in claim 12, further comprising means for converting the modifiable severity level in the table from a numerical format to a text format.

13. The system recited in data 12, further comprising means for converting the modifiable severity level in the table from a text format to a numerical format.

15. A method for monitoring a computer application, said method comprising the steps of:

scanning source code of at least one source file of the computer application to be monitored for one or more notification messages, the source file being stored in a first location;

extracting the notification message from the source code of the source file to produce a data file at a second location;

processing the data file to remove duplicate notification messages;

displaying the notification messages from the processed data file in a graphical user interface;

displaying in the graphical user interface simultaneously with the notification message, a modifiable severity and a modifiable second location corresponding to the notification message whereby the modifiable second location comprises a path to a log file location of a file system directory where the notification messages are stored when generated by the computer application;

generating an export file in a format compatible with a system monitor, the export file comprising the modifiable severity and the modifiable second location;

executing the system monitor on a computer to monitor the modifiable second location for one of the notification messages and to generate an alert that specifies the modifiable severity that corresponds to the notification message that is found in the modifiable second location.