User-centric policy creation and enforcement to manage visually notified state changes of disparate applications

• US 7,636,919 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2003
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Choudhary, Samar, Muguda, Naveenkumar V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): VERDI, KIMBLEANN C
• Application Number:
  US10/663,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20050060721A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,289 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A user centric policy creation and enforcement system, method and apparatus. The method can include observing state changes and action invocations in disparate applications through visual views of the applications. Correlations can be established between the observed state changes and action invocations. Rules can be formulated in a policy based upon user selected ones of the established correlations. Each of the rules can specify a state change in at least one of the applications. Each of the rules further can specify at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of the applications. Finally, the policy can be applied so as to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

Claims

1. A user centric policy creation and enforcement method comprising:

observing state changes and action invocations in disparate applications through visual views of said disparate applications displayed by a computer system;

demarcating segments of markup as segments which visually indicate said observed state changes in said disparate applications by parsing said markup defining the visual views of said disparate applications using a page crawler;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in at least one of said disparate applications, and at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of said disparate applications; and

applying said policy to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said establishing correlations comprises:

noting a time for each of said observed state changes;

further noting a time for each of said action invocations; and

correlating said observed state changes with said action invocations based upon said noted times.

3. A user centric policy creation and enforcement system comprising:

a policy interface unit of a computer system coupled to a plurality of user interface views into corresponding disparate applications,

said policy interface unit having a configuration for;

establishing a policy to respond to observed state changes in selected ones of said disparate applications with observed action invocations in others of said disparate applications;

demarcating segments of markup as segments which visually indicate said observed state changes in said disparate applications by parsing said markup defining the visual views of said disparate applications using a page crawler; and

enforcing said established policy by applying said action invocations responsive to observing said state changes;

wherein said policy interface unit comprises a learning component, said learning component having a configuration for correlating observed events with action invocations to formulate proposed rules.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said plurality of user interface views comprise portlet views.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said policy interface unit is disposed within an integrated solutions console.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein said policy interface unit further comprises a user dialog component and an enforcement component, said user dialog component having a configuration for accepting a user selection of said proposed rules, said enforcement component having a configuration for enforcing selected ones of said proposed rules.

7. A computer program product comprising a machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for user centric policy creation and enforcement, said computer program, when executed by a processor, performing the steps of:

observing state changes and action invocations in disparate applications through visual views of said disparate applications;

demarcating segments of markup as segments which visually indicate said observed state changes in said disparate applications by parsing said markup defining the visual views of said disparate applications using a page crawler;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in at least one of said disparate applications, and at least one resulting action invocation in at least one other of said disparate applications; and

applying said policy to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein said establishing correlations comprises the steps of:

noting a time for each of said observed state changes;

further noting a time for each of said action invocations; and

correlating said observed state changes with said action invocations based upon said noted times.

9. A method for user centric policy creation and enforcement comprising:

observing in an initial policy interface unit state changes and action invocations in at least one application through a visual view of said at least one application displayed by a computer system;

demarcating segments of markup as segments which visually indicate said observed state changes in said disparate applications by parsing said markup defining the visual views of said disparate applications using a page crawler;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in said at least one application, and at least one resulting action invocation in one of said at least one application and at least one other application; and

distributing said policy to at least one other policy interface unit; and

enforcing said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state chance with a specified action invocation.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising enforcing said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising limiting said enforcing of said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit based upon pre-defined permissions.

12. A computer program product comprising a machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for user centric policy creation and enforcement, the computer program, when executed by a processor, performing the steps of:

observing in an initial policy interface unit state changes and action invocations in at least one application through a visual view of said at least one application;

demarcating segments of markup as segments which visually indicate said observed state changes in said disparate applications by parsing said markup defining the visual views of said disparate applications using a page crawler;

establishing correlations between said observed state changes and action invocations;

formulating rules in a policy based upon user selected ones of said established correlations, each of said rules specifying a state change in said at least one application, and at least one resulting action invocation in one of said at least one application and at least one other application; and

distributing said policy to at least one other policy interface unit; and

enforcing said policy in said initial policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising the step of enforcing said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit to automatically respond to each subsequently observed state change with a specified action invocation.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising the step of limiting said enforcing of said policy in said at least one other policy interface unit based upon pre-defined permissions.