Computing environment logbook

• US 8,271,891 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2007
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Technology & Engineering Solutions Of Sandia LLC (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sandia Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Osbourn, Gordon C., Bouchard, Ann M.
• Primary Examiner(s): RIEGLER, PATRICK F
• Application Number:
  US11/670,709
• Time in Patent Office: 2,055 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764, 715/704, 715/776, 714/19, 714/1, 714/2, 714/15, 345/901, 707/674, 707/678, 707/683, 707/684
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A computing environment logbook logs events occurring within a computing environment. The events are displayed as a history of past events within the logbook of the computing environment. The logbook provides search functionality to search through the history of past events to find one or more selected past events, and further, enables an undo of the one or more selected past events.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

logging, in real-time, events occurring within multiple different applications executing within a computing environment;

displaying the events logged from the multiple different applications as a chronologically interleaved history of past events within a logbook of the computing environment, wherein the logbook includes a log entry associated with each of the past events, the log entry comprising;

a caption textually describing an associated one or more of the events;

an event display region graphically illustrating the associated one or more of the events; and

a link selectable by a user;

providing search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find one or more selected past events;

enabling an undo of the one or more selected past events; and

loading, in response to the user selecting the link within the log entry, an application in which the associated one of the events occurred and navigating the computing environment to a location within the application where the associated one of the events occurred, wherein logging the events includes logging logbook events generated by the user while interacting with the logbook, and wherein displaying the events includes displaying the logbook events.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the events comprises:

registering at least one of a mouse click, a key stroke, a scroll wheel action, a network event, or a cursor navigation action within the computing environment;

executing code in response to the at least one of the mouse click, the key stroke, the scroll wheel action, or the cursor navigation action; and

generating a result in response to executing the code.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the undo of the one or more selected past events comprises enabling the user of the computing environment to undo the one or more selected past events without undoing one or more subsequent events occurring temporally after the one or more selected past events.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more selected past events comprise text edits and wherein enabling the undo of the one or more selected past events further comprises:

saving a snapshot of a document;

saving insertion pointers referencing locations within the snapshot where text was added to the snapshot; and

saving deletion pointers referencing locations within the snapshot where text was removed from the snapshot.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if text that was added to the snapshot was subsequently deleted from the snapshot, then one of the deletion pointers references one of the insertion pointers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the undo of the one or more selected past events comprises:

enabling the user of the computing environment to restore the computing environment to a previous state at a specified time, wherein the one or more selected past events comprise all events occurring after the specified time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event display region comprises:

a first panel graphically illustrating an action of the associated one or more of the events; and

a second panel graphically illustrating a result of the associated one or more of the events.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook further comprises:

displaying the logbook as an open book with pages;

displaying the history of past events on the pages; and

displaying page edge regions to enable page flipping through the logbook.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook further comprises:

time stamping each of the pages of the logbook; and

displaying a timestamp associated with each of the pages of the logbook in response to dragging a cursor over the page edges regions of the logbook.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook further comprises:

grouping related events; and

displaying the related events as a single log entry within the logbook.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook comprises:

tagging one or more of the log entries with one or more icons, each of the icons associated with a type of event.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find the one or more selected past events comprises allowing the user to search for past events having identical icons.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

enabling the user to select one or more of the icons; and

hiding log entries tagged with the selected one or more of the icons or hiding log entries not tagged with the selected one or more of the icons.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find the one or more selected past events comprises:

enabling an algorithmic search of the logbook to find the one or more selected past events using search criteria including a date, a time, or an event type.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing environment comprises software entities that self-organize during execution and wherein logging events occurring within the computing environment comprises:

forming event pathways between the software entities in response to user inputs;

inserting monitors in the event pathways to monitor for the events; and

reporting execution of the events to the logbook in real-time.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the software entities self-assemble during execution by linking binding sites having key values that correspond, and wherein inserting the monitors into the event pathways comprises:

linking the monitors to the binding sites;

modifying the key values of the software entities to correspond to other key values of the monitors; and

forming the event pathways including the monitors in response to the user inputs.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein forming the event pathways including the monitors in response to the user inputs comprises exposing the binding sites of one or more of the software entities in response to the user inputs.

18. A machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a machine, will cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

logging events occurring within multiple different applications executing within a computing environment;

displaying the events logged from the multiple different applications as a history of past events within a logbook of the computing environment, wherein the logbook includes a log entry associated with each of the past events, the log entry comprising;

a caption textually describing an associated one or more of the events;

an event display region graphically illustrating the associated one or more of the events; and

a link selectable by a user;

providing search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find one or more selected past events;

enabling an undo of the one or more selected past events; and

loading, in response to the user selecting the link within the log entry, an application in which the associated one of the events occurred and navigating the computing environment to a location within the application where the associated one of the events occurred, wherein logging the events includes logging logbook events generated by the user while interacting with the logbook, and wherein displaying the events includes displaying the logbook events.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein enabling the undo of the one or more selected past events comprises:

enabling the user of the computing environment to undo the one or more selected past events without undoing one or more subsequent events occurring temporally after the one or more selected past events.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the one or more selected past events comprise text edits and wherein enabling the undo of the one or more selected past events further comprises:

saving a snapshot of a document;

saving insertion pointers referencing locations within the snapshot where text was added to the snapshot; and

saving deletion pointers referencing locations within the snapshot where text was removed from the snapshot.

21. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the event display region comprises:

a first panel graphically illustrating an action of the associated one or more of the events; and

a second panel graphically illustrating a result of the associated one or more of the events.

22. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook further comprises:

displaying the logbook as an open book with pages; and

displaying the history of past events on the pages.

23. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook further comprises:

grouping related events; and

displaying the related events as a single log entry within the logbook.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein displaying the events as the history of past events within the logbook comprises:

tagging one or more of the log entries with one or more icons, each of the icons associated with a type of event.

25. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein providing the search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find the one or more selected past events comprises allowing the user to search for past events having identical icons.

26. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, further providing instructions that, if executed by the machine, will cause the machine to perform further operations, comprising:

enabling the user to select one or more of the icons; and

hiding log entries tagged with the selected one or more of the icons or hiding log entries not tagged with the selected one or more of the icons.

27. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein providing the search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find the one or more selected past events comprises enabling an algorithmic search of the logbook to find the one or more selected past events using search criteria including a date, a time, or an event type.

28. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the computing environment comprises software entities that self-organize during execution and wherein logging events occurring within the computing environment comprises:

forming event pathways between the software entities in response to user inputs;

inserting monitors into the event pathways to monitor for the events; and

reporting execution of the events to the logbook in real-time.

29. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the software entities self-assemble during execution by linking binding sites having key values that correspond, and wherein inserting the monitors into the event pathways comprises:

linking the monitors to the binding sites;

modifying the key values of the software entities to correspond to other key values of the monitors; and

forming the event pathways including the monitors in response to the user inputs.

30. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein forming the event pathways including the monitors in response to the user inputs comprises exposing the binding sites of one or more of the software entities in response to the user inputs to execute the events.

37. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the caption textually describing the associated one or more of the events comprises a distinctive background pattern and color that represents a specific type of event.

31. A system, comprising:

a processor to execute instructions; and

a data storage unit coupled to the processor, the data storage unit storing the instructions that, when executed by the processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

logging in real-time events occurring within multiple different applications executing within a computing environment;

displaying the events occurring within the multiple different applications as a chronologically interleaved history of past events within a logbook of the computing environment, wherein the logbook includes a log entry associated with each of the past events, the log entry comprising;

a caption textually describing an associated one or more of the events;

an event display region having a first panel graphically illustrating an action of the associated one or more of the events and a second panel graphically illustrating a result of the associated one or more of the events; and

a link selectable by a user of the computing environment;

providing search functionality via the logbook to search through the history of past events to find one or more selected past events; and

enabling the user of the computing environment to undo the one or more selected past events without undoing one or more subsequent events occurring temporally after the one or more selected past events; and

loading, in response to the user selecting the link within the log entry, an application in which the associated one of the events occurred and navigating the computing environment to a location within the application where the associated one of the events occurred, wherein logging the events includes logging logbook events generated by the user while interacting with the logbook, and wherein displaying the events includes displaying the logbook events.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein displaying the events occurring within the multiple different applications as the history of past events within the logbook comprises:

displaying the logbook as an open book with pages.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein displaying the events occurring within the multiple different applications as the history of past events within the logbook comprises:

tagging one or more of the log entries with one or more icons, each of the icons associated with an event type.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein providing the search functionality via the logbook enables the user to search for past events having identical icons.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the computing environment comprises software entities that self-organize during execution and wherein logging events occurring within the computing environment comprises:

forming event pathways between the software entities in response to user inputs;

inserting monitors into the event pathways to monitor for the events; and

reporting execution of the events to the logbook in real-time.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the software entities self-assemble during execution by linking binding sites having key values that correspond, and wherein inserting the monitors into the event pathways comprises:

linking the monitors to the binding sites;

modifying the key values of the software entities to correspond to other key values of the monitors; and

forming the event pathways including the monitors in response to the user inputs.