Automated construction and deployment of complex event processing applications and business activity monitoring dashboards

• US 8,276,115 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2008
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Software AG
• Original Assignee: Progress Software Corporation
• Inventors: Bates, John, Smith, Gareth, Bentley, Richard M., Arsenault, James, Chan, Aston, Palfreyman, Kevin A., Mitchell, Robert Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US12/025,586
• Publication Number:
  US 20080209078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,695 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A system and method for constructing and deploying a business activity monitoring (BAM) dashboard associated with an event-based process are disclosed. A configuration module receives an event-based process identifier for an event-based process and data, such as inputs or outputs, for the event-based process. A generation module then generates a dashboard description that includes the identifier and an associated dashboard template having one or more dashboard components. This dashboard description is used by a dashboard server to automatically generate a BAM dashboard for monitoring the event-based process by using the association between the dashboard template and the event-based process to display data associated with the event-based process using one or more dashboard components.

Claims

1. A system for automatically generating a dashboard to display an event-based process, the system comprising:

configuration hardware including an input and an output, the configuration hardware being configured to;

receive, at the configuration hardware input, an identifier identifying the event-based process;

in response to receiving the identifier, automatically generate a deployment package that identifies the event-based process and includes a template associating data of the event-based process with an automatically generated dashboard component, wherein the template includes a default relationship between an event-based process data type and the dashboard component, wherein the configuration hardware uses the default relationship to automatically determine a data source associated with the automatically generated dashboard component, wherein the data source provides the data to be displayed by the dashboard component; and

server hardware including first and second inputs, the server hardware for providing the dashboard for display of the event-based process, the server hardware first input is coupled to the configuration hardware output to receive the deployment package and the second input is coupled to receive event-based process data from the data source, the server hardware generating the dashboard using the deployment package and the event-based process data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the deployment package further comprises display characteristics for the event-based process data.

3. The system of claim 1 comprising template storage hardware for storing a plurality of templates, the template storage hardware adapted to communicate with the configuration hardware.

4. The system of claim 1 comprising event hardware having a dashboard store for specifying the event-based process data from the event-based process that is output for presentation in the dashboard.

5. The system of claim 1 comprising event hardware and wherein the configuration hardware transmits the deployment package to the event hardware.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration hardware receives configuration data that is input using the dashboard, and transmits information to modify the event-based process and to modify the dashboard based on the configuration data.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration hardware comprises a configurator adapted to receive an input, the input used by the configurator to modify the dashboard component or to modify a relationship between the event-based process and the template.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the server hardware uses the template to generate a business activity monitoring dashboard.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the dashboard components include one from the group of:

data tables, graph displays, chart displays, graphical images, text boxes, labels and similar components for graphically displaying data.

10. A hardware apparatus for automatically generating a dashboard to display an event-based process, the hardware apparatus comprising:

an editing apparatus configured to receive an identifier at an input identifying the event-based process and data associated with the event-based process; and

a generation apparatus, adapted to communicate with the editing apparatus and adapted to receive a template having a dashboard component specifying what and how data is displayed in the dashboard and a default relationship between an event-based process data type and the dashboard component, the generation apparatus using the identifier to generate, in response to receiving the identifier, a relationship between the data associated with the event-based process and the template, the generation system outputting the relationship and the identifier identifying the event-based process, wherein the default relationship is used to automatically determine a data source associated with the dashboard component, wherein the data source provides the data to be displayed by the dashboard component.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 comprising a template storage apparatus, adapted to communicate with the generation system, the template storage apparatus including a plurality of templates, each template having a dashboard component specifying what and how data is displayed in the dashboard.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the template comprises a business activity monitoring dashboard.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the editing apparatus includes a dashboard configurator adapted to communicate with the generation apparatus, the dashboard configurator receiving an input, the input modifying the dashboard component of the template or modifying the relationship between the event-based process and the dashboard component.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the input comprises a selection of a subset of the data associated with the event-based process and an association between the subset of the data associated with the event-based process and the dashboard component.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the generation system further generates a dashboard deployment package, the dashboard deployment package comprising the identifier, structured text data describing the template, and the relationship between the event-based process and the template.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus further comprises a deployment apparatus adapted for communication with one from the group of the generation apparatus, the editing apparatus and the template storage apparatus, the deployment apparatus generating a dashboard deployment package and sending the dashboard deployment package to an event engine or a dashboard server for deployment.

17. A computerized method for automatically generating a dashboard to display an event-based process comprising:

receiving at a distributed computing system an input identifying the event-based process;

identifying, using the distributed computing system, data associated with the event-based process;

selecting, using the distributed computing system, a template including a dashboard component, the template including a default relationship between an event-based process data type and a dashboard component;

in response to receiving the input and using the distributed computing system, generating a relationship between the data associated with the event-based process and the template using the default relationship, wherein the relationship includes an event-based process identifier corresponding to the event-based process; and

generating, using the distributed computing system, the dashboard to display the event-based process using the template and the first relationship.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the dashboard to display the event-based process comprises a business activity monitoring dashboard.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the relationship between the data associated with the event-based process and the template comprises:

receiving an input at the distributed computing system, modifying a dashboard component included in the template or the first relationship between the data associated with the event-based process and the template; and

generating, using the distributed computing system, a modified relationship between the data associated with the event-based process and the template.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the dashboard to display the event-based process using the template and the relationship comprises generating, using the distributed computing system, a dashboard deployment package comprising structured text data describing the template, and the first relationship between the event-based process and the template.

21. The method of claim 20 comprising transmitting the dashboard deployment package to an event engine or to a dashboard server.