System and method for filtering jobs

• US 8,427,667 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2005
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ly, An V., Padmanabhan, Arun, Chen, Edward F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hang, Vu B
• Application Number:
  US11/186,128
• Publication Number:
  US 20060017953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,834 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.9, 358/1.13, 358/1.14, 358/1.15, 709/101, 709/102, 709/106, 709/202, 709/218, 709/224, 710/15, 710/16, 710/17, 710/18, 710/19, 710/267, 718/101, 718/102, 719/318, 707/776
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1207 resulting in the user being informed about print result after a job submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1259 Print job monitoring, e.g. job status
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1277 using filter pipeline, e.g. outside the driver, adding traps
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

This disclosure provides a system and method for summarizing jobs for a user group. In one embodiment, a job manager is operable to invoke a job filter. The job filter is compatible with a plurality of operating environments. One or more properties of a first job associated with a first of the plurality of operating environments is identified. One or more properties of a second job associated with a second of the plurality of operating environments is identified. The first operating environment and the second operating environment are heterogeneous. The identified properties of the first job and the identified properties of the second job are compared to the job filter to select jobs for a user group.

Claims

1. A tangible computer readable storage medium having a computer-executable instruction to execute a job manager stored thereon, the computer-executable instruction when processed by a processor causing the processor to execute a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:

receiving job data relating to a plurality of jobs from a plurality of operating environments, wherein two or more of the plurality of operating environments execute heterogeneous operating systems utilizing heterogeneous job nomenclatures such that the received job data comprises at least two heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

instantiating a plurality of job objects using the received job data, wherein each of the instantiated job objects comprises normalized job data from a corresponding job of the plurality of jobs and a pointer to one of the plurality of operating environments on which the corresponding job is executed, wherein the normalized job data of at least one of the plurality of job objects comprises a normalized value that has been changed from an original value, the normalized value and the original value being heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

receiving a request from a client to identify information relating to a job from the plurality of operating environments;

invoking a job filter using, at least in part, information from the request, wherein the job filter is associated with a filter criterion;

comparing the criterion to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects; and

selecting at least one of the job objects based on the comparison.

2. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the normalized job data comprises a property having the normalized value, wherein the filter criterion comprises a tuple comprising a property name, a property value, and a property operator, and wherein comparing the filter criterion to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects comprises:

identifying a job object that has a property identified by the property name of filter criterion; and

comparing a normalized value of the identified job object to the property value of the filter criterion using the property operator.

3. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

generating the job filter based, at least in part, on a selection made by a user.

4. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

communicating at least a portion of the normalized job data from the selected job object to a client, a database, or a user.

5. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the client, the database, or the user is associated with a user group identified using, at least in part, the request.

6. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

grouping the job filter into a group of job filters based on a job scheduler identifier included therein, the job scheduler identifier identifying a job scheduler associated with the plurality of operating environments, and

wherein the job manager comprises;

a first worker thread associated with a first operating environment of the plurality of operating environments, the first worker thread configured to process a first group of job filters associated with a first job scheduler;

a second worker thread associated with a second operating environment of the plurality of operating environments, the second worker thread configured to process a second group of job filters associated with a second job scheduler;

a first adapter associated with the first worker thread;

the first adapter configured to convert information to a form compatible with the first operating environment; and

a second adapter associated with the second worker thread, the second adapter configured to convert information to a form compatible with the second operating environment.

18. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the user group identified in the status request is one of a plurality of predetermined user groups each representing a geographical or logical grouping of an enterprise, and wherein one or more of the plurality of predetermined user groups are associated with a job filter.

7. A system to filter heterogeneous jobs, comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of job filters associated with a filter criterion; and

a processor configured to;

receive job data relating to a plurality of jobs from a plurality of operating environments, wherein two or more of the plurality of operating environments execute heterogeneous operating systems utilizing heterogeneous job nomenclatures such that the received job data comprises at least two heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

instantiate a plurality of job objects using the received job data, wherein each of the instantiated job objects comprises normalized job data from a corresponding job of the plurality of jobs and a pointer to one of the plurality of operating environments on which the corresponding job is executed, wherein the normalized job data of at least one of the plurality of job objects comprises a normalized value that has been changed from an original value, the normalized value and the original value being heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

receive a request from a client to identify information relating to a job in the plurality of operating environments;

invoke a job filter of the plurality of job filters using, at least in part, information from the request;

compare a filter criterion of the invoked job filter to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects; and

select at least one of the one or more job objects based on the comparison.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the normalized job data comprises a property having the normalized value, wherein the filter criterion comprises a tuple comprising a property name, a property value, and a property operator, and wherein the processor configured to compare the filter criterion to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects is further configured to:

identify a job object that has a property identified by the property name of the filter criterion; and

compare a normalized value of the identified job object to the property value of the filter criterion using the property operator.

9. The system of claim 7, the processor further configured to generate the job filter based, at least in part, on a selection made by a user.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to communicate at least a portion of the normalized iob data from the selected job object to a client, a database, or a user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the client, the database, or the user is associated with a user group identified using, at least in part, the request.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

group a job filter filters into a group of job filters based on a job scheduler identifier identifiers included therein, the job scheduler identifier identifying a job scheduler associated with the plurality of operating environments, and

wherein the processor is further configured to execute;

a first worker thread associated with a first operating environment of the plurality of operating environments, the first worker thread configured to process a first group of job filters associated with a first job scheduler;

a second worker thread associated with a second operating environment of the plurality of operating environments, the second worker thread configured to process a second group of job filters associated with the second job scheduler;

a first adapter associated with the first worker thread, the first adapter configured to convert information to a form compatible with the first operating environment; and

a second adapter associated with the second worker thread, the second adapter configured to convert information to a form compatible with the second operating environment.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the user group identified in the status request is one of a plurality of predetermined user groups each representing a geographical or logical grouping of an enterprise, and wherein one or more of the plurality of predetermined user groups are associated with a job filter.

13. A computer-implemented method to filter heterogeneous jobs, the method executed by a processor, the method comprising:

receiving job data relating to a plurality of jobs from a plurality of operating environments, wherein two or more of the plurality of operating environments execute heterogeneous operating systems utilizing heterogeneous job nomenclatures such that the received job data comprises at least two heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

instantiating a plurality of job objects using the received job data, wherein each of the instantiated job objects comprises normalized job data from a corresponding job of the plurality of jobs and pointer to one of the plurality of operating environments on which the corresponding job is executed, wherein the normalized job data of at least one of the plurality of job objects comprises a normalized value that has been changed from an original value, the normalized value and the original value being heterogeneous values representing a single job property;

receiving a request from a client to identify information relating to a job in the plurality of operating environments;

invoking a job filter using, at least in part, information from the request, wherein the job filter is associated with a filter criterion;

comparing the filter criterion to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects; and

selecting at least one of the job objects based on the comparison.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the normalized job data comprises a property having the normalized value, wherein the filter criterion comprises a tuple including a property name, a property value, and a property operator, and wherein comparing the filter criterion to the normalized job data of one or more of the plurality of job objects comprises:

identifying a job object that has a property identified by the property name of the filter criterion; and

comparing a normalized value of the identified job object to the property value of the filter criterion using the property operator.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising generating the job filter based, at least in part, on a selection made by a user.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising communicating at least a portion of the normalized job data from the selected job object to a client, a database, or a user.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the client, the database, or the user is associated with a user group identified using, at least in part, the request.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 17, wherein the user group identified in the status request is one of a plurality of predetermined user groups each representing a geographical or logical grouping of an enterprise, and wherein one or more of the plurality of predetermined user groups are associated with a job filter.