Scale-out system to acquire event data

• US 8,694,462 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2011
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vasters, Clemens Friedrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khong, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US13/278,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20130066828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/633 Control signals issued by server directed to the network components or client management of faults, events, alarms in data networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Events can be emitted by a method that includes acquiring data from a plurality of different sources by communicating to the different sources using a plurality of different protocols specific to the different sources and, based on the acquired data, determining that an event should occur. The method can further include causing an event that is normalized for a consistent event evaluation by consumers irrespective of the specific shape of the data from the data source resulting in the event.

Claims

1. A method of emitting events, the method comprising:

a computing system acquiring data from a plurality of different sources by communicating to the different sources using a plurality of different protocols specific to the different sources, the computing system having a processor and stored computer-executable instructions for implementing the method;

based on the acquired data, the computing system determining that an event should occur, the event comprising a message containing the acquired data being provided to one or more queues for delivery to one or more subscribers; and

the computing system causing the event by providing the message with the acquired data to the one or more queues, wherein the acquired data undergoes a normalization process prior to being provided to the one or more subscribers, the normalization process including;

detecting semantically identical elements in the acquired data from the plurality of different sources that are named differently by the different sources but which are semantically identical;

defining all of the detected the semantically identical elements with a common name, the common name comprising a key; and

associating the key of each acquired data item with a corresponding value, the corresponding value comprising a data block from the acquired data that includes at least some data that is not modified by the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating comprises performing an explicit semantic mapping.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises matching key labels between the acquired data and the event.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises referencing a description of a key value pair in the acquired data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating comprises performing an implicit semantic mapping.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein acquiring comprises acquiring and storing metadata from the sources to facilitate normalizing events.

7. One or more storage devices comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform the following:

a computing system acquiring data from a plurality of different sources by communicating to the different sources using a plurality of different protocols specific to the different sources, the computing system having a processor and stored computer-executable instructions for implementing the method;

based on the acquired data, the computing system determining that an event should occur, the event comprising a message containing the acquired data being provided to one or more queues for delivery to one or more subscribers; and

the computing system causing the event by providing the message with the acquired data to the one or more queues, wherein the acquired data undergoes a normalization process prior to being provided to the one or more subscribers, the normalization process including;

creating a key and a value pairing for the acquired data, wherein the key comprises a name associated with the acquired data and the value comprises a data block from the acquired data that includes at least some data that is not modified by the computing system.

8. The one or more storage devices of claim 7, wherein the creating includes identifying semantically identical elements in the acquired data and performing an explicit semantic mapping of the acquired data.

9. The one or more storage devices of claim 8, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises matching key labels between the acquired data and the event.

10. The one or more storage devices of claim 8, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises referencing a description of a key value pair in the acquired data.

11. The one or more storage devices of claim 7, wherein the creating includes identifying semantically identical elements in the acquired data and performing an implicit semantic mapping of the acquired data.

12. The one or more storage devices of claim 7 wherein acquiring comprises acquiring and storing metadata from the sources to facilitate normalizing events.

13. A computing system for emitting events, the computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more storage devices having stored computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors, implement the following;

the computing system acquiring data from a plurality of different sources by communicating to the different sources using a plurality of different protocols specific to the different sources, the computing system having a processor and stored computer-executable instructions for implementing the method;

based on the acquired data, the computing system determining that an event should occur, the event comprising a message containing the acquired data being provided to one or more queues for delivery to one or more subscribers; and

the computing system causing the event by providing the message with the acquired data to the one or more queues, wherein the acquired data undergoes a normalization process prior to being provided to the one or more subscribers, the normalization process including;

creating a key and a value pairing for the acquired data, wherein the key comprises a name associated with the acquired data and the value comprises a data block from the acquired data that includes at least some data that is not modified by the computing system; and

the creating including detecting semantically identical elements in the acquired data from the plurality of different sources that are named differently by the different sources but which are semantically identical and defining all of the detected the semantically identical elements with a common name, the common name comprising the key.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the creating further includes performing an explicit semantic mapping with the key of each acquired data item.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises matching key labels between the acquired data and the event.

16. The computing system of claim 14, wherein performing an explicit semantic mapping comprises referencing a description of a key value pair in the acquired data.

17. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the associating comprises performing an implicit semantic mapping with the key of each acquired data item.

18. The computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the method further includes:

identifying unique elements in the acquired data from the plurality of different sources that are not semantically identical to other elements from the acquired data; and

assigning the unique elements with a native name that is native to the protocol used by a corresponding origin source.

19. The computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the computing system performs the normalization process prior to providing the message with the acquired data to the one or more queues, the one or more queues comprising a distribution topic, the distribution topic comprising a queue for a plurality of concurrently existing subscriptions to the distribution topic and over which each subscription has a filtered view over enqueued messages within the distribution topic.

20. The computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the determining the event should occur comprises detecting a change in the acquired data.