Techniques for display of information related to policies

• US 9,400,958 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: B'Far, Reza, Boucher, Lloyd, Cengiz, Yasin, Tseng, Tsai-Ming, Goh, Logan, Chakrabarti, Malini, Nguyen, Huyvu, Bass, Timothy Jason, Le, Minh, Paxi, Rafael, Adavikolanu, Neeharika, Lingg, Elizabeth
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wan, Jasmine
• Application Number:
  US12/827,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,218 Days
• Field of Search: 715/854, 705/7.11, 705/7.12, 705/301, 716/52, 716/102, 706/47
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities

Abstract

Techniques for displaying information. Policy violations are identified, based at least in part on data stored in a data store. For the policy violations, a plurality of semantic objects related to the violations are identified. Arrangements of graphical objects are displayed where the graphical objects represent the identified semantic objects and where the arrangement indicates one or more relationships between pairs of the semantic objects.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of displaying information, comprising:

identifying, based at least in part on data stored in a data store, a policy violation;

identifying a plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation, the identified plurality of semantic objects including semantic objects of different semantic object types, the identified plurality of semantic objects representing data related to a business policy in an organization;

computing a probability of occurrence of the policy violation in each semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects, the probability of occurrence of the policy violation comprising data that represents a relationship between a first state of a first semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects and a second state of a second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

generating a first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects based on the probability of occurrence of the policy violation;

causing display of the first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation in an arrangement indicative of the relationship between at least the first semantic object and the second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

identifying a semantic object as an origin of the policy violation in the plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation, the semantic object comprising a set of one or more workflows;

identifying at least one workflow from the set of one or more workflows related to the semantic object that cause the policy violation;

causing the display of the identified one or more workflows related to the policy violation in a display interface of the first graphical representation; and

causing the identified one or more workflows to be processed in accordance with an order of the arrangement of the identified plurality of semantic objects.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the arrangement includes a graph comprising a plurality of nodes and one or more edges connecting at least a subset of the nodes, each of the plurality of nodes corresponding to at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and the subset of the nodes including nodes corresponding to different semantic object types.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more edges between a particular pair of nodes corresponding to different semantic object types is unidirectional and indicates a direction between the particular pair, the direction indicating a characteristic of a relationship between the identified plurality of semantic objects corresponding to the particular pair.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising assigning attributes to one or more of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and wherein one or more of the graphical representations have one or more visual characteristics corresponding to one or more of the assigned attributes.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation that cause the policy violation; and

causing a display of a second graphical representation, the second graphical representation indicative of one or more second relationships between the selected semantic object and one or more pairs of semantic objects.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that cause one or more processors to display information, the instructions comprising:

instructions that cause the one or more processors to identify, based at least in part on data stored in a data store, a policy violation;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to identify a plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation, the identified plurality of semantic objects including semantic objects of different semantic object types, the identified plurality of semantic objects representing data related to a business policy in an organization;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to compute a probability of occurrence of the policy violation in each semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects, the probability of occurrence of the policy violation comprising data that represents a relationship between a first state of a first semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects and a second state of a second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to generate a first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects based on the probability of occurrence of the policy violation;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to cause display of the first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation in an arrangement indicative of the relationship between at least the first semantic object and the second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to identify a semantic object as an origin of the policy violation in the plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation, the semantic object comprising a set of one or more workflows;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to identify at least one workflow from the set of one or more workflows related to the semantic object that cause the policy violation;

instructions that cause the one or more processors to cause a display of the identified one or more workflows related to the policy violation in a display interface of the first graphical representation; and

instructions that cause the one or more processors to cause the identified one or more workflows to be processed in accordance with an order of the arrangement of the identified plurality of semantic objects.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the arrangement includes a graph comprising a plurality of nodes and one or more edges connecting at least a subset of the nodes, each of the plurality of nodes corresponding to at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and the subset of the nodes including nodes corresponding to different semantic object types.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein at least one of the one or more edges between a particular pair of nodes corresponding to different semantic object types is unidirectional and indicates a direction between the particular pair, the direction indicating a characteristic of a relationship between the identified plurality of semantic objects corresponding to the particular pair.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to assign attributes to one or more of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and wherein one or more of the graphical representations have one or more visual characteristics corresponding to one or more of the assigned attributes.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein at least a portion of the arrangement represents a Baysian network.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim further comprising:

instructions that cause the one or more processors to receive a selection of at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation that cause the policy violation; and

instructions that cause the one or more processors to cause display of a second graphical representation, the second graphical representation indicative of one or more second relationships between the selected semantic object and one or more pairs of semantic objects.

12. A system for causing display of information, comprising:

at least one data store for storing data;

one or more processors that, when operating in accordance with executable instructions of a computer-readable medium, are at least operable to;

determine, based at least in part on the data, a policy violation;

identify a plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation, the identified plurality of semantic objects including semantic objects of different semantic object types, the identified plurality of semantic objects representing data related to a business policy in an organization;

compute a probability of occurrence of the policy violation in each semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects, the probability of occurrence of the policy violation comprising data that represents a relationship between a first state of a first semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects and a second state of a second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

generate a first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects based on the probability of occurrence of the policy violation;

cause display of the first graphical representation of the identified plurality of semantic objects that cause the policy violation in an arrangement indicative of the relationship between at least the first semantic object and the second semantic object of the identified plurality of semantic objects;

identify a semantic object as an origin of the policy violation in the plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation, the semantic object comprising a set of one or more workflows;

identify at least one workflow from the set of one or more workflows related to the semantic object that cause the policy violation;

cause the display of the identified one or more workflows related to the policy violation in a display interface of the first graphical representation; and

cause the identified one or more workflows to be processed in accordance with an order of the arrangement of the identified plurality of semantic objects.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the arrangement includes a graph comprising a plurality of nodes and one or more edges connecting at least a subset of the nodes, each of the plurality of nodes corresponding to at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and the subset of the nodes including nodes corresponding to different semantic object types.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one of the one or more edges between a particular pair of nodes corresponding to different semantic object types is unidirectional and indicates a direction between the particular pair, the direction indicating a characteristic of a relationship between the identified plurality of semantic objects corresponding to the particular pair.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to cause the one or more processors to assign attributes to one or more of the identified plurality of semantic objects, and wherein one or more of the graphical representations have one or more visual characteristics corresponding to one or more of the assigned attributes.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:

receive a selection of at least one of the identified plurality of semantic objects in the first graphical representation that cause the policy violation; and

cause a display of a second graphical representation, the second graphical representation indicative of one or more second relationships between the selected semantic object and one or more pairs of semantic objects.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of the arrangement represents a Baysian network.