Performance monitoring of network applications

• US 20070083649A1
• Filed: 11/21/2005
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zuzga, Brian, Ng, Krates, Bley, John, Addleman, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,005,943 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

Network performance is monitored using timing information retrieved from a client device, server in communication with the client, or both. Client side timing information is retrieved using performance monitoring code provided by the server. The code may be provided to the client as part of a content response. Once content in the provided content response is loaded, the code sends the timing information to the server. The server may then process the timing information to calculate response time and other time information metrics.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring performance of an application, comprising:

sending a request by a client, the request sent over a network;

storing a first time information by the client, the first time information associated with the request;

accessing a second time information by the client, the second time information associated with a response received by the client in response to the request; and

sending the first time information and second time information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is sent by a browser application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing the first time information includes:

storing the first time information by a browser application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing the first time information includes:

storing a file on the client.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the file is a cookie.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input from a user, the request sent in response to the user input.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first time information includes the time the user input was received.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing the first time information includes:

storing the first time information by an event handler.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing is performed by code received from an application server, the request sent to the application server over the network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of accessing the second time information includes:

storing a second time information in response to detecting an on unload event in a browser application.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of accessing the second time information includes:

retrieving a second time information in response to detecting an on load event in a browser application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of receiving includes:

sending the first time information and second time information in response to receiving the response.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

clearing the first time information from memory in response to providing content to a user, the content accessed from the response.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

clearing the first time information from memory in response to receiving user input that initiates sending a second request.

15. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request from a client over a network;

sending a content response to the client in response to the request;

receiving timing information from the client in response to the content response, the timing information including a first timing information associated with the request and a second timing information associated with the response; and

computing a response time associated with the request, the response time computed at least in part from the timing information.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the first timing information including a time that user input was received, the request sent in response to the user input.

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the second timing information including the time that content in the content response was provided to a user.

18. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the timing information received as a second content request from the client.

19. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 18, wherein the second content request including in image request.

20. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the timing information including a time associated with an on unload event detected by a browser application.

21. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein the content response includes performance monitoring code, the performance monitoring code able to be executed and store information at the client.

22. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 21, wherein the performance monitoring code able to register code with event handlers associated with a browser application.

23. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 23, wherein the performance monitoring code able to store the first timing information in response to receiving user input through a browser application after receiving the content response.

24. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a communication interface;

a storage device; and

one or more processors in communication with said storage device and said communication interface, said one or more processors perform a method comprising;

sending performance monitoring code to a client over a network; and

receiving timing information over the network from the client, the timing information including a time associated with receiving user input by the client and a time associated with providing content to the user by the client in response to the user input.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said step of sending includes:

sending performance monitoring code to a client in response to a content request from the client.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said step of sending includes:

inserting the performance monitoring code into a content response; and

sending the content response to the client.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the performance monitoring code is JavaScript.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the timing information is received as an image source request.

29. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

reporting the timing information to a workstation.

30. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a content response from a server, the response including performance monitoring code;

storing timing information by the performance monitoring code, the timing information associated with a user request received after the response; and

transmitting the timing information to the server.

31. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 30, further comprising:

modifying one or more event handlers of an application by the performance monitoring code, the one or more event handlers modified to store the time information.

32. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 30, wherein said step of transmitting includes:

retrieving the stored timing information;

accessing additional timing information in response to providing content from the content response to a user; and

transmitting the stored timing information and the additional timing information to the server.

33. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 30, wherein said step of storing timing information includes:

storing timing information in a cookie.

34. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 33, wherein the cookie includes event information associated with the time information contained in the cookie.

35. A method for monitoring a client, comprising:

receiving timing information from a client in response to a content response, the timing information having one or more fields of data;

comparing the timing information fields of data to one or more ordered timing information categories; and

determining a response time from the timing information data associated with the data fields that correspond to the highest ordered timing information categories.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

determining the fields of data include primary click data, the primary click data associated with a time at which an element associated with an anchor or a form is selected.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

determining the fields of data include a secondary click data, the secondary click data associated with a time at which an element not associated with an anchor is selected.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

determining the fields of data include an On Unload data, the on unload data associated with the time that content is unloaded in a browser application.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

determining the fields of data include an on load data, the on load data associated with a time that content is loaded in a browser application.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

determining the response time as the difference between a data field data and a response time associated with the content response.

41. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of determining includes:

comparing a clicked URL and a current URL within the timing information.

42. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a first set of information from a client device;

receiving a second set of timing information at a server, the first set of information and second set of timing information comprising a set of available timing information;

comparing the set of available timing information to at least one computation in an ordered list of computations; and

performing the highest ordered computation in the ordered computation list which uses timing information included within the available timing information.

43. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 42, wherein said step of comparing includes:

determining whether the available timing information includes data associated with an On Click event at the client device.

44. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 42, wherein the highest ordered computation includes a computation for a response time associated with a user selection.

45. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 42, wherein said step of comparing includes:

determining that the available timing information does not include timing information received from the client device; and

determining the highest ordered computation to be associated with the second set of timing information received from the server.

46. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 42, wherein the ordered computation list includes:

one or more highest ordered computations which utilize timing information associated with an On Click event detected at the client device; and

a next highest ordered computation which utilizes timing information associated with events detected at the server.

47. A method for monitoring a client, comprising:

receiving first content source information from a client device by a server, the first content source information associated with a user selection;

receiving second content source information from the client device by the server, the second content source information associated with the most recent source of content accessed by the client device in response to the user selection; and

determining whether the first content source information matches the second content source information.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the first content source information is a selected URL and the second content source information is a current URL.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the first content source information and the second content source information are provided as timing information by the client device to the server.

50. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

determining if client time response data received a client and associated with a content request and server time response data received from a server and associated with the content request differ by more than a time difference threshold.

51. The method of claim 47, further comprising;

determining that the client accessed an intervening server in response to detecting that the first content source information does not match the second content source information.

52. A method of accessing timing information, comprising:

storing a first time data associated with receiving a user selection through an interface, the interface having content in two or more frames;

storing two or more second time data in separate files, each of the second time data associated with the time at which content is unloaded from one of the two or more frames;

accessing a third time data associated with loading content in a frame for which content has been unloaded; and

reporting the first time data, the third time data, and one of the second time data, the third time data and the reported second time data associated with the same interface frame.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein said step of reporting includes:

deleting the file containing the reported second time data, wherein said step of clearing is performed after the first time data, the third time data, and the one of the second time data is reported.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein said step of accessing includes:

detecting a number of third time data, the number of third time data being the same as the first number of second time data.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein said step of reporting includes:

clearing the first time data after the last of the number of third time data is reported.

56. The method of claim 52, wherein the interface is provided by a network browser application.

57. The method of claim 52, wherein the first time data is time information associated with an On Click event, each of the two or more second time data is time information associated with a different On Unload event, and the third time data is a time associated with an On Load event, the On Unload event and On Load event associated with the same interface frame.

58. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a user selection through an interface having two or more frames, the user input associated with one of the two or more frames;

loading content for two or more of the two or more frames in response to receiving the user selection;

storing time information associated with the user input and the loaded content for the two or more frames; and

sending the time information to a server.

59. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 58, wherein the time information includes a time associated with receiving the user input.

60. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 58, wherein the time information includes a time associated with loading content in each of the two or more frames in which content is loaded.

61. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 58, wherein said step of storing the time information includes:

storing time information to a browser cookie file.

62. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 58, wherein said step of sending the time information includes:

determining that content has been loaded in a frame; and

sending time information associated with user input and the frame associated with the loaded content.

63. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 58, wherein said step of sending the time information includes:

sending information identifying each frame in which content has been loaded.