System, Method and Computer program Product for Accessing Hierarchical Nodes in Information Associated with Computer System Infrastructure and Assets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2015180745-A1
Application number	US-201414311011-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Dec 20, 2013
Publication date	Jun 25, 2015
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of retrieving hierarchical information, the method including receiving a request on an interface of a server, the request identifying a base node and an expansion node, the base node and the expansion node being hierarchically-arranged data objects in a data memory in communication with the server, parsing the request to determine the base node in the hierarchical information, parsing the request to determine the expansion node in the hierarchical information, retrieving a base record associated with the base node, retrieving an expansion record associated with the expansion node and referenced by the base record, inserting information from the base record and information from the expansion record into a response, and returning the response to a client computer in response to the request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of retrieving hierarchical information in response to a request from a client computer, the method comprising:
receiving the request on an interface of a server, the request identifying a base node and an expansion node, the base node and the expansion node being hierarchically-arranged data objects in a data memory in communication with the server, the base node and the expansion node representing assets of a computer system being monitored; parsing the request to determine the base node in the hierarchical information; parsing the request to determine the expansion node in the hierarchical information; retrieving a base record associated with the base node; retrieving an expansion record associated with the expansion node and referenced by the base record; inserting information from the base record and information from the expansion record into a response; and returning the response to a client computer after inserting the information from the base record from the expansion record.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein inserting the information associated with the base record into the response comprises:
inserting one or more by-value properties of the base record into the response; and
inserting one or more by-reference properties of the base record into the response.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein inserting the by-value properties into the response comprises inserting a name and value for each of the by-value properties.

4 . The method of claim 2 wherein inserting the by-reference properties into the response comprises inserting a name and a reference to another node of the hierarchy for each of the by-reference properties.

5 . The method of claim 2 wherein the by-value properties are separated from the by-reference properties in the response by an expansion keyword.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein determining the base node comprises parsing a uniform resource location (URL) included in the request to determine an identifier associated with the base node.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein determining the expansion node comprises parsing a uniform resource locator (URL) included in the request to detect an expansion parameter, the expansion parameter including information associated with an identifier of the expansion node.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein when the expansion node corresponds to a reference included in a by-reference property of the base record.

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the expansion node is directly linked to the base node in the hierarchy by a uniform resource locator (URL).

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the expansion node is indirectly linked to the base node in the hierarchy via a chain of references from the base node.

11 . A server computer in a network, the server computer comprising:
a processor; and memory accessible by the processor and storing computer-readable instructions, the processor performing the following actions by executing the instructions:
receiving a request for hierarchical information from a client, the hierarchical information including a base node and an expansion node linked to the base node, further wherein the request identifies the base node and the expansion node;
retrieving a base record associated with the base node in response to the request, the base record including a link to an expansion record associated with the expansion node;
retrieving the expansion record in response to the request;
formulating a response to the request by inserting information from the base record into the response and inserting information from the expansion record into the response, where the information from the expansion record includes references to other nodes in the hierarchical information; and
returning the response to the client.

12 . The server of claim 11 , wherein the server is in communication with the client by a network.

13 . A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic for retrieving hierarchical information associated with assets of a network storage system, the computer program product comprising:
code to receive a request for portions of the hierarchical information, the request identifying a first node and a second node, the first node being higher in the hierarchical information than the second node by referencing the second node as a property of the first node; code to retrieve a first record associated with the first node in response to the request, where the first record includes a link to the second record; code to retrieve the second record; code to insert first record information into a response to the request, where the first record information includes by-reference properties of the first record and by-value properties of the first record; code to insert second record information into the response; and code to return the response to the client.

14 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the by-value properties include a name and value for each of the by-value properties.

15 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the by-reference properties include a name and a reference to another node of the hierarchy for each of the by-reference properties.

16 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the by-value properties are separated from the by-reference properties in the response by an expansion keyword.

17 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the code to retrieve the first record comprises:
code to parse a uniform resource location (URL) included in the request to determine an identifier associated with the first node.

18 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein code to retrieve the second record comprises:
code to parse a uniform resource locator (URL) included in the request to detect an expansion parameter, the expansion parameter including information associated with an identifier of the second node.

19 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the second node is directly linked to the first node in the hierarchy by a uniform resource locator (URL).

20 . The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the second node is indirectly linked to the first node in the hierarchy via a chain of references from the first node.

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Horn Ophir
• Gilboa Ran
• Sprague Jason
• Erkin Dmitry
• Rosa Francisco

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F11/328

  Computer systems status display (G06F11/327 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L43/045 Primary

  for graphical visualisation of monitoring data · CPC title

• G06F11/323

  Visualisation of programs or trace data · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title