Creating an entity definition from a file

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9838280-B2
Application number	US-201514815942-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2015
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

Processing devices receive a file having entries having data items separated by delimiters. Each data item has an ordinal position. The processing device(s) cause display of a table, having rows and columns, in a graphical user interface. Each data items of a particular entry appears in a respective column of the same row. Each column corresponds to the ordinal position of its respective data item. User input is received designating, for each respective column, a field name and an entity definition component type to which the respective column pertains, and stores for each of the data items of the particular entry a value of an element of an entity definition. The element has the element name designated for the respective column in which the data item appeared, and is associated with an entity definition component having the type designated for the respective column in which the data item appeared.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a file comprising a plurality of entries, each entry comprising one or more data items separated by one or more delimiters, each data item having an ordered position within the entry;
causing display of the entries in a table of a GUI, the table having rows and columns, wherein the data items of each entry appear in respective columns of the same row;
receiving user input designating, for a column of the table, information for at least one of identifying or locating a data item appearing in the column within an entity definition; and
storing the data item appearing in the column in the entity definition in accordance with the user input;
wherein the entity definition represents an entity from among one or more entities that provide a service, the entity definition having an identification of machine data produced by or about the entity, the service having a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) defined by a search query that derives a value at least in part from the machine data, thereby transforming the machine data to the value indicating the performance of the service at a point in time or during a period of time;
wherein the method is performed by a computer system comprising one or more processing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item in the entity definition in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item in the entity definition in association with identifying information designated by the user input, wherein the identifying information represents an element name.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item within a component of the entity definition having a type corresponding to locating information designated by the user input.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input and in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
storing the data item in association with an element name represented by identifying information designated by the user input and within a component of the entity definition having a type corresponding to locating information designated by the user input.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
determining a correspondence between an entry and a particular entity definition.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
determining a correspondence between an entry and a particular entity definition based on a second data item of the entry.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
determining a correspondence between an entry and a particular entity definition based on a second data item of the entry; and
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input and in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the data item comprises:
identifying the entity definition based on one or more data items of the entry; and
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input and in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises machine data from two or more sources.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises machine data produced by the entity and machine data produced about the entity by a source other than the entity.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises unstructured machine data.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises unstructured machine data stored as timestamped events.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises unstructured machine data stored as timestamped events each comprising a segment of raw data.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the user input in an import configuration.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
storing the user input as specification information in an import configuration;
automatically monitoring for a change to the file; and
in response to a change to the file:
accessing the import configuration to retrieve the specification information;
performing again the receiving of the file;
performing again the storing the data item wherein the retrieved specification information substitutes for the user input.

19. A system comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device coupled with the memory to:
receive a file comprising a plurality of entries, each entry comprising one or more data items separated by one or more delimiters, each data item having an ordered position within the entry;
cause display of the entries in a table of a GUI, the table having rows and columns, wherein the data items of each entry appear in respective columns of the same row;
receive user input designating, for a column of the table, information for at least one of identifying or locating a data item appearing in the column within an entity definition; and
store the data item appearing in the column in the entity definition in accordance with the user input;
wherein the entity definition represents an entity from among one or more entities that provide a service, the entity definition having an identification of machine data produced by or about the entity, the service having a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) defined by a search query that derives a value at least in part from the machine data, thereby transforming the machine data to the value indicating the performance of the service at a point in time or during a period of time.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein to store the data item comprises:
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input and in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein to store the data item comprises:
determining a correspondence between an entry and a particular entity definition based on a second data item of the entry; and
storing the data item within the entity definition at a location corresponding to locating information designated by the user input and in association with identifying information designated by the user input.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises machine data from two or more sources.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the machine data produced by or about the entity comprises machine data produced by the entity and machine data produced about the entity by a source other than the

Assignees

• Splunk Inc
• Splunk Inc

Inventors

• Boe Brent
• Hardin Alan
• Reyes Brian C
• Hsiao Fang I

Classifications

• G06F17/30604

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L41/22

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

• H04L29/08072

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L41/5009 Primary

  Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] · CPC title

• G06F17/30386

  Physics · mapped topic