U.S. patent application number 12/825334 was filed with the patent office on 2010-10-21 for event logging and performance analysis system for applications.
Invention is credited to Patrice Gautier, Stan Jirman, Charles Lloyd.
Application Number | 20100269101 12/825334 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 42536707 |
Filed Date | 2010-10-21 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100269101 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Jirman; Stan ; et
al. |
October 21, 2010 |
EVENT LOGGING AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR APPLICATIONS
Abstract
An event logging and analysis mechanism which creates an event
object for event of an application to be logged. The event logging
mechanism logs into the event object the start time, end time and
other information regarding the event. The analysis of the
collected event objects may include hierarchical and contextual
grouping as well as aggregation of events considered to be
identical. The mechanism operates independent of the application
whose events it logs and can be turned on and off independently. A
user may define the levels of hierarchy and contexts upon which to
analyze the event objects.
Inventors: |
Jirman; Stan; (Santa Clara,
CA) ; Lloyd; Charles; (Sunnyvale, CA) ;
Gautier; Patrice; (San Francisco, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ADELI & TOLLEN, LLP
11940 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 100
LOS ANGELES
CA
90049
US
|
Family ID: |
42536707 |
Appl. No.: |
12/825334 |
Filed: |
June 28, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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09618367 |
Jul 18, 2000 |
7774790 |
|
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12825334 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
717/125 ;
717/127 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 2201/875 20130101;
G06F 2201/86 20130101; G06F 11/3476 20130101; G06F 11/3419
20130101; G06F 11/3668 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
717/125 ;
717/127 |
International
Class: |
G06F 9/44 20060101
G06F009/44; G06F 3/048 20060101 G06F003/048 |
Claims
1-22. (canceled)
23. A method of logging events for a plurality of applications that
operate on an operating system of a first computer, the method
comprising: receiving a request from a particular application of
said applications to create an event object associated with an
event of the application that has not been logged; in response to
said request, creating the event object in a first memory space
that is separate from a second memory space in which said
application operates; from the application, receiving temporal data
and other data regarding the event; storing the received data
regarding the event in the event object; and processing the stored
data regarding the event in order to produce processed event data
for display on a web browser of a second computer that is connected
to the first computer through the Internet, wherein said receiving
the request, said creating, said receiving the data, said storing,
and said processing are performed by an event logging mechanism
that is part of said operating system and operating independently
from said application on the first computer on which said
application operates.
24. A method according to claim 23 further comprising: checking
whether event logging has been turned on for the event.
25. A method according to claim 24, wherein said creating,
receiving the data, and storing are performed for each event having
event logging turned on, wherein a plurality of event objects are
created for a plurality of events.
26. A method according to claim 25, wherein said processing
comprises analyzing said event object after event logging is turned
off.
27. A method according to claim 26, wherein processing includes:
allowing user definition of the hierarchical levels of granularity
of said events whose event objects are to be analyzed; and allowing
user definition of contexts for differentiating repeated
occurrences of events deemed identical by nature of their
hierarchical position.
28. A method according to claim 27, wherein processing further
includes: grouping events into their hierarchical subgroups; and
grouping events by their context, if any are defined.
29. A method according to claim 28, wherein processing further
comprises: traversing through the hierarchy of subgroups until the
subgroup of finest granularity is traversed; subdividing said
events into further subgroups; computing statistics for each
subgroup while traversing; and displaying said statistics.
30. A method according to claim 29, wherein if said subgroup of
finest granularity has been traversed, then: aggregating events
deemed identical by virtue of their hierarchical position into an
aggregate; computing statistics for each aggregate; and displaying
said statistics for each said aggregate.
31. A method according to claim 29, wherein said processing
includes: aggregating events deemed identical by virtue of their
context into an aggregate; computing statistics for each aggregate;
and displaying said statistics for each said aggregate.
32. An event logging method comprising: for each of a plurality of
events that need to be logged within a plurality of applications
operating on an operating system of a computer: recording event
data for each of a plurality of application events in a first
memory space that is uniquely allocated for the event logging
method, said first memory space separate from a second memory space
allocated for the plurality of applications; for each application
in said plurality of application, grouping a plurality of said
event data into a plurality of hierarchical sets of events, wherein
each hierarchical set comprises a parent event and at least one
child event; and for a plurality of said hierarchical sets of
events, defining a nested hierarchical display of event data that
displays the parent events at one aligned level in the hierarchy
and displays the child events at another aligned level in the
hierarchy under the corresponding parent events, wherein said
recording, grouping, and defining are performed by an event logging
mechanism that is part of the operating system of said computer and
that runs independently from said applications on said
computer.
33. A method according to claim 32, wherein the operating system
comprises a framework, said framework comprising the event logging
mechanism.
34. A method according to claim 32 further comprising checking, for
each event identified by a particular application within the
plurality of applications, whether event logging has been
enabled.
35. A method according to claim 34, wherein said nested
hierarchical display is displayed in a web browser.
36. A method according to claim 32, wherein the memory space
occupied by the event data is within a memory space that has been
allocated solely to the event logging mechanism.
37. A method according to claim 32, wherein the events that are
logged by the event logging mechanism have not been previously
logged by any other application.
38. A method according to claim 32, wherein information placed in
the event data is first logged by the event logging mechanism.
39. A method according to claim 32, wherein each event comprises an
enable/disable state, wherein a disable state of a particular event
precludes any system from logging said particular event.
40. A method according to claim 35, wherein said computer is a
first computer, wherein said web browser executes on a second
computer that is connected to said first computer through the
Internet.
41. An article comprising a computer readable medium storing a
computer program for execution by at least one processor, the
computer program comprising a set of instructions which when
executed causes: for each event in a plurality of events relating
to an application (i) that generates web pages and responds to
selections received through said generated web pages and (ii) that
operates on an operating system of a computer, receiving event data
related to at least one of a request for a web page, generation of
a web page, and a request received through a selection of an item
of the generated web page; and recording said event data
information regarding the event, wherein said receiving and
recording are performed by an event logging mechanism that is part
of the operating system of said computer and that runs
independently from said application on said computer on which said
application executes.
42. An article according to claim 41, wherein the comprises a
framework, said framework comprising the event logging mechanism.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to software applications. More
specifically, the present invention relates to the performance
analysis and logging of events generated in applications.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] One operation in fine-tuning and troubleshooting of
information systems, such as a computer application, is to measure
the "performance" (time taken) to deliver a requested result from
that system. Performance tools have been developed which measure
certain events from an operating system perspective by measuring
the time taken to process operations such as computations and I/O
(Input/Output). Performance can also be measured within an
application itself. For instance, a videoconferencing application
may have a mechanism for collecting and presenting metrics
regarding the number of frames per second displayed on the screen
or the number of frames skipped (not displayed). Such performance
analysis mechanisms are typically built into the executable code of
the application. Thus, typically, applications that do not have
performance measurement code already built-in, must either
completely forgo much measurement or rely on a third-party
measurement tool. Due to the peculiarities between the way in which
different software applications execute, generic measurement tools
lack usefulness. If not specifically prepared for the application
much of the information is geared toward sampling at given
intervals what the application is doing. This does not necessarily
give information that the user may be looking for or is interested
in. Typically, the user must wade through piles of useless or
uninteresting data regarding performance and may thus be unable to
pick out those metrics of greatest importance.
[0005] All performance tools must preferably be operating as close,
in a system or network sense, to the measured entity to eliminate
the added measurement noise of latency which may skew results. The
latency in delivering data over a network between clients and
server completely renders useless the measurement of the operations
themselves. In a client-server environment, there is often no
separable measurement of client from server and server from client
in regard to operations. For instance, in database applications
where a server is being accessed and queried or updated by a
client, timing of server operations needs to be isolated from the
latency of network transfer. Likewise, timing of client operations
may also need to be isolated from the very same latency.
[0006] What is often measured is only the time to gather the data
from the server, and often, this is performed on the server side.
Often, when preferred on the client side, this puts additional
processing load on the client which can in turn degrade the
accuracy of the measurement. When such measurements deal only with
data collection time (request and response) rather than also the
display of results, they are burdensome to the client and from the
standpoint of the user, irrelevant.
[0007] There is a need for a performance measurement tool that can
work interoperably with third-party applications, which is
application and platform independent, and can be quickly and easily
initiated when necessary and shut down when not. There is also a
need for a performance analysis system that allows measurement of
selective operations of an application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] An event logging and analysis mechanism is provided which
creates an event object for event of an application to be logged.
The event logging mechanism logs into the event object the start
time, end time and other information regarding the event. The
analysis of the collected event objects may include hierarchical
and contextual grouping as well as aggregation of events considered
to be identical. The mechanism operates independent of the
application whose events it logs and can be turned on and off
independently. Further, in some embodiments, a user may define the
levels of hierarchy and contexts upon which to analyze the event
objects.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] FIG. 1 is a flowchart describing basic event logging as
utilized in one or more embodiments of the invention.
[0010] FIG. 2 is a flowchart outlining hierarchical event grouping,
aggregation and statistics computation according to one or more
embodiments of the invention.
[0011] FIG. 3 is an operational system diagram of event logging and
display according to one or more embodiments of the invention.
[0012] FIG. 4 is an organizational tree diagram of grouping,
subgrouping and granularity according to one or more embodiments of
the invention.
[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of recursion as applied to
event logging and analysis according to one or more embodiments of
the invention.
[0014] FIG. 6 is a computer system diagram that utilizes and
implements one or more embodiments of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] FIG. 1 is a flowchart describing basic event logging as
utilized in one or more embodiments of the invention.
[0016] In accordance with the invention, event logging is
characterized by its ability to be turned on or off at any instant
in time during an applications' run-time. One advantage of the
invention is that event logging requires no special linking to
libraries or recompiling and need not be present as a feature in
the design and compilation of the application whose events are to
be logged. The performance of the application being measured is not
impaired nor does its behavior change because the event logging is
transparent from the application's viewpoint. One feature of the
event logging mechanism is the ability to define the granularity at
which "events" of an application are measured and displayed. The
event logging mechanism of the invention also performs aggregation
and grouping of event statistics such that a hierarchical view as
well as contextual information is presentable to the user.
[0017] The event logging mechanism (referred to as the "event
logging center") is built within a foundational layer that is
common to a class of applications. Such a common foundational layer
is sometimes referred to as a "framework." The framework is a
common platform upon which applications may be built such that they
take advantage of linkable libraries of code and standard routines
that can be utilized during a run-time or at application
development. Examples of a framework are the Java virtual machine
and WebObjects (a product of Apple Computer Corporation). In
addition to developmental frameworks, foundational layers may also
be as low as the operating system itself. In this way, any
application capable of running within that operating system can
make use of operating system calls that perform event logging.
Thus, the following description will refer variously to "operating
system/framework" to indicate the lowest level of abstraction,
common to all applications, that embeds the event logging center
and its functionality. Further, the words "operation" and "event"
will be used interchangeably to mean a piece of code that executes
to perform some function during the flow of an application's
run-time.
[0018] To achieve event logging, for each event or family of events
identified, first the operating system/framework must check to see
if event logging is turned on (block 110) in relation to an
operation to be performed. To avoid any penalty to the execution of
the operation that may be subjected to measure, the test of whether
event logging is on or off for the operation should be a Boolean
test. One mechanism for implementing such a Boolean test is by
setting/resetting a flag whose state can be checked. There are
flags created for each and every event or family ("group") of
events that the application or operating system/framework
identifies during run-time. If event logging is not on, then the
operation is performed without any logging or measuring (block
100).
[0019] If event logging is turned on, then an "event object" is
created (block 120). The event object is a software object or
memory space designated for the log information be stored and
later, accessed for analysis. According to one embodiment of
invention, the event object subsists in a memory space called an
"event center" wholly independent of any other applications,
including the application whose operations are being logged. The
event object is created by the framework. The event object marks
the time index (obtainable, for instance, by returning the system
clock's time information) at the start of the event (operation)
being logged (block 130). The marking of the time index may be as
simple as a read of the system clock and subsequent store in the
event object. The operation being timed is then performed as it
normally would were event logging not present (block 140). The
operation itself returns no information other than whatever
software mechanism is used to indicate its end (e.g. return of a
function's result). When the operation is completed, the time index
at the event's end is marked in identical manner with that of event
start demarcation (block 150). In addition to start and end times,
event objects may encapsulate information regarding what the
operation actually did from a functional standpoint.
[0020] While the application is running and while event logging is
still on, no specific analysis of the data present in the event
object is performed. The process of marking start and end time
indices according to FIG. 1 can be repeated for any objects at any
level or context as are desired. Each operation (event) whether at
a high grouping level (such as the entirety of a sub-routine) or at
a lower level (such as a specific computation of a function as one
of many within a sub-routine) can be assigned its own event object
which marks its start and end time index. A new event object is
instantiated for every occurrence of an operation, if the operation
is repeated. Further, a user can select points of interest prior to
invoking event logging to measure only certain specific events as
opposed to a brute force logging and measurement of all events.
This can serve to reduce the amount of memory/storage space
utilized by the logging process and allows results displayed to the
user at a later stage to be filtered of non-pertinent or
non-critical event statistics. Further, as demonstrated below,
event object based logging aids in developing a hierarchy of event
statistics, grouping of events and contextual differentiation. The
structural and procedural nature of most code can be exposed in
this manner and statistics can be used to monitor the execution
efficiency program flow, rather than just measures of input/output
timing.
[0021] The following description refers to "events" but should be
understood to mean "event objects" which result from the logging of
actual events that have occurred in an application. Once event
logging is turned off, only "event objects" remain to represent the
actual events which occurred with the application, and thus, "event
objects" and "events" are viewed as one in the same.
[0022] FIG. 2 is a flowchart outlining hierarchical event grouping,
aggregation and statistics computation according to one or more
embodiments of the invention.
[0023] The invention in various embodiments presents two
inter-related features, namely, hierarchical event grouping,
aggregation and contextual event grouping. "Hierarchical event
grouping" refers to a differentiation by structural or procedural
level within the application's execution of events that take place.
"Aggregation" refers to the collecting of identical events (events
that are repeated) into one event via averaging and other such
means. "Contextual event grouping" refers to the
grouping/aggregating of similar events considered identical by
virtue of their context. Each of these features may be
pre-configured into the event logging or customized by the user at
the time event logging is invoked or as in FIG. 2 may be configured
or reconfigured when event statistics are viewed which may be after
event logging has been turned off.
[0024] In FIG. 2, a user selects the granularity (noted by a
variable "grain" in FIG. 2) referring to the lowest structural
level of an application's code or event space that is to be
aggregated (block 210). Further, the user can select/define
contexts whose events are to be considered as identical for purpose
of gathering the statistics. After an event log is completed for a
given run-time instance (i.e. when events between the start and
finish of an event logging session have been logged), then all of
the events are grouped or arranged according to their functional
level within the code of the application or according to user
selected grouping (block 220). The grouping of events is enabled by
the operational information provided by the application during
event logging. The grouping of events in a hierarchical sense can
take advantage of the "call stack", which is a operating system
ordering of executable instructions resulting from the execution of
application code. The call stack, advantageously, is by nature
already organized in rough order of program flow. A developmental
framework may also contain such clues as to the possible grouping
of events. Such hints and call stacks allow the event logging
center to determine a default grouping that may serve as a starting
point or substitute for user customization.
[0025] The grouping of events, once completed, puts all events into
a structural framework that starts from a coarse "granularity" to a
finer and finer level of granularity and by nature, may be
recursive/loop driven. Each group of events, at every level of
granularity, will be referred to for the sake of simplicity as a
"subgroup" to indicate that that it is potentially a logical subset
of yet another group of events. Accordingly, once events are
grouped from the event center a loop ensues (from block 230) that
runs through each subgroup of event objects and recursively
proceeds to a finer grain subgroup until the desired level of
granularity is reached. As long as the subgroup level being
processed is less than the variable "grain" (granularity level)
(checked at block 240), a first set of processes shown in blocks
250 through 270 are performed.
[0026] Within each subgroup, the events therein are further divided
into a finer and finer granular level of subgrouping (block 250).
Within the currently processed subgroup (from which further
subgroups were extracted in block 250), the statistics for that
subgroup are computed (block 260). These statistics on the level of
the subgroup are then displayed (block 290) (see description
below). The display of statistics according to block 290 does not
break out of the loop ensued at block 240, but is performed in
parallel with it. Recursively, for each further divided subgroup
(as divided in block 250) flow returns to block 230 which traverses
through the events of the newly created subgroups. This process is
recursive and blocks 250 through 270 are repeated and recursively
so, until the (sub)group level is less than the granularity
(represented by "grain") (checked at block 240). This indicates
that the desired lowest level of grouping has been achieved and
that the hierarchy of event grouping is completed. The event log
would at this point have been traversed completely and event
objects therein hierarchically organized (for example, see FIG. 4
and description below).
[0027] As such, all of the events that belong to a particular
subgroup are aggregated and this aggregation is performed for each
subgroup that has been defined by the recursion into the event log.
Each "aggregate" is a collection of events that are identical and
considered to be single event. Statistics for each aggregate may be
computed (block 285) by computing the duration for each individual
event and combining them through averaging and by maintaining any
other desired statistics such as modal or deviation information.
These statistics are then displayed to the user (block 290). The
display of statistics (block 290) may be arranged in a hierarchical
manner as well, showing the user the grouping of events and
structural flow of the application. Advantageously, subgroup level
statistics are computed during the recursive grouping process and
thus do not have to be recomputed (block 260).
[0028] FIG. 3 is an operational system diagram of event logging and
display according to one or more embodiments of the invention.
[0029] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary database application 320 where
queries and updates (transactions) are performed by a user upon a
database 350. Application 320 executes or is built on top of a
operating system/framework space 300 and connects to the database
350 to perform transactions thereon. According to the invention, an
event logging center 310 is provided as part of the operating
system/framework 300. Event logging center 310 occupies a space in
memory and executes under the operating system/framework 300 but is
separate and independent of application 320. Other layer of
abstraction. The event logging center 310, may be turned on and off
by one of several means. The application 320 may have a provision
for turning on event logging. If not, event logging may be turned
on and off by a local web browser which also subsists in operating
system/framework 300 or a remote web browser 340 which may not be
part of the operating system/framework 300 at all, but merely sends
and receives data with applications within it. There may be other
means of turning on and off event logging such as starting event
logging from within the auspices of the event logging center
310.
[0030] Once invoked, event logging proceeds for each event by the
application 320 initiating a call to create an "event object" 315
in the event logging center 310 which is a reference to the event's
start time, end time, and operational information (what the event
does). For each event, a process similar to that shown with respect
to FIG. 1 above is performed. The event object 315 subsists in the
event logging center 310 which handles its memory allocation and
storage. Once the event object 315 is created for a given event,
the application 320 sends its start time to the event logging
center 310. The event logging center 310 then records this start
time into event object 315. When the event is complete, application
320 sends its ending time index to the event logging center 310.
This process repeats over and over again for each event that is to
be logged and continues until event logging is turned off. For each
event subgroup, a Boolean flag is assigned and checked, which is
independent of other flags for other events. Application 320 may
inform the event logging center 310 of special events or subgroups
in addition to default clues provided by call stacks and other
mechanisms that are within operating system/framework 300.
[0031] When event logging is turned off, the event logging center
310 performs hierarchical event grouping, aggregation and
contextual grouping, as described above with respect to FIG. 2. Any
event objects that are incomplete (do not have ending time
information) at the termination of event logging are destroyed and
not counted. When statistics are computed at each aggregate or
subgroup, they are displayed to the user. These results may be
displayed on a graphical user interface such as that provided by
local web browser 330 or remote web browser 340. The display of
results may be in a drill-down or "threaded" fashion so that
groupings and subgroupings can be easily visualized. As well, the
display can show event details individually.
[0032] In one embodiment of the invention, both the local web
browser 330 and remote web browser 340 have identical displays of
event statistics and cannot configure their own displays based upon
the raw statistics of the event logging. In yet another embodiment,
each of the local web browser 330 and remote web browser 340 may
specify the grouping of events that they desire communicating this
to the event logging center 310. In this way, each user may alert
the event logging center to their own preferences and see
statistics in different contextual or hierarchically granular
groupings on their respective displays. The configuration of event
grouping and contexts may occur prior, during or after event
logging. Control and display of results via a web browser in one
embodiment is advantageous in that the event logging can be cross
platform.
[0033] As an example, consider a database query for a customer list
of customers who have outstanding orders. Several levels of
subgrouping could be defined. For instance, the operation can be
contextually considered from the start of the query to the display
of the data from the database. Within the display, a list of
customers involves individual fetches (one for each customer) form
database 350. Each of these fetches may be considered an "event"
whose timing is recorded in event objects such as event object 315.
They are grouped under the coarser level subgroup of the total
database fetch. The coarsest level under the query event subgroup
consists of the subgroups: query processing, database fetch and
then display of results. Each of these subgroups (such as the
individual fetches within the database fetch main group) may have
further subgroupings and so on.
[0034] FIG. 4 is an organizational tree diagram of subgrouping and
granularity according to one or more embodiments of the
invention.
[0035] The diagram of FIG. 4 represents an exemplary event
hierarchy of an application. At the coarsest level 410 of
granularity, is the application itself. The application as a whole
is considered an event that has its own start and end. For example,
if the application is a web browser, then the web browser, once
started may generate a number of pages. The generation of each page
is also an event and the group of all page generation events are
thus considered a "subgroup" of the application event. This
subgroup of page generation events are shown as subgroup level 420,
which is finer in granularity than level 410 but coarser than its
children. Note that there is no particular chronology of events
represented in FIG. 4, but rather, a hierarchical organization.
[0036] Subgroup level 420 three page events, page 1, page 2 and
page 3. These pages may be simultaneously generated (on
simultaneous execution threads) or generated one after another, but
in any case, are hierarchically related in the same manner as that
shown. The next subgroup level 430 shows a number of component
events-component A, component B, component C, component D,
component E and component F-which belong variously as children of
the page events belonging to subgroup level 420. The event logging
mechanism does not necessarily follow assumptions about events
since different instance of events within the same subgroup may
have a different behavior. Page 1 of subgroup level 420 has only
member belonging to subgroup level 430, namely, component A, while
page 2 has three members in subgroup level 430-components B, C and
D-and page 3 has two members in subgroup level 430-components E and
F. Subgroup level 440 has children of components in level 430 which
are of an even finer granularity. Component F of subgroup level 430
has no children below it, and thus no members belonging to subgroup
level 440. The vent logging center is notified of this behavior
during the logged application's runtime and can adjust its analysis
of the log accordingly. This allows the event logging center to
dynamically arrive at the hierarchical grouping of the events
logged, rather than just guessing. The process of subgrouping
extends until the finest granularity of subgrouping is reached. As
described above, the user of the event logging may specify how
granular the event statistics and log should be. In the example
shown in FIG. 4 the user desired only five levels of subgrouping
down to level 450. The finest granularity subgrouping level 450 is
a subgroup of level 440 which is a subgroup of level 430 and so
on.
[0037] As depicted in FIG. 4, some subgroup members have one child,
multiple children or no children at all. The hierarchy is
maintained regardless of whether only one child or multiple
children persist for a given member of a subgroup. The event
logging statistics can be arranged in a similar fashion to that
shown in FIG. 4 but in a drill down fashion. For instance, clicking
on the statistics for the page 2 event would yield statistics for
component B, component C and component D and so on. While FIG. 4
primarily depicts a hierarchical grouping, it could also be viewed
of as a contextual grouping. For instance, each of the pages, page
1, page 2 and page 3, could be different types of pages generated:
One could be an information page, the other a form page for
inputting and so on. Each of these page events could be considered
to be in different contexts and thus, forgo/supplement the
aggregation of statistics that might normally occur given merely
the hierarchy. This added level of differentiation may be user or
application specified and can provide a different statistical view
of the events of the application.
[0038] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of recursion as applied to
event logging and analysis according to one or more embodiments of
the invention.
[0039] FIG. 5 shows an exemplary mapping of events in a database
query application. A root event or subgroup 510 at the coarsest
level is one that for example is the initialize or start-up of the
application itself. Event 510 is a "root" event since it has no
"parent" event (i.e. prior to event 510, other application events
could not commence). The graph of FIG. 5 shows events occurring
sequentially down the width of the page, and "child" or nested
events to the right of their respective parent. After root event
510 ends, event generate page 520 commences.
[0040] Event generate page 520 cannot end until its subgroup of
events also end. However, this is a necessary but not sufficient
condition, since the end of the subgroups under event 520 does not
necessarily mark the end of event 520. For instance, for event
generate page 520 to end, first, initialize page event 530 must be
started (indicated by the arrow from event 520 to event 530) and
end (indicated by the curved arrow proceeding back from event 530
to event 520). As indicated by FIG. 5 event generate component 540
occurs chronologically following the end of event 530. Generate
component 540 is not complete until it's nested or child event, the
event "database fetch to initialize component" 550 is complete.
Events 530 and 540 are at the same level of granularity. Event 550
is at a finest level of granularity since it has no children of its
own. Generate component 540 is complete once event 550 returns its
result, and this will trigger completion of the event subgroup of
event 520 composed of event initialize page 530 and event generate
component 540.
[0041] After generate page 520 is complete (and thus, all subgroup
and nested events 530, 540 and 550), then event flow proceeds
chronologically to "get request" 560. When get request 560 is
complete another event "generate reply for request" 570 is
performed.
[0042] Event logging for the events of FIG. 5 could be displayed
and would be logged hierarchically in this manner:
TABLE-US-00001 start 510 (A) perform 510 end 510 (B) start 520 (C)
start 530 (D) perform 530 end 530 (E) start 540 (F) start 550 (G)
perform 550 end 550 (H) end 540 (I) end 520 (J) start 560 (K)
perform 560 end 560 (L) start 570 (M) perform 570 end 570 (N)
[0043] In the above exemplary event log for the events of FIG. 5
the numbers refer to the event numbers therein and the letters in
parenthesis are time indexes for each start and end. The duration
of event such as event 510 would be computed as "B-A" for example.
The duration of event 520 could be computed as "J-C" rather than
computing it as the sum of durations of all nested or recursed
subgroups within it. Event 530 has a duration "E-D", event 540 has
"F-I" and event 550 has "H-G". Likewise, event 560 has a duration
"L-K" while event 570 has a duration of "N-M". In this regard, it
should be noted that the computation of durations of events may be
performed after event logging has been turned off. This allows the
operating system/framework to have little, if any, additional load
which may skew the results of the logging by introducing
non-application timing delays (i.e. the time taken to compute
durations, etc.). Likewise, statistics upon the durations such as
averages, graphs, etc. may also be prepared after event logging has
been turned off.
[0044] The events of FIG. 5 are shown as uniquely occurring and not
repeating. However, any one or more of the events depicted may be
repeated or may recur many times. For instance, many pages of
database results may be generated which would imply some repetition
of event 520 and its children. In this case, the aggregation of the
present invention would take the durations for each occurrence of
event 520 and consider them a single event (i.e. an aggregate).
Assume that event 520 is repeated with a start time X and end time
Y. Then, in the aggregate, event generate page has a total time
taken of "J-C+Y-X" and has been performed twice. Knowing the count
and total duration, an average can be computed and presented to the
user. Since the log contains all of the raw data, a user may peer
into the details of the two instances of event 520 to see if
anything is anomalous.
[0045] The events of FIG. 5 may be better understood when
translated from its abstract event description to a real-world
scenario. Assume, for example, that event initialize application
510 refers the start-up of web browser application. After the
application has "initialized" (i.e. been allocated memory to
occupy, had its instructions loaded therein, etc.), the next event
is generate page 520. Event generate page 520 must start with its
own initialization. Thus, event initialize page 530 may equate to
allocating memory and screen area to the window, but as shown in
FIG. 5, must also include content that can fill the page. After the
page is initialized (event 530), then the next sequentially
occurring event is event generate component 540.
[0046] Event 540 could be analogized to generating the drop down
lists, toolbars, tables, menus etc. that often occupy a web page
(i.e. its user interface elements). A necessary and sufficient
condition for the completion of generate component 540 is event
database fetch 550 which would correspond to filling the component
with the desired data (e.g. list of categories for the
toolbar).
[0047] Once the web page is generated (i.e. filled with data and
user interface elements, but also, displayed to the user), then
event generate page 520 has reached its end. After the end of event
520, event get request 560 commences. If the user is presented with
input choices from the generated page, then get request 560 would
correspond to the application getting a request (such as a search
query) from the user based on what the generated page (event 520)
has made available. After the request has been obtained (i.e. event
560 has ended) a reply to that request may be generated (event
570). Event logging takes account of the hierarchy of events as
shown in FIG. 5, but also allows contextual grouping and statistics
gathering. In this descriptive view of FIG. 5, assume that the
events get request 560 and generate reply for request 570 were
repeated many times for different types of data items. For
instance, if one request dealt with the database look-up of a
movie, while the other a music album, then these events could be
separated by their context. Hence, rather than aggregating the two
instances of event 570 into a single event, they could separated by
their context of music album versus book. Aggregation could still
occur but within context. For instance, if there were five replies
for books and three replies for music albums, then the five
book-related reply events could be aggregated into one while the
three music-related reply events could be aggregated into another.
From a hierarchical grouping standpoint, all eight (three music and
five book) reply events are identical. But differentiating by
context, they could be considered separately, as the invention's
event logging provides for.
[0048] In this way, it may be possible to measure the
speed/efficiency at which look-ups of books are performed in
contrast with the look-up of music albums. This may have utility,
for instance, if the size of the table and records associated with
books versus music were vastly different, thus yielding different
reply event timings. According to one embodiment of the invention,
the non-contextual hierarchical count of all eight (book and music)
events 570 could be maintained in addition to the contextual count
of five events and three events as being separate.
[0049] FIG. 6 is a computer system diagram that utilizes and
implements one or more embodiments of the invention.
[0050] Illustrated is a computer system 610, which may be any
general or special purpose computing or data processing machine
such as a PC (personal computer). Computer system 610 is coupled to
a network 600 which may connect to one or more networks, such as a
Local Area Network or the Internet, enabling computer system 610 to
transact information with other computer systems or information
devices.
[0051] One of ordinary skill in the art may program computer system
610 to allow event logging that is capable of hierarchical and
contextual event grouping as well as aggregation in a user
customizable manner. As described above, event logging may be
provided for in the operating system or framework that is common to
applications executing within computer system 610.
[0052] Computer system 610 has a processor 612 and a memory 611,
such as RAM, which is used to store/load instructions, addresses
and result data as desired. Typically, when event logging is turned
on, the instructions pertaining to implementing the logging (such
as event object creation) are loaded into memory 611, executed by
processor 612 and then given a memory space within 611 to execute.
The implementation of the event logging center and associated
functionality may derive from a low level source code such as
assembler, a machine language or a higher level language or
derivative thereof that has been embedded with the operating
system/framework of the computer system 610. The instructions
corresponding to the event logging center as well as the log of
event objects and its associated information (e.g. start and end
time indices), may be stored to any combination of a disk 618, such
as a hard drive, or to memory 611.
[0053] Computer system 610 has a system bus 613 which facilitates
information transfer to/from the processor 612 and memory 611 and a
bridge 614 which couples to an I/O bus 615. I/O bus 615 connects
various I/O devices such as a network interface card (NIC) 616,
disk 618 and to the system memory 611 and processor 612. The NIC
616 allows the event logging results to be displayed to users
connected to network 600. For instance, referring back to FIG. 3,
the remote web browser 340 may access the event logging center and
display the results therefrom via network 600.
[0054] Once event logging is completed and statistics thereafter
computed, they can be displayed to a user through a web browser
which may be displayed onto a display device (e.g. monitor) such as
display 620. Through other input devices, such as a keyboard and/or
mouse (not shown), the user can input their grouping preferences to
the event logging center through the web browser running on the
computer system 610 and displayed via display 620. In the case of a
remote web browser, the NIC 616 is used to receive that remote
user's grouping preferences and send event center results via
network 600.
* * * * *