Method and system for displaying status indications from communications network

1. A method of preparing an alert for display within a communications network, the method comprising:

providing an alert identifier that identifies an alert indicating a status of a communications-network component to be presented to a user on a display device;

providing a set of presentation attributes desired to be displayed with the alert;

identifying a plurality of data structures from which the presentation attributes gatherable;

retrieving the presentation attributes from the plurality of data structures and;

inputting the presentation attributes into a single presentation data structure that stores a timestamp associated with the set of presentation attributes, wherein said single presentation data structure alone is sufficient to satisfy a query that requests information to be presented in connection with an event identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alert indicates a status of a subcomponent of said communications-network component.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the set of presentation attributes comprises one or more of the following:

a priority level;

a resources identifier;

a location identifier;

a description; and/or

a trouble-ticket indication.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein identifying the plurality of data structures includes providing a table that includes a set of table names identifying the plurality of data structures.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein retrieving the presentation attributes from the plurality of data structures includes iteratively querying each of the data structures based on the alert identifier.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the presentation data structure is a database table.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising querying only the database table to retrieve the information to be presented in connection with the event identifier.

8. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing the method of claim 1 .

9. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of filtering network alerts to be displayed, the method comprising:

polling a first data structure to determine whether a first parameter has changed, wherein the first parameter corresponds to an attribute related to an alarm event of a communications network;

incident to observing a change in the first parameter; retrieving an event identifier associated with the alarm event and retrieving a first timestamp associated with the alarm event;

querying a second data structure in search of a record having the event identifier, wherein the second data structure stores display attributes that are to be displayed in connection with the event identifier and stores a second timestamp that is associated with the record;

comparing the first timestamp to the second timestamp; and

if the first timestamp is more current, then presenting the one or more attributes related to the alarm event.

10. The media of claim 9 , wherein polling the first data structure includes periodically referencing the first data structure without user intervention.

11. The media of claim 10 , wherein the first timestamp corresponds to a time of when the first parameter changed.

12. The media of claim 11 , wherein the display attributes that are to be displayed include one or more of the following:

a priority level;

a resources identifier;

a location identifier;

a description; and/or

a trouble-ticket indication.

13. The media of claim 12 , wherein the second timestamp corresponds to a time of a currently displayed alarm event.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein comparing the first timestamp to the second timestamp includes determining whether the first timestamp is more current than the second timestamp.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein presenting the one or more attributes includes depicting the attributes on a display device or in an audio format.

16. A method of preparing an alarm for display in a communications network, the method comprising:

providing an alarm event that is associated with a plurality of event attributes related to the alarm, wherein the event attributes are stored in a first data structure;

receiving an indication of a desired change in one or more designated event attributes;

building an attribute-change-notification message;

implementing the desired attribute change;

determining whether the implementation of the attribute change affected a plurality of alert events and which alert events should be displayed based on said attribute change; and

if a new alert event should be displayed, then displaying the new alert event.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the event attributes include one or more of the following:

an event identifier;

an event type;

an alert count;

a status indication;

a priority number;

a first-occurrence time;

a last-occurrence time;

a last-update time;

a display time;

a wake time;

a service-affecting indication;

and event description; and/or

a user identifier.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein receiving the indication of the desired change, includes:

receiving the indication from a user; or

monitoring the first data structure for the modification of one or more designated attributes.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the one or more designated event attributes, includes:

the service-affecting indication;

a priority number; and/or

the status indication.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein building an attribute-change-notification message includes identifying a set of parameters used to implement the desired attribute change.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein building the attribute-change-notification message includes grouping together for communication the event identifier, user identifier, an action type, and the set of parameters.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the set of parameters includes one or more of the following:

a desired priority number;

a desired service-affecting indication; and

a desired state, wherein the desired state may be at least “open” or “closed.”

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein determining whether the implementation of the attribute change affected which of a plurality alert events should be a displayed, comprises:

ranking a set of alerts according to priority number; and

selecting the alert of greatest priority.

24. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing the method of claim 16 .