User-configurable network performance monitors
View Patent ↗A network analysis system provides for a user-definable display of information related to messages communicated on the network. The network analysis system includes one or more display formats that provide a display of message exchanges between nodes of a network, and a display augmenter that provides additional information on the display based on a user-defined visualization. The user defined visualization includes augmenting the display based on user-defined coloring characteristics and/or augmenting the display with user-defined labels. To further facilitate user control of the augmentation of the display, the system accepts user-defined programs for discriminating among messages, for controlling the labeling of messages, and for controlling the coloring of messages and labels. Commonly used user-defined characteristics and labels are stored in a library, for use via a selection from among the library entries.
1. A network analysis system comprising:
a network tool program that processes messages and provides a display that illustrates values of attributes of the messages exchanged between nodes of a network, wherein the display is based on one or more of a plurality of pre-defined displayable attributes contained within the network tool program;
an auxiliary program that processes one or more external programs that are not included in the network tool program, wherein the one or more external programs selectively augment the display by providing additional displayable attributes that are different from the pre-defined displayable attributes in the network tool program, and
a processor that:
executes the auxiliary program to process the one or more external programs, and
executes the network tool program to provide a display that illustrates values of one or more of the additional displayable attributes.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein: the external program is configured to augment the display by providing data to the network tool program, and the network tool program is configured to selectively modify the display of the messages based on the data from the external program.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the network tool program is configured to facilitate user-interaction to modify the display, including modifications based on the data from the external program.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network tool program is configured to provide at least one call to the external program for each message that is being displayed.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network tool program is configured to characterize each message, and to provide at least one call to the external program for each message that is being characterized, and the external program is structured to augment the characterization of the message that is provided by the network tool program.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary program includes a compiler that is configured to process the external program to enable execution of the external program by the processor.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the compiler is configured to interpret contents of the external program to provide instructions that are executable by the processor during each call from the network tool program.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the compiler includes a PYTHON interpreter.
9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the compiler is configured to pre-process contents of the external program to provide stored sets of instructions that are executable by the processor during each call from the network tool program.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein
the network tool program is configured to receive data from the external program corresponding to one or more predefined structures, and
the compiler is configured to process contents of the external program based on the one or more predefined structures.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more predefined structures includes a structure for identifying a color to be applied to the display of select messages.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more predefined structures includes a structure for identifying a label to be applied to the display of select messages.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the label is configured to display an attribute of the select messages.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the attribute includes a URL contained in the message.
15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the attribute includes an identification of whether a given content item is included in the message.
16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to: consolidate multiple labels based on a spatial proximity of the display of the multiple labels, and provide a consolidated label corresponding to the multiple labels.
17. The system of claim 6 , wherein the network tool program is configured to provide one or more initialization calls that are configured to initialize components of the external program, and the compiler is configured to facilitate identification of initialization segments of the components of the external program that are to be executed upon receipt of the one or more initialization calls.
18. The system of claim 6 , wherein the network tool program is configured to communicate one or more characteristics of each message to the external program, and the external program is configured to selectively perform one or more tasks based on the one or more characteristics.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the external program is configured to invoke a procedure in the network tool program to obtain the one or more characteristics.
20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more characteristics include a message type.
21. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more characteristics distinguish between application messages and network packets.
22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more characteristics include an identification of whether a given content item is included in each message.
23. The system of claim 18 , wherein the display is configured to represent the messages as lines between the nodes, and the external program is configured to selectively control an attribute of the lines based on the one or more characteristics.
24. The system of claim 18 , wherein the display is configured to represent the messages in a table, and the external program is configured to control an attribute of entries in the table based on the one or more characteristics.
25. The system of claim 24 , wherein a column of the table is configured to include a label associated with each message, and the external program is configured to selectively create the label based on the one or more characteristics.
26. The system of claim 18 , wherein the external program is configured to apply a common color to the display of messages having a common characteristic.
27. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more characteristics include identifying whether the message is a retransmission of a prior message.
28. The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more characteristics of the message include a relationship to one or more other messages.
29. The system of claim 28 , wherein the relationship includes dependency.
30. The system of claim 1 , wherein the display of the messages corresponds to a data exchange chart.
31. A non-transitory computer readable medium that includes a network analysis program that includes a network tool program and an auxiliary program, wherein:
the network tool program causes a processor to process messages and provides a display that illustrates values of attributes of the messages exchanged between nodes of a network based on one or more of a plurality of pre-defined displayable attributes contained within the network tool program,
the auxiliary program causes the processor to process one or more external programs that are not included in the network tool program, wherein the one or more external programs selectively augment the display by providing additional displayable attributes that are different from the pre-defined displayable attributes in the network tool program, and
the network analysis program causes the processor to:
execute the auxiliary program to process the one or more external programs, and
execute the network tool program to provide a display that illustrates values of one or more of the additional displayable attributes.
32. The medium of claim 31 , wherein: the external program is configured to cause the processor to augment the display by providing data to the network tool program, and the network tool program is configured to cause the processor to selectively modify the display of the messages based on the data from the external program.
33. The medium of claim 32 , wherein the network tool program is configured to provide at least one call to the external program for each message that is being displayed, and the external program is structured to cause the processor to selectively augment the display of the message that is provided by the network tool program.
34. A network analysis system comprising:
a network tool program that is configured to process a plurality of messages and provide a display that illustrates values of attributes of the plurality of messages exchanged between nodes of a network based on default characteristics and a set of pre-defined displayable attributes,
a processor that executes the network tool program and applies a custom visualization based on a visualization program that is external to the network tool program, and
a compiler that is configured to process the visualization program to enable execution of the visualization program based on calls from the network tool program, wherein
the custom visualization is configured to augment the display according to one or more custom characteristics and custom attributes that are not included in the set of pre-defined displayable attributes.
35. The system of claim 34 , wherein the visualization program is created by a user after installation of the network tool program on the network analysis system.
36. The system of claim 34 , wherein the one or more custom characteristics and attributes include at least one pair of a message attribute and a corresponding display characteristic.
37. The system of claim 34 , wherein: the custom attributes include a message type, and the visualization is configured to augment the display of messages corresponding to the message type.
38. The system of claim 34 , wherein: the custom attributes include a content item, and the visualization is configured to augment the display of messages that include the content item.
39. The system of claim 34 , wherein the plurality of message are illustrated as lines between the nodes, and the visualization is configured to augment the display of the lines based on the custom characteristics.
40. The system of claim 34 , including an input processor that is configured to allow a user to select one of a plurality of visualizations based on at least one of the custom attributes, wherein the processor is configured to augment the display with the user-selected visualization.
41. The system of claim 34 , wherein the visualization is configured to apply a common color to the display of messages associated with a common custom attribute.
42. The system of claim 34 , wherein: the processor is configured to identify relationships among the messages based on the custom attributes, and the visualization is configured to augment the display with visual indications of the relationships.
43. The system of claim 34 , wherein the visualization is configured to augment the display with one or more labels based on the custom characteristics.
44. The system of claim 43 , wherein each of the one or more labels corresponds to one or more messages and displays a value of at least one attribute of the corresponding one or more messages.
45. The system of claim 44 , including an input processor that is configured to receive a user input corresponding to a selection of a label.
46. The system of claim 45 , wherein the input processor is configured to allow a user to augment a location and content of the selected label.
47. The system of claim 45 , wherein the selection of a label effects a selection of the corresponding one or more messages for further processing by the processor.
48. The system of claim 44 , wherein the input processor is configured to enable a user to search the display of the messages based on content of the labels.
49. The system of claim 44 , wherein the labels are displayed as a box with a pointer to the one or more corresponding messages.
50. The system of claim 43 , wherein the processor is configured to: consolidate multiple labels based on a spatial proximity of the display of the multiple labels, and provide a consolidated label corresponding to the multiple labels.
51. The system of claim 34 , wherein the display is configured to represent the plurality of messages as entries in a table, and the visualization is configured to provide entries in the table based on the custom attributes.
52. The system of claim 51 , wherein the table includes a graphic indicator of a direction of each of the plurality of messages.