Methods, systems and computer program products for generating events having a common event format

1. A method of generating events having a common event format, comprising:

associating an event factory with a directory service;

locating the event factory using the directory service;

associating a content handler with the event factory;

obtaining a common base event associated with the content handler;

populating the common base event with source specific situation information to provide a populated base event;

returning the populated base event incorporated in the content handler from the event factory to the event source;

determining if a format of the populated base event conforms to a predefined event format, wherein the predefined event format is defined by the content handler; and

generating a common event format representation of the populated base event based on the predefined event format if the format of the populated base event does not conform to the predefined event format.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the source specific situation information is provided in a plurality of event fields and wherein the generating a common event format representation of the populated base event comprises:

determining if ones of the plurality of event fields conform to the predefined event format defined by the content handler;

modifying the format of the ones of the plurality of event fields that do not conform to the predefined event format;

determining if ones of the plurality of event fields are empty; and

populating the empty ones of the plurality of event fields with source specific situation information based on the predefined event format.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

providing the common event format representation of the populated base event to an event server; and

storing the common event format representation of the populated base event in a data store at the event server.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

querying the event server to obtain status information of a system associated with the event source based on the stored common event format representation of the populated base event.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the directory service comprises a Java Naming and Directory (JNDI) service.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the populated base event comprises a date and/or time stamp, a situation type, an identity of the event source and/or an identity of a component reporting the situation type.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating comprises automatically generating a common event format representation of the populated base event based on the predefined event format.