Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim
106 words
A process for collecting event-based data for a software application, said process comprising the steps of: (a) embedding event-marking instructions in the software application, each instruction being capable, when enabled, of collecting event-based data; (b) storing definitions of the event-marking instructions, the definitions identifying the software application in which the instructions are embedded and the type of data collected by the instructions; characterized by (c) selecting, prior to or during execution of the application, a subset of the event-marking instructions and enabling those instructions; and (d) detecting the enabled event-marking instructions, during execution of the software application, and collecting the data specified by the enabled instructions.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
117 words
A process for enabling a computer system to carry out a process of collecting event-based data for a software application, the process comprising the steps of: (a) storing definitions of event-marking instructions that have been embedded in the software application, each instruction being capable, when enabled, of collecting event-based data, and the definitions identifying the software application in which the instructions have been embedded and the type of data collected by the instructions; characterized by (b) selecting, prior to or during execution of the application, a subset of the event-marking instructions and enabling those instructions; and (c) detecting the enabled event-marking instructions, during execution of the software application, and collecting the data specified by the enabled instructions.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
62 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein at least some of the event marking instructions are capable of selectively collecting a plurality of data items; the step of selecting event-marking instructions includes selecting which of the data items are to be collected for a selected instruction; and the step of detecting instructions and collecting data includes collecting the selected data items.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
39 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein the event-marking instructions include a collection disabling instruction that can be embedded in the software application for disabling all collection of data items by all event marking instructions in that application.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
28 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein the software application comprises a plurality of layers of software, each of which may have event-marking instructions embedded in it.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
24 words
The process of claim 5 wherein the definitions of the event-marking instructions include identification of the software layer in which the instruction is embedded.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
22 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein the definitions include classes of event-marking instructions and data items that may be selected.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein the definitions of event-marking instructions and the selections of those instructions are stored in a database.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
20 words
The process of claim 1 or 2 wherein the data collected by the event-marking instructions is stored in disk storage.