Universal viewer/browser for network and system events using a universal user interface generator, a generic product specification language, and product specific interfaces

Abstract

A universal event browser operable for viewing and browsing network and system events for a number of different product specific applications is presented. The universal event browser isolates generic graphical user interface functionality from the implementations of the product specific applications by requiring each product specific application to have a product specific interface operable to communicate with the product specific application to retrieve event data from an event repository specific to the product. In addition, each product specific application is associated with a product specification file which contains window display configuration parameters, preferably written in a generic specification language. The universal event browser provides a universal user interface generator operable to communicate with the appropriate product specific interface to retrieve event data from the appropriate product specific event repository, and to utilize a the window display parameters from the appropriate product specification file to generate a universal interface data for use by a standard internet browser in displaying the event data.