Topological GUI for Distributed Software Component Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
The complexity of distributed software applications, with numerous software components and relationships, makes it challenging for developers to understand, manage, and update these applications, especially when maintenance and development tasks are handled by different individuals.
Innovation Solution
A graphical user interface (GUI) is provided with a topological view of software components, allowing developers to visualize the application structure. The GUI includes nodes representing software components, links representing relationships, and provides additional information such as resource consumption, network traffic, and pod status. Developers can interact with the GUI using drag-and-drop functionality to customize the application structure and communicate with the distributed computing environment to update the application accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If developers use traditional monolithic application structures, then the application structure is simple and easy to manage, but scalability, robustness, and isolation are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the distributed software application into multiple independent software components (nodes) that can be deployed and managed separately. Each node represents a distinct software component that can be independently updated, scaled, or replaced without affecting the entire application, thereby achieving scalability while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a topological view dimension to visualize and manage the complex relationships between software components. By representing components as nodes and their relationships as links in a graphical topology, the system adds a visual dimension that helps developers comprehend and manage the distributed architecture without being overwhelmed by the underlying complexity.
2Ease of operation
If developers have detailed knowledge of the distributed computing environment, then they can effectively manage and update applications, but the complexity of understanding and managing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a topological view as an intermediary layer between developers and the complex distributed computing environment. This visual representation acts as a mediator that translates complex underlying system relationships into an intuitive graphical format, enabling developers to manage applications without needing deep technical knowledge of the distributed infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy or representation of the distributed application structure through the topological view. This graphical model replicates the essential relationships and architecture of the distributed system in an easily understandable format, allowing developers to interact with and manage the application through this simplified representation rather than dealing with the full complexity directly.
3Productivity
If developers manually update each software component, then precise control is achieved, but time consumption and error risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables self-service updates by allowing developers to select software components for updating through the topological view, and the system automatically handles the update process. The distributed computing environment autonomously manages the update deployment, eliminating the need for manual intervention in each component update and significantly reducing update time while maintaining control.
Data Source
AI summary
A graphical user interface described herein can allow a user to easily explore and interact with a complex software application in a distributed computing environment. In one example, a system can generate a graphical user interface (GUI) for display on a display device. The GUI can depict a topological view of a group of software components of a distributed software application in a distributed computing environment. The topological view can include a group of nodes representing the group of software components. Each node in the group of nodes can represent a software component and have a status indicator for at least one container pod including the software component. The topological view can also include at least one link between the group of nodes, where the at least one link represents at least one relationship among the group of software components.