Patent ID: 9256666
Filing Date: 2016-02-09
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: selecting, via a first user selection, a first item that is displayed in a user interface; selecting, via a second user selection, a second item that is displayed in the user interface; subsequent to selecting the first item and the second item, determining, via a computational device, a type of linkage between the first item and the second item, wherein the linkage is a displayed linkage, wherein a valid linkage indicates that inferences that relate the first item to the second item may be drawn by interpreting properties of the first item and properties of the second item; in response to determining that the type of linkage between the first item and the second item is a valid linkage, interpreting the properties of the first item and the properties of the second item to infer new properties that relate the properties of the first item to the properties of the second item, wherein the inferred new properties are not explicitly indicated in the properties of the first item or the properties of the second item, wherein a look-up table indicates operations that are to be performed by an application for the valid linkage, and wherein the valid linkage remains active and visible until a user indicates that the valid linkage is to be deactivated; and in response to determining that the type of linkage between the first item and the second item is an invalid linkage, indicating via a visual interface that the linkage between the first item and the second item is inapplicable, wherein: the first item represents a server node and has server related information, and the second item represents a security node that has security related information for both clients and servers, and wherein in response to a selected linkage between the server node and the security node being clicked, security related information of the server node that are not explicitly indicated in either properties of the server node or properties of the security node are displayed; the first item, the second item, and additional items displayed in the visual interface are all connected to a global bus, and the first item, the second item, and the additional items have linkages to each other; invalid linkages are visually apparent to the user, in response to viewing the visual interface, wherein invalid linkages are grayed-out in the visual interface; the first item represents a hardware component, wherein the properties of the first item include a plurality of instances of the hardware component; and the second item represents an event log that includes at least one of a severity, a date, and an identifier that uniquely identifies an event, and a message corresponding to the hardware component and the additional items in the visual interface.