Patent ID: 7555719

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to support displaying management information in a graphical user interface, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving selection of multiple entries in a hierarchy, the selection including multiple managed entities in a network; displaying a management information view that includes management information associated with the multiple managed entities in the network; displaying a drill down menu associated with the management information view, the drill down menu including selectable drill down options that correspond to respective drill down functions selectively applied to the management information associated with the multiple managed entities; identifying a selected drill down option chosen from the drill down menu; producing a drill down view by applying the respective drill down function associated with the selected drill down option to the management information associated with the multiple managed entities, the produced drill down view including a presentation of the management information based on the applied respective drill down function; displaying the drill down view on the graphical user interface; and continuing to display the drill down menu even after producing the drill down view for selection of another drill down option from the drill down menu and further drilling down with respect to the produced drill down view; and displaying path information in relation to the management information view, the path information including: i) an entry corresponding to a present drill down level view of the displayed management information in the management view, and ii) at least one entry of a previous drill down level view of previously displayed management information; wherein the path information includes entries indicating a sequence of drill down options selected from the drill down menu to view the present drill down menu view; and wherein the at least one entry of the previous drill down level view may be selected by a user to change contents of the management information view back to a corresponding previously displayed management information view.