Configuration management visualization

A computer-readable medium, with instructions thereon, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

• receive, from a requester, a request for a configuration item graph, the request including an identifier of at least one focus configuration item represented in a configuration management database, the at least one focus configuration item being a configuration item from which to generate a configuration item graph, the configuration management database storing data representative of configuration items on a data storage device;
• retrieve, from the configuration management database, configuration item data of configuration items related to the focus configuration item, the data including configuration item identifiers;
• execute a process on a processing unit for each retrieved configuration item identifier to:
• receive a configuration item identifier;
• retrieve data of the configuration item from the configuration management database;
• and
• build a node XML representation of the configuration item and an edge XML representation of how the configuration item is related to a parent configuration item, when there is such a relation;
• aggregate the node XML and edge XML representations into a single XML document;
• translate the single XML document into a markup language document capable of being rendered in a graphical user interface;
• transmit the markup language document to the requester.

A system comprising:

• at least one processor, at least one memory device, and a network interface coupled to a bus;
• a handler module, a builder module, a manager module, and a graph generator module held in the at least one memory device and operable on the at least one processor, the handler module operable to:
• receive, from a requestor over the network interface device, a request for a configuration item graph, the request including an identifier of at least one focus configuration item represented in a configuration management database, the at least one focus configuration item being a configuration item from which to generate a configuration item graph, the configuration management database storing data representative of configuration items on a data storage device and accessible via the network interface device;
• retrieving, from the configuration management database via the network interface device, configuration item data of configuration items related to the focus configuration item, the data including configuration item identifiers;
• provide a configuration item identifier to an instance of a builder module;
• the builder module operable to:
• retrieve data of the configuration item from the configuration management database via the network interface device as a function of a configuration item identifier received from the handler module;
• build a node XML representation of the configuration item and an edge XML representation of how the configuration item is related to a parent configuration item, when there is such a relation;
• and
• provide the node and edge XML representations to a manager module;
• the manager module operable to:
• aggregate all node and edge XML representations received from the builder module into a single XML document;
• and
• provide the single XML document to a graph generator module;
• and
• the graph generator module operable to:
• translate the single XML document received from the manager module into a markup language document capable of being rendered in a graphical user interface of the requester;
• and
• transmit, via the network interface device, the markup language document to the requester.