Product Event Creation

Each product is defined (either using the Products page in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications interface or by importing a product-definition XML file) to include a specific set of features. In order to generate product usage summary data similar to the feature usage summary data produced in aggregation, FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications must first create product events from the feature events being processed.

As feature events are processed chronologically, each individual feature event is compared to the product definitions. If the feature in use is found to be part of one or more products, it is either added to an existing product event, or a new produce event is created.

When a new product event is created, it is assigned the start and end times that correspond to the start and end time of the feature event currently being processed, and a list of possible products is assigned. This set of possible products is the set of all products that include the feature in question.

When a feature event is added to an existing product event, the end time of that product event is extended, if necessary, to the end time of the feature event. Also, the list of possible products is reduced to only contain products that include all the features in the product event.

The decision to add to an existing product event is based on the following questions:

•

Is the start time of this feature event before the end time of the product event?

•

Is this feature included in one or more of the possible products for that product event?

•

Is the feature available (not already in use) in this product event at the feature event’s start time?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, the feature event is added; otherwise, a new product event is created.

Because feature events are processed chronologically, once the aggregation process reaches a feature event that starts after the end time of a specific product event, it is safe to say that no more feature events will be added to that product event.