Method and system for correlating a plurality of events within a data processing system

A method and system are disclosed for efficiently correlating a plurality of events within a data processing system to determine an action to be performed. According to the present invention, a rule network is provided which includes a number of objects arranged in a tree structure having at least one parent object and a plurality of child objects, where a parent object is logically linked to a child object by passing an input event received by the parent object to the child object. At least one of the objects within the rule network invokes an action in response to receipt of a particular input event. In response to receipt of a series of events, the series of events is evaluated through the tree structure rule network. In response to the evaluation, an action is invoked at one of the number of objects. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data processing system includes a display device and a graphical pointing device to enable the construction of the rule network by a user through a graphical user interface in which each object within the rule network is represented within the display device by a corresponding graphical object.