Apparatus and method for managing state of external apparatus

• US 20030046306A1
• Filed: 02/13/2002
• Published: 03/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Yokoshi, Noriyuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,162,492 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

An apparatus for managing a state of an external apparatus connected thereto includes a database storing the state of the external apparatus, a managed object (MO) managing the state of the external apparatus, and a control interface for the MO performing outer control from the database. The MO is provided in the database and realized by an application, and the interface is provided in the MO.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing a state of an external apparatus connected thereto, comprising:

a database storing the state of the external apparatus;

a managed object (MO) managing the state of the external apparatus, the MO being provided in said database and realized by an application; and

a control interface for said MO performing outer control from said database, the interface being provided in said MO.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a result notification interface for notifying said database of a result of the outer control performed by said MO with the result being correlated with the control, the result notification interface being provided in said MO.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a change notification interface for notifying said MO of a change in the state of the external apparatus, the change notification interface being provided in said MO.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a protocol conversion part converting a first protocol into a second protocol for transmitting information between said database and the external apparatus.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said database and said protocol conversion part comprise a server computer managing the external apparatus.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said MO performs outer control or a notification is transmitted to said MO from outside before said database completes transaction processing requested by a user application connected to the apparatus.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, further comprising an event notification interface for notifying the user application of an event, the event notification interface being provided in said MO.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein an operation statement for operating said MO is provided in a query language for posing a query to said database from the user application.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said MO is operated by using a reference statement of a query language for posing a query to said database from the user application.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control interface is provided with a function of extending transaction processing in said database.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein control of establishing a session with said database is extended so that operations of a plurality of users are performed as one transaction.

12. A method of managing a state of an apparatus, the method realizing a managed object (MO) by an application and storing the state of the apparatus in a database, the MO managing the state of the apparatus,

wherein the MO is provided inside the database and performs outer control therefrom via a control interface.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said database is notified of a result of the outer control via a result notification interface provided in the MO with the result being correlated with the control.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the MO is notified of a change in the state of the apparatus provided external to the database via a change notification interface provided in the MO.

15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein a protocol conversion part converts a first protocol into a second protocol for transmitting information between the database and the apparatus.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein a server computer comprising the database and the protocol conversion part manages the apparatus connected to the server computer.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the MO performs outer control or a notification is transmitted to the MO from outside before the database completes transaction processing requested by a user application connected to the server computer.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the user application is notified of an event via an event notification interface provided in the MO.

19. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein an operation statement for operating the MO is provided in a query language for posing a query to the database from said user application.

20. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the MO is operated by using a reference statement of a query language for posing a query to the database from the user application.

21. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control interface is provided with a function of extending transaction processing in the database.

22. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein control of establishing a session with the database is extended so that operations of a plurality of users are performed as one transaction.