Network distributed product manager system

• US 20030236772A1
• Filed: 06/12/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: Ganesan, Elango, Gopalakrishnan, Sankarganesh, Makris, Stefanos Michail, Chan, Eng Guan
• Granted Patent: US 7,155,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for inventorying software products. One or more search definitions are created specifying the software products, as well as one or more network domains and individual computers, to be searched. The search is performed using an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) parser file to extract data on the specified software products from the registries of the specified network domains and individual computers. A report listing of the software products installed on the specified network domains and individual computers is compiled from this data. The report listing can be saved for later use in an inventory database.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of inventorying software products, comprising:

(a) creating one or more search definitions specifying the software products, as well as one or more computers to search; and

(b) performing a search of the specified computers using a parser file to extract data on the specified software products from registries of the specified computers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising compiling a report listing of the software products installed on the specified computers.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising saving the report listing in an inventory database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises one or more elements selected from a group comprising:

a name of the computer;

a name of the software product found on a particular computer;

a version of the software product;

a location of the software product;

a serial number of the software product; and

a user name associated with the software product.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing step further comprises performing a parser function that acts as an interpreter and uses logic specified by the parser file to parse, navigate and evaluate patterns and structures in the registries of the specified computers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the logic specified by the parser file includes a set of scripting directives organized in a hierarchical manner.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the scripting directives are evaluated for each of the registries of the specified computers.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the scripting directives comprise one or more directives selected from a group comprising:

a node used to organize the software products into product families;

a node that encloses the logic;

a node that provides a conditional check command;

a node that provides a pattern matching with iteration command;

a node that provides for evaluating an existence of one of the software products;

a node that provides for data extraction of the specified software product from a registry; and

a node that provides for evaluating a variable and for branching to an appropriate child node corresponding to a value for the variable.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic for performing further comprises logic for performing a parser function that acts as an interpreter and uses logic specified by the parser file to parse, navigate and evaluate patterns and structures in the registries of the specified computers.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the logic specified by the parser file includes a set of scripting directives organized in a hierarchical manner.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the scripting directives are evaluated for each of the registries of the specified computers.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the scripting directives comprise one or more directives selected from a group comprising:

a node used to organize the software products into product families;

a node that encloses the logic;

a node that provides a conditional check command;

a node that provides a pattern matching with iteration command;

a node that provides for evaluating an existence of one of the software products;

a node that provides for data extraction of the specified software product from a registry; and

a node that provides for evaluating a variable and for branching to an appropriate child node corresponding to a value for the variable.

9. An apparatus for inventorying software products, comprising:

a computer; and

logic, performed by the computer, for;

(a) creating one or more search definitions specifying the software products, as well as one or more computers to search; and

(b) performing a search of the specified computers using a parser file to extract data from registries of the specified computers for the specified software products.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising logic for compiling a report listing of the software products installed on the specified computers.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising logic for saving the report listing in an inventory database.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the data comprises one or more elements selected from a group comprising:

a name of the computer;

a name of the software product found on a particular computer;

a version of the software product;

a location of the software product;

a serial number of the software product; and

a user name associated with the software product.

17. An article of manufacture embodying logic for inventorying software products, the logic comprising:

(a) creating one or more search definitions specifying the software products, as well as one or more computers to search; and

(b) performing a search of the specified computers using a parser file to extract data from registries of the specified computers for the specified software products.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, further comprising compiling a report listing of the software products installed on the specified computers.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, further comprising saving the report listing in an inventory database.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the data comprises one or more elements selected from a group comprising:

a name of the computer;

a name of the software product found on a particular computer;

a version of the software product;

a location of the software product;

a serial number of the software product; and

a user name associated with the software product.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the performing step further comprises performing a parser function that acts as an interpreter and uses logic specified by the parser file to parse, navigate and evaluate patterns and structures in the registries of the specified computers.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the logic specified by the parser file includes a set of scripting directives organized in a hierarchical manner.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22, wherein the scripting directives are evaluated for each of the registries of the specified computers.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 22, wherein the scripting directives comprise one or more directives selected from a group comprising:

a node used to organize the software products into product families;

a node that encloses the logic;

a node that provides a conditional check command;

a node that provides a pattern matching with iteration command;

a node that provides for evaluating an existence of one of the software products;

a node that provides for data extraction of the specified software product from a registry; and

a node that provides for evaluating a variable and for branching to an appropriate child node corresponding to a value for the variable.