Using URI's to identify multiple instances with a common schema

• US 20050114485A1
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McCollum, Raymond W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network

Abstract

A system that uses a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to uniquely identify a class of resources. The schema uses a URI with a placeholder substituted for the resource name, effectively creating a URI template. Processing of the URI template facilitates retrieval of resource class information. If specificity is required, the URI template can be converted to a specific URI by replacing the placeholder with the name of a given resource or instance to get information about that particular instance. URI templates allow probes to be identified and the probe characteristics to be understood without actually retrieving the probe for a particular instance.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates representing a class of resources, comprising:

an abstract or physical resource associated with a class of resources; and

a class identifier that uniquely represents the class of resources to which the abstract or physical resource is associated.

2. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is a uniform resource identifier (URI).

3. The system of claim 1, the class identifier uses a placeholder to represent the class of resources.

4. The system of claim 3, the placeholder is a single character.

5. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is included in an instrumentation catalog comprising a plurality of identifiers, each associated with one of an abstract resource, a physical resource, a collection of resources, and a class of resources.

6. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is converted to a specific identifier by replacing the placeholder with a name of a specific instance.

7. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is used to retrieve probe information without retrieving a probe of a particular instance.

8. The system of claim 1, the class identifier includes at least two placeholders to facilitate accessing a data subcomponent within a data component.

9. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is included as an entry in an instrumentation catalog, which entry associates information about the class identifier, including at least one of purpose, usage, values to use for placeholders, and a returned value.

10. The system of claim 1, the class identifier passes values to a method associated with instances.

11. The system of claim 1, the class identifier is configured and executed to return a list of all running instances of an application.

12. A system that facilitates representing a class of resources, comprising:

an abstract or physical resource associated with a resource class; and

a URI that uniquely represents the resource class by using at least one placeholder to represent the resource class.

13. The system of claim 12, the class identifier is converted to a specific identifier by replacing the at least one placeholder with a name of a specific instance.

14. The system of claim 12, the class identifier includes at least two placeholders to facilitate accessing a data subcomponent within a data component.

15. A computer system operating in accordance with claim 12.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions that embodies the system of claim 12.

17. A method of representing a class of resources, comprising:

receiving an abstract or physical resource associated with a resource class; and

representing the resource class with a URI by using at least one placeholder to represent the resource class.

18. The method of claim 17, the URI uniquely represents the resource class.

19. The method of claim 17, the resource class is associated with one of system devices, processes, and threads.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising converting the URI of the resource class to a URI for a specific resource instance by replacing the at least one placeholder with a specific instance name.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising retrieving management information associated with the resource class.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising employing at least two placeholders to access an instance within at least another instance.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising employing at least two placeholders to pass values to a method associated with an instance.

24. A method of accessing data representative of a class of resources, comprising:

uniquely associating a URI with a resource class, the URI uses at least one placeholder to represent the resource class; and

processing the URI to return the representative data.

25. The method of claim 24, the URI is processed on a local system and accesses an associated resource class of a remote system.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising employing at least two placeholders to pass values to a method associated with an instance.

27. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions fo performing a method for representing a class of resources, the method comprising:

uniquely associating a URI with a resource class, the URI uses at least one placeholder to represent the resource class; and

processing the URI to return the representative data.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

processing the URI on a local system; and

accessing an associated resource class of a remote system.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising employing at least two placeholders to pass values to a method associated access an instance.

30. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that facilitates a system that facilitates representing a class of resources, the system comprising:

an abstract or physical resource associated with a class of resources; and

a class identifier that uniquely represents the class of resources to which the abstract or physical resource is associated.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, the class identifier uses a single character placeholder to represent the class of resources.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, the class identifier is converted to a specific identifier by replacing the placeholder with a name of a specific instance.