Using a description language to build a management system

• US 20060184826A1
• Filed: 02/11/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Jie, Phillips, Jeffry B., Argo, Kenneth A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

Functionality and corresponding procedures are described for building a management system. The management system provides description language content (such as markup language content) which describes different aspects of the management system in a declarative manner. The management system also includes generic resource content for performing various general purpose tasks that can be applied to different applications of the management system. The management system provides a specific management-related service by combining the description language content with the generic resource content. In other words, the description language content effectively tailors the generic code content to provide the management-related service. One aspect of the description language content governs a manner of populating management information to be presented by the management system. Another aspect of the description language content governs a manner of displaying the retrieved management information to a user. Another aspect of the description language content governs a manner whereby the user can interact with displayed management information.

Claims

1. A management system, comprising:

description language content which describes at least one aspect of the management system;

generic resource content for performing at least one generic task of the management system; and

functionality for implementing the management system based on a combination of the description language content and the generic resource content, wherein the description language content tailors the generic resource content to provide the management system.

2. The management system of claim 1, wherein the management system is configured to interact with management information stored in a management information source.

3. The management system of claim 1, wherein the management system provides management information corresponding to at least one node, and wherein the description language content describes aspects of the management system on a per-node basis.

4. The management system of claim 3, wherein at least one part of the description language content corresponding to a child node is supplied by description language content associated with a parent or ancestor node.

5. The management system of claim 1, wherein there description language content is expressed in a markup language.

6. The management system of claim 1, wherein said at least one aspect described by the description language content governs a manner of populating management information to be presented by the management system.

7. The management system of claim 6, wherein said at least one aspect described by the description language content sets forth a query to be executed to retrieve the management information from a management information source, to thereby populate the management system.

8. The management system of claim 7, wherein the query defines functionality to be used for retrieving the management information.

9. The management system of claim 7, wherein the query defines the management information to be retrieved.

10. The management system of claim 7, wherein the query comprises one or more of:

a query to populate management information in a scope pane of the management system; and

a query to populate management information in a result pane of the management system.

11. The management system of claim 10, wherein:

the query to populate management information in the scope pane comprises a first query to populate the management information for an unscoped state, corresponding to a case in which the query pertains to a management information node having no relationship to a parent that governs the retrieval of information;

the query to populate management information in the scope pane additionally comprises a second query to populate the management information for a scoped state, corresponding to a case in which the query pertains to a management information node that has a relationship to a parent that governs the retrieval of information;

the query to populate management information in the result pane comprises a third query to populate the management information for an unscoped state, corresponding to a case in which the query pertains to a management information node having no relationship to a parent that governs the retrieval of information; and

the query to populate management information in the result pane additionally comprises a fourth query to populate the management information for a scoped state, corresponding to a case in which the query pertains to management information node that has a relationship to a parent that governs the retrieval of information.

12. The management system of claim 1, wherein said at least one aspect described by the description language content governs a manner of presenting retrieved management information.

13. The management system of claim 1, wherein said at least one aspect described by the description language content governs a manner whereby a user can interact with management information presented by the management system.

14. The management system of claim 13, wherein the management system is configured to provide a context menu when the user interacts with a part of the management information, and wherein said at least one aspect governs the operations that can be invoked by a user via the context menu.

15. The management system of claim 1, wherein the description language content is constructed based on a schema, wherein the schema comprises at least one of:

a master schema;

an organization-specific schema which modifies the master schema for use within the organization;

or

a user-specific schema which modifies the master schema for use by one or more users.

16. One or more machine-readable media containing machine readable instructions for implementing the management system of claim 1.

17. A management system, comprising:

description language content, including;

first description language content which governs a manner of populating management information to be presented by the management system;

second description language content which governs a manner of presenting retrieved management information; and

third description language content which governs a manner whereby a user can interact with management information presented by the management system;

generic resource content for performing at least one generic task of the management system; and

functionality for implementing the management system based on a combination of the description language content and the generic resource content, wherein the description language content tailors the generic resource content to provide the management system.

18. The management system of claim 17, wherein the management system is configured to interact with configuration information stored in a management information source, and wherein the first description language content defines a query to be executed to retrieve the management information from the management information source.

19. A method for providing management-related services, comprising:

providing description language content which describes at least one aspect of a management system;

providing generic resource content for performing at least one generic task of the management system; and

implementing the management system based on a combination of the description language content and the generic resource content, wherein the description language content tailors the generic resource content to provide the management system.

20. One or more machine-readable media containing machine readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 19.