On-the-fly device configuration and management

• US 20070113186A1
• Filed: 11/15/2005
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhu, Yuhang, Coles, Neil, Shell, Scott, Abel, Miller, Dang, Hung
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/735
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

Translators are provided that enable automated and remote device configurations in an efficient and abstract manner. In one aspect, a device configuration system is provided. A configuration component stores one or more remote configuration trees for various devices. A translator component maps the remote configuration trees to at least one device configuration tree associated with the respective devices to enable device configuration in an automated manner.

Claims

1. A device configuration system, comprising:

a configuration component that stores one or more remote configuration trees for at least one device; and

a translator component that maps the remote configuration trees to at least one device configuration tree associated with the device.

2. The system of claim 1, the configuration component and the translator communicate across at least one network, the network includes a local network connection, a remote network connection, or a wireless network connection.

3. The system of claim 1, the translator component maps one or more Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) in one instance or address on a remote configuration component to an alternative instance or address on the device.

4. The system of claim 1, the configuration component includes one or more servers, clients, network devices, or administrative tool for deploying configuration assets.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a network protocol for deploying the configuration assets including Internet protocols, Simple Object Access Protocols (SOAP), an Extensible Markup Language (XML) protocol, or a Wireless Access Protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a device manager server that requests that operations are performed on a particular node in a device management tree associated with one or more devices.

7. The system of claim 1, the translator component translates portions of a device manager URI path and allows abstractions to the path without requiring modifications to the configuration component.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one device management server that communicates commands across a network to a configuration manager and one or more configuration service providers that are associated with a given device.

9. The system of claim 8, the device management server communicates with one or more settings on the device that appear as an abstract device management tree to the server where, individual nodes in the tree are addressed using a Location Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a component to translate URIs and values that represent objects in the abstract device management tree in order to be rerouted to a different data store transparently to the device management server.

11. The system of claim 1, the translator component is accessed in a system registry across a network, according to a Component Object model, or according to a globally unique identifier.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to enable a translator component to add or remove segments from a URI, a component to modify a value for a configuration node before the node is passed to a configuration service provider, or at least one application programming interface to translate a configuration node or to translate a value for a configuration node.

13. A computerized translation method for device configuration, comprising:

defining one or more server configuration trees;

defining one or more device configuration trees; and

automatically mapping data from the server configuration trees to the device configuration trees in order to facilitate configuration of at least one device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising automatically downloading configuration data to at least one configuration service provider associated with a device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising defining one or more application programming interfaces (API'"'"'s) to facilitate configuration of the device, the API'"'"'s include a get node API, a get node from API, an execute API, a begin transaction API, a commit transaction API, a cancel current transaction API, a set host API, and an initialize access roles API.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising employing a standardized tree that is targeted by a server to allow a particular implementation, or specific device type, to map a standardized tree to its own particular tree.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising enabling a device type to expose multiple trees.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating a combination of standardized and proprietary formis of a device management schema.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising mapping a target URI from at least one exposed schema to an internal tree.

20. A translator system for device configuration, comprising:

means for downloading device data from at least one server;

means for updating settings data for a device;

means for mapping the device data to the settings data for the device; and

means for executing the device data on the device.