EXTENSIBLE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS ON KNOWN AND UNKNOWN TARGETS

• US 20090112979A1
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec Technologies Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Fletcher, Jonathan, Millican, Arthur
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

This invention provides an extensible method for performing management operations on known and unknown targets. The extensible method is implemented on a fully extensible system where management software and triggers that cause these management operations to be run are easily extended in the field. The triggers may include information indicating a change in inventory, product state, or an event, and may originate directly from a product or from an information store containing information about installed products. The management software facilitates mining this information, parsing the information through a manifest of the triggers, and selecting functions to determine if a management operation should be executed, and if so, which management operation. Generally, the management software executes the selected management operation.

Claims

1. A system for providing managing functions on a remote device, the system comprising:

a client device having memory for storing software;

a server having memory for storing at least one trigger, at least one selection function, and at least one management function selectively executable by the client device;

a network providing data communication between the server and the client device;

a server utility stored on the server and executable thereon, the server utility capable of evaluating a set of data sent from one of the client device and a database stored on the server and parsing the at least one trigger and the at least one selection function to determine whether the at least one management function should be run based on the set of data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device periodically contacts the server to send the set of data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of data in the database comprises data pertaining to one or more of a change in inventory, a change in product state, or an event.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the change in inventory comprises at least one of a change in OS version or a change in application version.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the change in product state comprises at least one of a change in initial connection, warm boot, cold boot, or GPS position.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the event comprises at least one of a memory low state, a battery low state, an invalid battery state, a child device state, a settings changed state, or a new software installed state.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device is scheduled to contact the server at one of a requested time or a predefined event.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the least one trigger, the at least one selection function, and the at least one management function are defined upon a distribution of the device to a user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the least one trigger, the at least one selection function, and the at least one management function are defined after a distribution of the device to a user.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the server utility is capable of organizing a plurality of client devices into a logical group and capable of allowing for the event to initiate the at least one management function to be executed on each of the plurality of client devices in the logical group.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device sends an XML message to the server within the set of data, and wherein the server utility parses the at least one trigger and at least one selection function from data mined from the XML message.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the server utility sends a script file through a communication channel to the client device for execution by the client device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server utility passes command line parameters within the script file, which are pulled from the incoming XML message, by additional XPATH queries specified in the script file.

14. A method for managing a client device, the client device having memory for storing software, the method comprising the steps of:

defining at least one trigger, at least one selection function, and at least one management function that is identified through a specific trigger and selection function;

storing on a server the at least one trigger, the at least one selection function, and the at least one management function;

receiving information particular to a client device, the information pertaining to one or more of a change in inventory, a change in product state, or an event;

defining triggers and selection functions;

parsing the triggers and selection function with information particular to the end device; and

determining the appropriate at least one management function to execute.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of receiving information particular to a client device comprises mining an information database for information particular to a client device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of receiving information particular to a client device comprises the steps of receiving an XML message from the client device, mining the information pertaining to one or more of a change in inventory, a change in product state, or an event.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of sending a script file through a communication channel to the client device for execution by the client device.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of passing command line parameters that are pulled from the incoming XML message by additional queries specified in the script file.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of defining the at least one trigger, the at least one selection function, and the at least one management function further comprises defining the at least one trigger, at least one selection function, and at least one management function after the client devices have been distributed to a user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of defining at least one trigger, the at least one selection function, and the at least one management function that is identified through a specific trigger and selection function after the client devices have been distributed to a user comprises the step of passing command line parameters that are pulled from an incoming XML message of a client device by additional queries specified in a scrip file.