System, method, and computer program product for extracting information from remote devices through the HTTP protocol

• US 7,574,489 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2006
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdullahi; Salad
• Assistant Examiner(s): VOSTAL, ONDREJ C
• Application Number:
  US11/517,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20080065784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/219
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0293 for accessing web services by means of a binding identification of the management service or element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications

Abstract

There is provided a method, system, and computer program product for extracting information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network using an HTTP communication protocol. The method includes: retrieving, from a first memory, vendor and model information of the monitored device; determining vendor and model through the web page from the monitored device; obtaining the device state information; and storing, in a second memory, the device information obtained in the accessing step, in association with the vendor and model information.

Claims

1. A method of extracting information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a monitoring device configured to monitor the monitored device by using at least one of a plurality of communication protocols through a communication network, comprising:

a. obtaining, with the monitoring device, a webpage address for a webpage stored on a server in the monitored device and a corresponding plurality of model names, which are models of a vendor of the monitored device, from a memory device storing a map structure that stores a vector pair formed by the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names;

b. accessing, with the monitoring device and an HTTP communication protocol, the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device using the webpage address obtained from the map structure;

c. parsing, with the monitoring device, the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device to find at least one of the plurality of model names that are the models of the vendor of the monitored device;

d. extracting, with the monitoring device, a model name from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the model name being a model of the monitored device; and

e. if one of the model names is found in the parsing step, then normalizing the found model as the model name of the monitored device by determining a normalized model name for the monitored device that corresponds to the model name extracted from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the normalized model name being a common model name that all of the plurality of communication protocols supported by the monitoring device can use while extracting information from the monitored device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing step comprises:

searching the webpage line-by-line until at least one of the plurality of model names is found or until all lines in the webpage have been searched.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the database stores the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names in correspondence with a vendor name. and the method further includes repeating the obtaining, accessing, and parsing steps for a plurality of webpage addresses stored in the database for the vendor name.

4. A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions which when executed by a processor on a monitoring device, causes the processor to implement a method of extracting information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to the monitoring device configured to monitor the monitored device by using at least one of a plurality of communication protocols through a communication network, the comprising:

a. obtaining, with the monitoring device, a webpage address for a webpage stored on a server in the monitored device and a corresponding plurality of model names, which are models of a vendor of the monitored device, from a memory device storing a map structure that stores a vector pair formed by the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names;

b. accessing, with the monitoring device and an HTTP communication protocol, the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device using the webpage address obtained from the map structure;

c. parsing, with the monitoring device, the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device to find at least one of the plurality of model names that are the models of the vendor of the monitored device

d. extracting, with the monitoring device, a model name from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the model name being a model of the monitored device; and

e. if one of the model names is found in the parsing step, then normalizing the found model as the model name of the monitored device by determining a normalized model name for the monitored device that corresponds to the model name extracted from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the normalized model name being a common model name that all of the plurality of communication protocols supported by the monitoring device can use while extracting information from the monitored device.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the parsing comprises:

a. searching the webpage line-by-line until at least one of the plurality of model names is found or until all lines in the webpage have been searched.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein a database stores the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names in correspondence with a vendor name, and the method further includes

a. repeating the instructions for obtaining, accessing, and parsing for a plurality of webpage addresses stored in the database for the vendor name.

7. A system for extracting information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a monitoring device configured to monitor the monitored device by using at least one of a plurality of communication protocols through a communication network, comprising:

a. means for obtaining, with the monitoring device, a webpage address for a webpage stored on a server in the monitored device and a corresponding plurality of model names, which are models of a vendor of the monitored device, from a memory device storing a map structure that stores a vector pair formed by the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names;

b. means for accessing, with the monitoring device and an HTTP communication protocol the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device using the webpage address obtained from the map structure;

c. means for parsing, with the monitoring device, the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device to find at least one of the plurality of model names that are the models of the vendor of the monitored device;

d. means for extracting, with the monitoring device, a model name from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the model name being a model of the monitored device; and

e. if one of the model names is found in the parsing step, then normalizing the found model as the model name of the monitored device by a means for determining a normalized model name for the monitored device that corresponds to the model name extracted from the webpage stored on the server included in the monitored device, the normalized model name being a common model name that all of the plurality of communication protocols supported by the monitoring device can use while extracting information from the monitored device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the means for parsing comprises:

means for searching the webpage line-by-line until at least one of the plurality of model names is found or until all lilies in the webpage have been searched.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the database stores the webpage address and the corresponding plurality of model names in correspondence with a vendor name, and the system further includes means for causing the means for obtaining, means for accessing, and means for parsing to repeat.