Using a description language to build a management system

• US 7,770,124 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2005
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Jie, Argo, Kenneth A., Phillips, Jeffry B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell; Joshua D
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALVESTEFFER, STEPHEN D
• Application Number:
  US11/056,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184826A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,999 Days
• Field of Search: 715/712, 715/708, 715/705, 715/809, 715/760, 715/762, 714/27
• US Class Current: 715/762
• 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 computer management system stored on a tangible computer-readable medium is configured to interact with management information stored in a management information source and to display a dialog-related user interface presentation on a monitor screen, the computer management system comprising:

description language content which describes at least one aspect of the computer management system, the description language content created by a user, the description language content configured to adapt general purpose computer resources to implement user-selected management-related services by invoking generic resource content specifically referenced by the description language content,

wherein the description language content comprises console-related description language content and dialog-related description language content,

wherein the console-related description language content is configured to query target functionality to extract management information from one or more stores provided by the target functionality, wherein the management information is used to construct nodes establishing boundaries of the management system, the nodes to be displayed in a scope pane of the user interface,

and wherein the management information is further used to provide detailed information about the nodes, the detailed information to be displayed within a result pane of the user interface presentation,

and wherein the dialog-related description language content is configured to provide descriptive information to adapt general purpose user interface building blocks to provide specific dialog-related user interface presentations;

generic resource content expressed in a machine-readable code language for performing at least one generic task that is applicable to a plurality of applications of the computer management system; and

functionality for implementing the computer management system based on a combination of declarative information specified in the description language content and generic resources provided by the generic resource content, wherein the description language content tailors the generic resource content to provide the computer management system with the ability to retrieve and modify configuration data for a plurality of computer systems,

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

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

3. The computer 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 computer management system.

4. The computer management system of claim 3, 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 computer management system.

5. The computer management system of claim 4, wherein the query defines functionality to be used for retrieving the management information.

6. The computer management system of claim 4, wherein the query defines the management information to be retrieved.

7. The computer management system of claim 4, wherein the query comprises one or more of:

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

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

8. The computer management system of claim 7, 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 has a relationship to a parent that governs the retrieval of information 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.

9. The computer 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.

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

11. The computer management system of claim 10, wherein the computer 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.

12. The computer 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.

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

14. A computer management system stored on a tangible computer-readable medium is configured to interact with management information stored in a management information source and to display a dialog-related user interface presentation on a monitor screen, the computer management system comprising:

description language content created by a user, the description language content configured to adapt general purpose computer resources to implement user-selected management-related services by invoking generic resource content specifically referenced by the description language content, the description language content comprising;

first description language content which governs a manner of populating management information to be presented by the computer management system, wherein the first description language content defines a query to be executed to retrieve the management information from the management information source, wherein the first description language content is configured to query target functionality to extract management information from one or more stores provided by the target functionality, wherein the management information is used to construct nodes establishing boundaries of the management system, the nodes to be displayed in a scope pane of the user interface,

second description language content which governs a manner of presenting retrieved management information, wherein the management information is further used to provide detailed information about the nodes, the detailed information to be displayed within a result pane of the user interface presentation, and

third description language content which governs a manner in which a user can interact with management information presented by the computer management system, wherein the third description language content is configured to provide descriptive information to adapt general purpose user interface building blocks to provide specific dialog-related user interface presentations;

generic resource content expressed in a machine-readable code for performing at least one generic task that is applicable to a plurality of applications of the computer management system; and

functionality for implementing the computer 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 computer management system with the ability to retrieve and modify configuration data for a plurality of computer systems.

15. A method for providing management-related services and displaying a dialog-related user interface presentation on a monitor screen, the method comprising:

providing description language content which describes at least one aspect of a computer management system, the description language content comprising;

first description language content which governs a manner of populating management information to be presented by the computer management system, wherein the first description language content defines a query to be executed to retrieve the management information from the management information source, wherein the first description language content is configured to query target functionality to extract management information from one or more stores provided by the target functionality, wherein the management information is used to construct nodes establishing boundaries of the management system, the nodes to be displayed in a score pane of the user interface,

second description language content which governs a manner of presenting retrieved management information, wherein the management information is further used to provide detailed information about the nodes, the detailed information to be displayed within a result pane of the user interface presentation, and

third description language content which governs a manner in which a user can interact with management information presented by the computer management system, wherein the third description language content is configured to provide descriptive information to adapt general purpose user interface building blocks to provide specific dialog-related user interface presentations;

providing generic resource content expressed in a machine-readable code language for performing at least one generic task that is applicable to a plurality of applications of the computer management system; and

implementing the computer 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 computer management system with the ability to retrieve and modify configuration data for a plurality of computer systems.

16. One or more machine-readable media instructions for implementing the method of claim 15.