Interface plugin

• US 7,870,276 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Leung, Alan Kin Chung
• Primary Examiner(s): Shingles; Kristie D
• Application Number:
  US11/640,667
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/237, 709/230, 709/236, 717/120, 717/170
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport

Abstract

Means are disclosed by which developers of network-analysis applications may develop network-analysis applications that can interface with multiple different versions of network-management applications, wherein each version of network-management application may have a different interface implementation, without having to be familiar with the different interface implementations. In particular embodiments disclosed herein, a network-analysis application requests and receives version information from a version of a network-management application. Based on the received version information, the network-analysis application selects version-dependent interface-implementation software and then integrates the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with a version-independent interface-façade to produce an interface between the network-analysis application and the version of the network-management application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

requesting, from a network-analysis application executed by a processor device in a computer, version information from a version of a network-management application;

receiving the requested version information;

based on the received version information, selecting version-dependent interface-implementation software; and

integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with a version-independent interface-facade for the network-analysis application to produce an interface between the network-analysis application and the version of the network-management application;

wherein requesting version information comprises;

obtaining version independent communication software;

via the version independent communication software, opening a first communication channel between the network-analysis application and the network-management application; and

obtaining the version information from the network-management application via communications over the first communication channel;

wherein integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with the version-independent interface-facade includes;

utilizing the version-dependent interface-implementation software to create a second communication link between the network-analysis application and the network-management application, the second communication link directly coupling the version-dependent interface-implementation software and the network-management application, the version-independent interface-facade coupling the network-analysis application to the version-dependent interface-implementation software.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the requested version information comprises:

receiving version information sufficient to identify the version as one of a plurality of versions of the network-management application, wherein each of the plurality of versions of the network-management applications requires different interface software.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

obtaining network-management data from the network-management application through the produced interface over the second communication channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with the version-independent interface-facade comprises:

instantiating at least one software class, an identifier of the at least one software class being included in the interface-facade.

5. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

via communications from the network-analysis application through the version-independent interface-facade to the version-dependent interface-implementation software, forwarding queries from the version-dependent interface-implementation software over the second communication link to the network-analysis application.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein the version-independent interface-facade comprises at least one identifier of a software class that may be invoked by the network-analysis application to retrieve management data from the network-management application;

storing different interface implementations in different Java archive files, each Java archive file including an implementation of the at least one software class identified in the version-independent interface-facade, the network-analysis application communicatively connected to the network-management application by first acquiring version information from the network-management application and then using the acquired version information to determine which of the Java archive files is to be loaded in the version-independent interface-facade to implement the software class identified in the version-independent interface-facade; and

wherein the network-analysis application instantiates the software class identified in the version-independent interface-facade by selecting the version-dependent interface-implementation software, the version-dependent interface-implementation software being one of the different Java archive files.

7. The method as in claim 5 further comprising:

instantiating a software class in the version-independent interface facade;

wherein the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software supports the software class.

8. The method as in claim 7 further comprising:

integrating the version-independent interface-facade with multiple different versions of the version-dependent interface-implementation software for different versions of the network-management application.

9. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory unit that stores instructions associated with an application executed by the processor; and

an interconnect coupling the processor and the memory unit, enabling the computer system to execute the application and perform operations of;

requesting version information from a version of a network-management application;

receiving the requested version information;

based on the received version information, selecting version-dependent interface-implementation software; and

integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with a version-independent interface-facade for a network-analysis application to produce an interface between the network-analysis application and the version of the network-management application;

wherein requesting version information from a version of a network-management application comprises;

opening a first communication channel between the version of the network-management application and the network-analysis application by invoking version-independent communication software; and

requesting the version information from the version of the network-management application over the first communication channel, and

wherein integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with the version-independent interface-facade for the network-analysis application to produce the interface between the network-analysis application and the version of the network-management application comprises;

based on the received version information, selecting version-dependent communication software;

opening a second communication channel between the version of the network-management application and the network-analysis application by invoking the selected version-dependent communication software; and

obtaining network-management data from the network-management application through the produced interface over the second communication channel.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein receiving the requested version information comprises:

receiving version information sufficient to identify the version as one of a plurality of versions of the network-management application, wherein each of the plurality of versions of the network-management applications requires different interface software.

11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the method comprises:

obtaining network-management data from the network-management application through the produced interface over the opened communication channel.

12. The computer system of claim 9, comprising:

obtaining network-management data from the network-management application through the produced interface over the second communication channel.

13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with the version-independent interface-facade comprises:

instantiating at least one software class, an identifier of the at least one software class being included in the interface-facade.

14. Software encoded in one or more computer-readable storage media for execution and, when executed in a computer processor, operable to perform steps of:

requesting version information from a version of a network-management application;

receiving the requested version information;

based on the received version information, selecting version-dependent interface-implementation software; and

integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with a version-independent interface-facade for a network-analysis application to produce an interface between the network-analysis application and the version of the network-management application;

wherein requesting version information comprises;

obtaining version independent communication software;

via the version independent communication software, opening a first communication channel between the network-analysis application and the network-management application; and

obtaining the version information from the network-management application via communications over the first communication channel;

wherein integrating the selected version-dependent interface-implementation software with the version-independent interface-facade includes;

utilizing the version-dependent interface-implementation software to create a second communication link between the network-analysis application and the network-management application, the second communication link directly coupling the version-dependent interface-implementation software and the network-management application, the version-independent interface-facade coupling the network-analysis application to the version-dependent interface-implementation software.