Extensible method and system for performing management operations on known and unknown targets

• US 7,895,267 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Issued: 02/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Fletcher, Jonathan, Millican, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Tammy T
• Application Number:
  US12/252,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20090112979A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 707/758, 702/188, 726/29
• 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 client device, the system comprising:

the client device having memory for storing software;

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

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

a server utility stored on the server and executable thereon, the server utility capable of evaluating a set of data retrieved from one of the client device and a database stored on the server, the server utility further configured to compare the at least one trigger against information within the set of data to determine a match, and, when a match exists, to initiate a selection process comprising;

(a) parsing the information within the set of data using queries in the at least one selection function file;

(b) identifying one of the queries that corresponds with a portion of the parsed information;

(c) selecting one of the management functions mapped to the identified query to be run based on the set of data; and

(d) storing the selected one of the mapped management functions to an information store;

when there exists no match between the at least one trigger and information within the set of data upon comparison, the server utility configured to evaluate another set of data retrieved from one of the client device and a database stored on the server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device periodically contacts the server to provide the set of data within a message.

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 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 execution of the selected one of the management functions on each of the plurality of client devices in the logical group.

8. 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.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the least one trigger, the queries within the at least one selection function file, and the management functions are defined upon a distribution of the client device to a user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the least one trigger, the queries within the at least one selection function file, and the management functions are defined after a distribution of the client device to a user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device is further configured to send an XML message carrying the set of data to the server, and wherein the server utility extracts the at least one trigger and the at least one selection function file 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 running the selected management function involves the server utility passing command line parameters within the script file, wherein the command line parameters are pulled from the incoming XML message.

14. A method performed by a server for managing a client device, the client device having memory for storing software, the method comprising:

defining at least one trigger, at least one selection function file, and one or more management functions, wherein the one or more management functions are applied upon, at least, the client device;

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

comparing the at least one trigger against the received information to determine whether the at least one trigger is invoked by contents of the received information; and

when the at least one trigger is invoked, using the server to perform a selection process comprising;

(a) parsing the information within the set of data using queries in the at least one selection function file, wherein the utilized queries are associated with the at least one invoked trigger;

(b) identifying one of the queries that corresponds with the contents of the parsed information;

(c) selecting the one or more management functions mapped to the identified query; and

(d) executing the one or more selected management functions upon, at least, the client device.

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

16. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving information particular to the client device comprises the following steps:

receiving an XML message from the client device; and

mining the information within the XML message pertaining to one or more of a change in inventory, a change in product state, or an event.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising passing command line parameters extracted from the received XML message within the script file.

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

19. A selection process executed by a computing device, the selection process comprising:

providing triggers that are specifically defined for a target device, which is in communication with the computing device;

creating a script that performs a management operation;

providing queries that map between data accessible to the computing device and the management operation, wherein each of the queries are associated with at least one of the triggers, respectively;

receiving a message from the target device, wherein the message includes information pertaining to at least one of a change in inventory, a change in product state, or an occurrence of an event;

determining that a portion of the information invokes one or more of the triggers upon comparing the triggers with the received message;

parsing the portion of information using the queries associated with the one or more invoked triggers;

identifying one of the associated queries that is satisfied by the parsed portion of information; and

when the management operation is mapped to the identified query, performing a mapping process comprising;

(a) extracting parameters from the received message using the identified query;

(b) composing a script command line from the extracted parameters in combination with the script that performs the management function; and

(c) inserting the script command line with a communication that is returned to the target device.