Federating legacy/remote content into a central network console

• US 7,930,696 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schreiber, Elizabeth A., Bohn, Joseph A., McGee, Jason R., Choudhary, Samar, Britton, Kathryn H., Mitchell, Christopher C.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): KAWSAR, ABDULLAH AL
• Application Number:
  US12/168,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270929A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,016 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Content from multiple remote/legacy consoles is aggregated within a central console to provide a single point-of-access for managing remote resources. Preferred embodiments deploy the central console as a network-accessible application, and this console application communicates with remotely-located console applications (and/or other locally-executing functions) that carry out tasks selected from the central console by an administrator and then return content generated by those tasks for rendering in the central console. The run-time environment used at the central console is not required to match the run-time environment of the remote/legacy consoles.

Claims

1. A system for rendering content in a centralized console, comprising:

a computer comprising a processor; and

instructions executable, using the processor, to implement functions of;

determining one or more composable elements that are available for execution, wherein at least one of the composable elements is executable to administer one or more corresponding remotely-located resources;

presenting, on a user interface of the centralized console, a view from which execution of the available composable elements can be invoked;

requesting execution, from the presented view, of function whereby one or more of the composable elements are invoked, thereby causing the invoked one or more composable elements to execute to administer the one or more corresponding remotely-located resources;

aggregating results of the invoked composable elements in an aggregated view with content resulting from execution in an execution context that differs from an execution context of at least one of the invoked composable elements; and

rendering the aggregated view on the user interface of the centralized console.

2. A computer program product for aggregating content for rendering in an administration console view of a centralized administration console, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media comprising computer-readable program code executed by a computer for:

aggregating, by a content aggregation portal, content created by a plurality of resource administration tasks, wherein;

at least two of the resource administration tasks run in heterogeneous execution contexts;

each of the resource administration tasks creates content pertaining to administering of at least one resource; and

the content created by the resource administration tasks is formatted for rendering in remote administration consoles; and

rendering the aggregated content in the administration console view of the centralized administration console.

3. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein the aggregating is performed using frame support of a client browser and the rendering is performed by the client browser.

4. A computer program product for rendering task-related content in a centralized console, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media and comprising computer-executable program instructions when executed by a processor for:

determining one or more invocable software entities of one or more resource administration tasks that are available for execution, wherein at least one of the invocable software entities of at least one of the resource administration tasks is executable to administer one or more corresponding remotely-located resources;

presenting, on a user interface of the centralized console, a view from which execution of the available invocable software entities can be invoked by selection of the resource administration tasks;

responsive to selection, from the presented view, of a selected one of the resource administration tasks for which at least one of the invocable software entities of the selected resource administration task is executable to administer the one or more corresponding remotely-located resources, using address information associated with each of the one or more corresponding remotely-located resources to send a message thereto, wherein the message requests execution of the at least one invocable software entities of the selected resource administration task, thereby causing those at least one invocable software entities to execute to administer the one or more corresponding remotely-located resources;

aggregating results of the execution in an aggregated view; and

rendering the aggregated view on the user interface of the centralized console, without regard to whether the invoked software entities executed in an identical execution context at each of the remotely-located resources.

5. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein software is remotely deployed that receives at least one of the execution request messages sent to the remotely-located resources, and responsive to receiving one of the sent execution request messages, invokes function pertaining to the administering of the one or more of the remotely-located resources and returns the results thereof, for the aggregating, as a response to the sent execution request message.

6. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein the aggregated view comprises content that is equivalent to content of a local view that would be locally rendered for the selected resource administration task at remote consoles of the remotely-located resources if not using centralized console to invoke the selected resource administration task.

7. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein the determining excludes invocable software entities and resource administration tasks for which a current user of the centralized console is not an authorized user.

8. The computer program product according to claim 4, further comprising computer-executable program instructions for:

determining whether a current user of the centralized console is already authenticated for the selected resource administration task and if not, presenting a log-in view that would be locally rendered for enabling the user to log in to a remote console of the one or more remotely-located resources if the centralized console was not being used to invoke the selected resource administration task;

transparently forwarding credentials of the user, for the log-in view, to a remotely-located authenticator associated with the selected resource administration task; and

if the remotely-located authenticator determines that the user is authorized to execute the selected resource administration task and is authenticated using the forwarded credentials, rendering a view for that resource administration task at the centralized console, but suppressing the rendering of the view otherwise.

9. The computer program product according to claim 4, further comprising computer-executable program instructions for:

maintaining a history of remote consoles associated with each of the remotely-located resources on which resource administration tasks were selected from the centralized console for execution; and

programmatically logging a current user of the centralized console off from each remote console in the history when the user logs off from the centralized console.

10. The computer program product according to claim 4, wherein the aggregating further comprises:

determining a layout applicable to the aggregated view;

determining a position within the layout where the results are to be rendered; and

formatting the aggregated results in the aggregated view according to the determined position within the layout.