System and method for managing jobs in heterogeneous environments

• US 9,600,216 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2005
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ly, An V., Padmanabhan, Arun, Chen, Edward F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghaffari, Abu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, James J
• Application Number:
  US11/186,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20060017969A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,262 Days
• Field of Search: 718/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1207 resulting in the user being informed about print result after a job submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1259 Print job monitoring, e.g. job status
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1261 by using alternate printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

A system and method for managing jobs are provided. A job manager is operable to normalize a command submitted by a user. The job manager then executes a first job associated with a first operating environment in response to the normalized command and executes a second job associated with a second operating environment in response to the normalized command. The first operating environment and the second operating environment are heterogeneous.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for providing a job manager, the computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions thereon to configure a processing device of a server to perform a plurality of operations comprising:

receiving, at a job manager operating on a job manager operating environment instance on the server, a plurality of job commands from a client device;

identifying, by the job manager, at least first and second job commands from the plurality of job commands, wherein the first and second job commands share a common job command nomenclature;

identifying, by the job manager, from a plurality of existing job objects, at least one job object associated with a job, the job being associated with the first job command, or with the second job command, or with both the first job command and the second job command, wherein each of the plurality of existing job objects includes a representation of a job, a reference pointer to an operating environment associated with the job, and a job property associated with the job;

identifying, by the job manager, a first operating environment associated with the first job command using a first reference pointer from the at least one job object;

identifying, by the job manager, a second operating environment associated with the second job command using a second reference pointer from the at least one job object,

wherein the first and second operating environments utilize heterogeneous job command nomenclatures;

converting the first job command into a converted first job command that has a format executable by the first operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the first operating environment;

converting the second job command into a converted second job command that has a format executable by the second operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the second operating environment;

transmitting the converted first job command to an instance of the first operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance;

transmitting the converted second job command to an instance of the second operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance;

receiving a first job status from the first operating environment, the first job status associated with the first job command and the first job status includes a property name and a property value; and

normalizing the first job status into a normalized format using a first normalization policy, normalizing the first job status comprising;

identifying a job status filter of the first normalization policy associated with;

a job scheduler identifier matching a job scheduler name from a job scheduler of the first operating environment that processed the first job command,

a property identifier matching the property name of the first job status received from the first operating environment,

the identified job status filter also being associated with a mapping of the property name of the first job status with a normalized value, and

converting the property value of the received first job status into the normalized value.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein transmitting the first job command to the first operating environment further comprises transmitting the first job command to a first job scheduler residing at the first operating environment, the first job scheduler operable to process the first job command;

and wherein transmitting the second job command to the second operating environment further comprises transmitting the second job command to a second job scheduler residing at the second operating environment, the second job scheduler operable to process the second job command.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein converting the first job command into the converted job command is performed by a first adapter operating on the job manager operating environment instance, and wherein converting the second job command into the second converted job command is performed by a second adapter operating on the job manager operating environment instance.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

receiving a second job status from the second operating environment, the second job status associated with the second job command;

normalizing the second job status into a normalized format using a second normalization policy; and

presenting the normalized first job status and the normalized second job status to the client device.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the job status filter is associated with a worker thread, wherein the worker thread is further associated with an additional job status filter associated with:

the job scheduler identifier of the job status filter, and

a different property name from the identified job status filter.

6. A system for managing jobs in heterogeneous environments, the system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive, at a job manager operating environment instance, a plurality of job commands from a client device;

identify at least first and second job commands from the plurality of job commands, wherein the first and second job commands share a common job command nomenclature;

identify, from a plurality of existing job objects, at least one job object associated with a job, the job being associated with the first job command, or with the second job command, or with both the first job command and the second job command, wherein each of the plurality of existing job objects includes a representation of a job, a reference pointer to an operating environment associated with the job, and a job property associated with the job;

identifying a first operating environment associated with the first job command using a first reference pointer from the at least one job object;

identify a second operating environment associated with the second job command using a second reference pointer from the at least one job object, wherein the first and second operating environments utilize heterogeneous job command nomenclatures;

convert the first job command into a converted first job command that has a format executable by the first operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the first operating environment;

convert the second job command into a converted second job command that has a format executable by the second operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the second operating environment;

transmit the converted first job command to an instance of the first operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance; and

transmit the converted second job command to an instance of the second operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance;

receive a first job status from the first operating environment, the first job status associated with the first job command and the first job status includes a property name and a property value; and

normalize the first job status into a normalized format using a first normalization policy, wherein the processor configured to normalize the first job status is further configured to;

identify a job status filter of the first normalization policy associated with;

a job scheduler identifier matching a job scheduler name from a job scheduler of the first operating environment that processed the first job command,

a property identifier matching the property name of the first job status received from the first operating environment,

the identified job status filter also being associated with a mapping of the property name of the first job status with a normalized value, and

convert the property value of the received first job status into the normalized value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor configured to transmit the first job command to the first operating environment is further configured to transmit the first job command to a first job scheduler residing at the first operating environment, the first job scheduler operable to process the first job command;

and wherein the processor configured to transmit the second job command to the second operating environment is further configured to transmit the second job command to a second job scheduler residing at the second operating environment, the second job scheduler operable to process the second job command.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a second job status from the second operating environment, the second job status associated with the second job command;

normalize, at the server, the second job status into a normalized format using a second normalization policy; and

present the normalized first job status and the normalized second job status to the client device.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to associate the job status filter with a worker thread, wherein the worker thread is further associated with an additional job status filter associated with:

the job scheduler identifier of the job status filter, and

a different property name from the identified job status filter.

10. A method for managing jobs in heterogeneous environments, the method executed by a processor of a server configured to perform a plurality of operations, the operations comprising:

receiving, at a job manager operating on a job manager operating environment instance on the server, a plurality of job commands from a client device;

identifying, by the job manager, at least first and second job commands from the plurality of job commands, wherein the first and second job commands share a common job command nomenclature;

identifying, by the job manager, from a plurality of existing job objects, at least one job object associated with a job, the job being associated with the first job command, or with the second job command, or with both the first job command and the second job command, wherein each of the plurality of existing job objects includes a representation of a job, a reference pointer to an operating environment associated with the job, and a job property associated with the job;

identifying, by the job manager, a first operating environment associated with the first job command using a first reference pointer from the at least one job object;

identifying, by the job manager, a second operating environment associated with the second job command using a second reference pointer from the at least one job object, wherein the first and second operating environments utilize heterogeneous job command nomenclatures;

converting the first job command into a converted first job command that has a format executable by the first operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the first operating environment;

converting the second job command into a second converted job command that has a format executable by the second operating environment, responsive to a determination that the common job command nomenclature is different from the job command nomenclature of the second operating environment;

transmitting the converted first job command to an instance of the first operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance;

transmitting the converted second job command to an instance of the second operating environment separate from the job manager operating environment instance;

receiving a first job status from the first operating environment, the first job status associated with the first job command and the first job status includes a property name and a property value; and

normalizing the first job status into a normalized format using a first normalization policy, normalizing the first job status comprising;

identifying a job status filter of the first normalization policy associated with;

a job scheduler identifier matching a job scheduler name from a job scheduler of the first operating environment that processed the first job command,

a property identifier matching the property name of the first job status received from the first operating environment,

the identified job status filter also being associated with a mapping of the property name of the first job status with a normalized value, and

converting the property value of the received first job status into the normalized value.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the first job command to the first operating environment further comprises transmitting the first job command to a first job scheduler residing at the first operating environment, the first job scheduler operable to process the first job command;

and wherein transmitting the second job command to the second operating environment further comprises transmitting the second job command to a second job scheduler residing at the second operating environment, the second job scheduler operable to process the second job command.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein conversion of the first job command into the converted first job command is performed by a first adapter on the job manager operating environment instance, and wherein conversion of the second job command into the converted second job command is performed by a the second adapter on the job manager operating environment instance.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

receiving a second job status from the second operating environment, the second job status associated with the second job command;

normalizing the second job status into a normalized format using a second normalization policy; and

presenting the normalized first job status and the normalized second job status to the client device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the job status filter is associated with a worker thread, wherein the worker thread is further associated with an additional job status filter associated with:

the job scheduler identifier of the job status filter, and

a different property name from the identified job status filter.