text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Sep 1, 2009
|Filing date
|Dec 11, 2001
|Priority date
|Dec 11, 2000
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Vij Rajarajan, Kishnan Nedungadi, Casey Kiernan, Brijesh Bhatia, Mel MacMahon, Kevin Hodge
|Original Assignee
|Microsoft Corporation
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (73), Non-Patent Citations (45), Referenced by (55), Classifications (53), Legal Events (5)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application claims priority of the following U.S. provisional applications, all of which are incorporated herein by reference: Ser. No. 60/255,044, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Framework for Web-Based Integration of Management Applications; Ser. No. 60/255,051, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Schema Driven User Task Architecture; Ser. No. 60/255,238, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Schema Driven Property Pages; Ser. No. 60/255,041, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Schema Driven Search; Ser. No. 60/255,153, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Search Engine Extensibility; Ser. No. 60/255,043, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Management Portal Explorer; Ser. No. 60/255,050, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Object Property Representation; Ser. No. 60/255,042, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Quick Search; and Ser. No. 60/255,052, filed Dec. 11, 2000, titled Mmp modules—query driven model for locating objects & tasks.
This application is related to the following commonly assigned U.S. patent applications, all of which were filed concurrently with this application, and all of which are incorporated herein by reference: Ser. No. 10/014,120, filed Dec. 11, 2001, titled User Interface for Managing Multiple Network Resources; Ser. No. 10/014,114, filed Dec. 11, 2001, titled System and Method for Representing an Object Used in Management of Multiple Network Resources; Ser. No. 10/015,129, filed Dec. 11, 2001; titled Method and System for Query-Based Management of Multiple Network Resources; Ser. No. 10/014,177, filed Dec. 11, 2001, titled Method and System for Management of Multiple Network Resources; and Ser. No. 10/015,050, filed Dec. 11, 2001, titled Navigation Tool for Accessing Workspaces and Modules in a Graphical User Interface.
The present invention relates to methods and systems for managing multiple resources in a network environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing a method and system for performing scenario-based tasks requiring interaction with multiple resources while providing a uniform user-interface for each of the multiple resources.
Network administrators, also known as information technology staff, perform many operations throughout each day in order to manage a number of different resources associated with their respective networks. These networks may comprise any number of hardware related computer resources, e.g., printers, computer stations, servers, etc., as well as a number of software related resources, such as databases, employee profiles, email servers, applications, among others. Typically, each of these resources has a uniquely different front end or user interface that the administrator must use to modify, evaluate or otherwise configure that resource. Consequently, in order to perform their duties, administrators must be familiar with many different types of systems.
The resources are typically managed directly at the resource itself, or remotely via a two-tier type of connection. The two-tier system involves (1) a client computer system or "front-end" and (2) the resources themselves or "back-end". In the two-tier model, the client computer system must be connected to the resources, potentially through a network server, and have all the necessary software installed on the front-end to effectively manage the resources. The software relates to the front-end user interface for each different resource.
One of the problems associated with this two-tier system, in terms of network administration, is that it is necessary to store and manage the appropriate "front-end" applications for each resource, or set of related resources, at each client location where network administration will take place. By placing the appropriate "front-end" applications at the client computer level, the two-tier architecture requires a significant and ongoing investment in technology, software, and data updates.
An additional drawback to this two-tiered system is that each of the resources and their respective front-end user interface applications operate uniquely and independently for each of the resources being managed. Therefore, when a complex multi-step task (or complex scenario) must be performed, the independence of the resources requires that each separate front-end be accessed to perform functions associated with performing one step of the multi-step task or otherwise performing the individual parts of the scenario. For example, in order to add a new user to a network system, many tasks must be completed, such as adding the user to the employee database, setting up the user's computer, setting up an email account for the user, providing the user with a security badge, etc. The independent nature of the various resources required to perform these tasks results in multiple, sometimes-repetitive actions that must be performed for each front-end application each time a certain task must be completed. For instance, when trying to find information associated with a task, such as a particular user, many different resources must be accessed, again, using unique front-end applications, to search for the information relevant to a particular topic. Unfortunately however, accessing different resources in this manner is time consuming and requires a mastery of many types of applications and front-ends.
Another drawback associated with network administration, as so far described, is that in order to effectively manage each of the varied resources associated with a given network, a network administrator must be expertly familiar with each of the "front-end" applications or user interfaces that are used to control the resources. As such, significant training time and expense is required for an administrator to learn, and keeping current with, the functioning of each of the varied resources associated with the network, as well as the various associated front-end applications or user interfaces.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.
This invention relates to a management system for managing computer-related resources within a distributed or network relationship. The management system or "portal", also uses web technology, preferably XML-technology, to reduce the overhead associated with existing management tools that depend heavily on a two-tier system having client computer systems connected to the computer resources themselves—which are inherently non-uniform in nature and make administration of computer systems difficult. In an embodiment of the invention, the management tool is a scalable, web-based management framework that manages a plurality of back-end resources in a uniform manner. The resources communicate with the management system via a conforming dialog, which is schema driven. Using these communications, the management system uniformly associates information from the various resources via various multi-step, scenario-based functions, such as, for example, searches, monitoring, scripting, software deployment, etc. That is, the management system is able to provide easier, higher-level operation options to the administrator based on the associated information related to the various resources.
With respect to certain aspects, the present invention relates to a method for managing a plurality of resources in a task based manner, the method relating to receiving information from a resource related to a task, associated with a managed object of a predetermined object type and then receiving information from another resource related to a different task, but where the different task is associated with the same object type. The method then stores the information received from the second resource in association with the information received from the first resource. Next, the method receives a request to perform the management task in relation to the first managed object and determines which resource to call in response to the request; and then sends a task request to the determined resource to perform the management task.
In accordance with other aspects, the method may further include receiving a request to display task information related to the object and displaying task information received from both back-end resources in response to the request to display task information. The method may further involve receiving static task information related to the object type of the first managed object; storing the static task information in a task store; receiving dynamic task information related to the first managed object, the dynamic task information including a task handler identification within the back-end resource; and in response to the request to display task information, displaying both static and dynamic task information. The task handler identification may be a pointer to some executable code on either the first resource, second resource or pointers to code on both resources. In accordance with yet other embodiments, in response to the request to display task information, the method may involve retrieving static task information from the task store; sending a request for dynamic task information to one of the resources using the handler identification, the request including instance information for the first managed object; and receiving dynamic task information for the instance of the first managed object. The method may also involve associating a first management task with a second management task; and storing a script function, wherein the script function is callable and performs both the first management task and the second management task.
In accordance with yet other aspects the present invention relates to a system for task-based management of a plurality of resources. The system includes a management module in communication with the plurality of resources, the management module capable of receiving a request to access information related to one or more of the plurality of resources and to receive task information from the plurality of resources. Also, in response to the receipt of a request to perform a task, the management module performs task functions on more than one resource. The system may have a task manager to receive and store task information, the task manager may also communicate with the resources to perform the management task. The plurality of resources provides information to the task manager in XML format. the management task. Additionally, the system may further include a scripting manager for combining multiple tasks into a single script function.
The invention may be implemented as a computer process, a computing system or as an article of manufacture such as a computer program product. The computer program product may be a computer storage medium readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process.
A more complete appreciation of the present invention and its improvements can be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, which are briefly summarized below, and to the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and to the appended claims.
A distributed environment 100 including aspects of the present invention is shown in
Importantly, the type and scope of the resources 108 is most likely different from one network to another and, therefore, the scope of the present invention relates to manageable resources in general, as opposed to one specific set of resources. Additionally, potentially new and different resources that may be managed using aspects of the present invention may emerge over time and the present invention is not limited by the fact that these resources were not available previously. Indeed, use of the present invention lends itself to the generation of new and different resources that operate in conjunction with the present invention.
The resources 108 are operably connected to the server computer system 104 such that information can be sent to and received from the resources. These connections are common in distributed environments, and may be wireless or not. The protocols used to communicate between the resources and server computer system may be proprietary to the resource and/or the server 104. However, the protocol used should preferably allow for ability to control various features of the resources, such as being able to modify the configuration of the resource, such as being able to update its database, change its security options, etc.
The client computer system 102 may communicate with the server computer system 104 via many different protocols over various types of connections. As shown in
During operation, the client computer system 102 accesses information from the server computer system 104. The information accessed relates to the various resources 108. Once accessed, client computer system 102 displays a graphical user interface 116 to be used in managing the resources 108 or, in other embodiments, command line interfaces may be used. The client computer system 102 has a graphical user interface 116 to provide effective management capabilities of computer resources 108 through the server computer system 104. Alternative embodiments, however, do not use the graphical user interface (GUI) 116, but instead use other means of providing and receiving information from and to the user of the client computer system 102. As discussed in more detail below, the interface provides consistencies with respect to being able to manage the various resources, even though each resource may still have some of its own unique characteristics.
In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a browser application that operates in conjunction with a management module or system to coordinate operations and events behind a firewall, such as between the server computer system 104 and the resources 108. In a particular embodiment, the management system is integrated with an "Enterprise Namespace" (which catalogs objects and tasks across an operational domain) and all user interactions are schema driven using distributed services to perform all management tasks. That is, all interaction between the browser application and the management module is expressed in XML or some other schema-driven language.
Similarly, communications between the management system and other resources may also conform to a defined schema. Requiring conforming communications between resources and the management layer provides the ability to share or associate related information from different resources and to logically combine sub-functions and property information. In turn, using the associated information, the management module may provide advanced capabilities to the user by allowing task or scenario-based operations that effectively manage the multiple resources 108 in response to merely a few requests, e.g., one request to add a user may effectively modify information in two or more resources. As discussed in more detail below, the management module may include many different sub-modules or components that carry out various multi-step task or scenario-based management functions. Additionally other modules may also be incorporated to perform scripting functions (not requiring a User Interface), searching functions, customization and/or other administrative functions using the associated information from the plurality of resources 108.
An exemplary computer system 200 that may be used to perform the functions of either the client computer system 102 or the server computer system 104 to manage the various resources 108 within the system 100 according to the present invention is shown in
In its most basic configuration, the computing system 200 is illustrated in
The system 200 may also contain communications connection(s) 212 that allow the device to communicate with other devices. The communications connection(s) 212 is an example of communication media. The communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term "modulated data signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media.
System 200 may also have input device(s) 214 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc. Output device(s) 216 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may also be included. All these devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here.
In an embodiment, a software environment 300 incorporating aspects of the invention may be illustrated as shown in
In an embodiment, the system 302 includes client computer system software 308 and a user interface module 310. The client computer system software 308 provides several functions. For instance, the software 308 communicates with the management module 304 to provide requests for information and/or requests for tasks to be completed. This communication may be performed in any number of ways, e.g., it may involve the transfer of information across a network connection, such as the Internet or it may involve communication between two separate processes in a single machine. Some of these various connections are discussed above with respect to
Additionally, the client computer system software 308 also communicates with or provides functionality to the user through the user interface module 310. The user interface module 310 may employ a GUI, such as GUI 116 shown in
With respect to the resources 306 shown in
In an embodiment, each of the resources 306 has a datastore, such as datastores 323, 325 and 327 for storing information related to that resource. Additionally, each resource 306 manages one or more objects, such as objects 329, 331 and 333. An object is a particular set of data and information describing that data. For instance a user object may relate to a particular user in the network and the object may include relationship or meta information about the user. Of course, the various resources may manage other objects, such as objects relating to specific hardware units, e.g., printers or workstations, or to events or operations. Typically, the information stored about an object relates to particular properties or attributes assigned to the object. In the example relating to a user object, the information may identify attributes such as, for example, name, address, title, etc. In addition, the information stored may also indicate the type of actions that can be taken with respect to an object, e.g., edit user information, delete user object, etc.
In a particular embodiment, resources may be created by a resource developer. Before creating a resource, a developer must know what objects, e.g., objects 329, will be managed, and what object tasks will be available to the user of the resource in managing those objects. For example, an object may relate to system users, and a task may involve resetting a user's password. Next, the following XML documents may be created: (1) an Object Type XML document, which provides a description of the object types used by the plugin; (2) a Plugin Information XML document which provides plugin configuration and version information; (3) a Property Sheet XML document which provides property sheet information; and (4) a Task XML document which provides information about the tasks available for the plugin's objects. The XML documents can be created using any text editor or XML authoring tool. The XML documents describe the plugin and the plugin objects, tasks, and property sheets.
Next, in this embodiment, a Microsoft ".NET Framework" assembly is created. The assembly for the plugin may implement the following interfaces: IPluginPropertySheet, IPluginScope, and IPluginSearch, which, in general, implement methods for managing property sheets, search functions and other elements of the plugin. In order to manage the plugin, these interfaces may be accessed by the system management environment 304.
The management module 304, which may be present on a server computer system such as 104 shown in
The management module 304 uses many elements to facilitate management of the resources 306. In an embodiment of the invention, the management module 304 has a plurality of managers that operate relatively independently to perform various functions in managing the resources 306. Each manager may further have a store of information that resides on the computer system housing the manager itself, as discussed in more detail below. In an embodiment of the invention, the management module 304 has a search manager 324, a user interface manager 326, a task manager 328, a configuration manager 330, a property sheet manager 332, and a persistence manager 334. In alternative embodiments the management module 304 may include other managers. Moreover, in yet other embodiments, the management module may incorporate fewer managers than shown in
In general, a manager is a component that is data driven so that it is available relatively automatically in the management module 304 for use by any other manager or component within system 304. In addition, other management hosting user-interface components may be incorporated into the module 304 as needed for specific administrative functions, e.g., user management, operations management, configuring services, etc. These components may be created by third parties and used to provide specific user-interface support for their specific resources.
With respect to the user interface manager 326, the manager 326 provides the interface functionality between the management module 304 and the client computer system software 308. In an embodiment, the user interface module provides many advanced features, e.g., the user interface manager 326 may customize output information for a particular client computer system. Consequently, the user interface manager 326 allows for the use of many different types of client computer systems, e.g., laptops, desktops, PDAs, cell phones, etc. The user interface manager communicates with the client computer system to provide the proper format and amount of output information, as well as input information. Furthermore, the user interface manager may adapt to many different network protocols which may be used across the distributed network.
Details of the user interface manager 326 and the interaction between the management module 304 and a web browser operation on the client computer system 302 are provided below.
In general, the persistence manager 334 functions to store various predefined and authored layouts of a management console graphical user interface (console layouts) that is described in detail below. The persistence manager preferably stores these console layouts as XML type files in a memory, such as persistence store 346, shown in
With respect to the search manager 324, it generally parses and performs search operations on portions of data stored and used on the system 300. Typically, the search manager receives a query from the client computer system software 308, and performs the query using information stored in search store 336 as well as through functional interaction with the back-end resources 306 to thereby supply search results back to the client 308.
Similarly, the task manager 328 receives task requests from the client computer system software 308 and is involved in executing those tasks. The tasks generally relate to actual management or configuration type tasks, such as adding new users to the network, but may also refer to other tasks such as providing task related information to the user. The task manager 328 may perform tasks by interaction with one or more back-end resources 306. To carry out a requested task, the task manager 328 has instructional information stored in task store 340 used to recognize the functions to be performed in carrying out a specific task, such as, for example, which resources must be notified or used in performing the task. For instance, in adding a new user to the network, the task manager 328 may need to send new user information to an employee database managed by a SQL server, to an email server and to a security-clearance application, among others. In such a case, the task manager may store, in task store 340, the set of application or resources that must be notified of the fact that a new user is being added. The task manager 328, the search manager 324 and other managers are discussed in more detail below as they relate to the actual management of the resources 306.
Prior to management of a resource, the resource must be installed or registered with or on the system.
Initially, flow 400 begins as receive operation 402 receives a request indicating that a resource or "plugin" is requesting to be installed on the system. Resources that hook themselves into the management module 304 are generally referred to as plugins, where the plugin is the portion of the resource that communicates with the management module by sending and receiving messages. The request may be made by the resource itself or the system may recognize that a new resource is being plugged into the system, thus generating the request. In an embodiment the configuration manager 330 (
In a particular embodiment, the configuration manager 330 is a web service that supports defined methods that any plugin can call into to register, to un-register, and/or to update its install information. In this case, the request from the plugin merely executes one or more of these methods. Also, in this particular embodiment, the information provided by the plugin, relates to the directory where the plugin is installed on the network, such that the system or configuration manager 330 can find more information about the plugin.
Besides installation information, during the initial communication phase 402 between a plugin and the system, the plugin may provide other information relating to the objects, such as objects 329, 331 and 333 (
As an example, an Active Directory plugin may exist on the system and it may expose objects relating specific users, known in a preferred embodiment of the invention as user objects. Subsequently, an email application may be installed that recognizes user objects, and specifically provides an email address attribute to existing user objects. Furthermore, the email application may provide available actions to user objects, such as editing email addresses, sending email messages, activating or deactivating an email account, etc. These attributes and actions relating to existing objects are communicated to the configuration manager during receive operation 402. As discussed below, receiving such additional information provides the ability to extend the user object to include the additional information.
Upon receiving information from the plugin, evaluate operation 404 checks the information in the provided directory to ensure that the plugin is installed correctly. In an embodiment, the configuration manager makes sure that the plugin is installed with the correct XML file formats and validates the web service interfaces that the plugins need to expose to the system 304.
Following evaluate operation 404, supply act 406 supplies relevant information to other managers, such as the task manager 328, query or search manager 324, and/or the property sheet manager 332. The act of supplying the information may be performed in a number of ways. For instance, the configuration manager 330 may sort through the various information provided by the plugin and then send the information to each manager that may find a particular piece of information relevant. In such a case, each attribute or property provided by the resource is evaluated to determine if another manager in the system may be interested in the new resource, or some portion thereof. Upon determining that another manager may be interested in information from the new resource, the supply operation 406 effectively notifies the other manager of the information. In another embodiment, the configuration manager 330 may initiate an event that is picked up by other managers, wherein the event indicates that a new plugin has been installed and is requesting registration. Consequently, each manager is responsible for locating and gathering the relevant information.
Once the information has been supplied to the various managers, store operation 408 stores relevant information in local store(s). That is, each manager that receives information related to a newly installed and registered plugin stores some of the information, if relevant, in its local store. For instance, the task manager 328 may evaluate the new information and determine that some task-related information should be stored in the local store corresponding to the task manager. As stated above, each manager may maintain a dedicated store of information for this purpose.
Following store operation 408, the plugin is considered to be installed and registered with the management module such that future management can be controlled through the management module and, therefore, the flow 400 ends at end operation 410.
Although the flow 400 generally relates to adding a new resource to the system, it also relates to extending existing objects within the system. For example, assume the flow 400 is installing an email application to an existing system having an "Active Directory" application that exposes user objects. In this case, since the email application supports user objects, the supply operation 406 essentially supplies new user-object information to managers within the system and the store operation 408 stores the information for later use. The new user object information may include task information, e.g., creating a new email account, editing an email address, activating and deactivating accounts, etc. to the task manager. Similarly, if the email address is a searchable attribute, then this information may be communicated to the search manager 324. Essentially, the user object supported by the Active Directory is now also supported by the email application. More importantly, combining information from separate resources into a single, exposed object, provides a relatively comprehensive set of information about each user, such as all attributes and/or actions by simply accessing the object.
Consequently, the flow 400 relates to the installation of a new resource and the sharing of information between separate modules to provide more comprehensive task handling as well. In the example provided above, assume one of the existing activities for user objects relates to adding a new user, as provided by the Active Directory. Next, assume that the email application was installed according to the flow 400 and that during the supply operation 406, the task manager 328 received supported, user-object tasks, including creating a new account for a new user. The task manager 328 may then recognize that when an "add user" task is executed by the administrator, the system calls both the Active Directory application to add a new user profile and the email application to create a new email account for the new user.
As stated above, in a particular embodiment, the addition of new resources is handled by the configuration manager 330 (shown in
The configuration manager 330 also provides other managers, such as the search manager 324 and the task manager 328, necessary information related to a newly installed and registered resource. Consequently, the various managers can store, within their respective stores, any information related to the new resource so that future communications are possible between the managers and that resource. The new information may relate to the location of the new resource, how to communicate with the new resource, that the new resource should be contacted when a predetermined task is performed, the type of information necessary to perform the task, etc.
As stated, in an embodiment the configuration manager 330 is a web service. Potential web service methods to the configuration manager 330 are provided below in Table 1. The resources 306, as well as other managers, such as the search manager 324 and the task manager 328, may use the methods shown and described in Table 1 to get information about the resources or plugins 306 installed on the system.
Methods to the Configuration Manager
String PluginInstalled(
This method is called
string sPath
by a plugin when it is
done installing itself.
Where sPath is the relative path to
the plugin to be installed
String PluginUnInstalled(
This method is called
string sPath
by a plugin when it is
done un-installing itself.
Where sPath is the relative path to
the plugin to be uninstalled
String PluginUpdated(
This method is called
string sPath
when a plugin updates
its installation.
Where sPath is the relative path to
the plugin to be updated
String DisablePlugin(
This method can be
string sPath
called by the
administrator of the
Where sPath is the relative path to
management module to
the plugin to be disabled
Disable a plugin that is
registered to the
management module.
String EnablePlugin(
This method can be
string sPath
called by the
administrator of the
Where sPath is the relative path to
management module to
the plugin to be enabled
Enable a plugin that is
registered to the
Management Module.
String DisableAll( );
This method can be
DisableAll does not require any
called by the
administrator of the
Management Module to
Disable all plugins.
String EnableAll( );
This method can be
EnableAll does not require any
called by the
administrator of the
Management Module to
Enable all plugins.
String GetPluginsXML( );
This method returns all
GetPluginsXML does not require
the high level
any parameters
information about
plugins, like their name,
description and
directory install path.
Plugins can use this
GetLocalApplicationRootDirectory( )
method to get
information about the
Management Module
does not require any parameters
Application directory.
Plugins can use this
GetLocalApplicationBinDirectory( );
method to get
information about the
does not require any parameters
Management Portal Bin
Plugins can use this
method to get
( );
information about the
Management Portal
does not require any parameters
Plugins Directory
Using the methods shown and described in Table 1, in combination with flow 400 shown in
In a particular embodiment, the information provided to the configuration manager 330 is provided in XML format. Using the XML format, the configuration manager 330 is able to parse the information and understand whether other managers need to be notified of any particular aspect of the XML file. Typically, the resource converts the file to XML format prior to a transmission to the configuration manager 330. Alternatively however, a separate component may be supplied by the system 304 to perform the translation.
The resources 306 manage objects, such as objects 329. Therefore, each resource 306 provides information to the system 304 about its objects, e.g., resource 312 provides information about objects 329. In an embodiment, the resource may provide object information in a property sheet which may be in XML format and which defines a generic object, e.g., such as a generic user object. Additionally, the property sheet may comprise one or more property pages. The property sheet may therefore relate to a combination of property pages. Each property page is defined in an XML formatted portion of code that describes the layout, e.g., where the information is going to be rendered on the user interface, what types of controls are located on the page, etc. Also the XML code for the property page may provide a pointer to a piece of code that populates data regions of the page as well as another pointer that identifies another piece of code that is called to modify the information, e.g., with a set or modify data command.
With respect to certain aspects of the present invention, the property sheets that are exposed to the system 304 by one resource are extendible by other resources.
As shown in
Independent resources or applications may define one or more property pages associated with a particular object, such as user object 500 shown in
As stated above, the property pages may be based on an XML schema, which defines both the types of controls that a property page will contain and the layout of those controls on a page. Table 2 illustrates an example of a Document Type Definition or DTD that defines an XML schema for creating a property page.
Example DTD for an XML Schema for a Property Page
<!ELEMENT propertySheets
<!ELEMENT propertySheet
propertySheetID, name, description,
(setDataHandler, propertyPage+)>
<!ELEMENT propertyPage
(propertyPageID, name, description,
attributes, layout)>
<!ELEMENT attributes
<!ELEMENT attribute
(attributeID, name,
defaultValue?, displayHints?)>
<!ELEMENT layout
<!ELEMENT row
<!ELEMENT item
(attributeID?, displayHints)>
<!ELEMENT displayHints
(Type, (Text | Label)?, rows?, cols?,
Size?, Show)>
<!ELEMENT Label
<!ATTLIST Label
width CDATA "20%" style
(left|right|top) "left">
<!ELEMENT Text
<!ELEMENT rows
<!ELEMENT cols
<!ELEMENT propertySheetID
<!ELEMENT propertyPageID
<!ELEMENT attributeID
<!ELEMENT name
<!ELEMENT description
<!ELEMENT getDataHandler
<!ELEMENT setDataHandler
<!ELEMENT defaultValue
<!ELEMENT Type
<!ELEMENT Size
<!ELEMENT Show
An example definition of a property page is shown in Table 3. The example shown in Table 3 relates to the schema shown in Table 2 and defines a property page containing a gender data field allowing the user to choose between male or female. The property page depicted in Table 3 also supplies the management module, such as module 304 shown in
Example XML Property Page Definition
Provide the users email details
In order for a resource to expose property sheet functionality, one embodiment of the invention suggests that the resource implement an interface, such as IPluginPropertySheet which may be accessed by the management module 304. In particular, a property sheet manager 332 may be implemented as part of the module 304 to communicate with resources that have exposed property sheet functionality. The interface IPluginPropertySheet provides a resource or plugin with a property sheet handler: an interface that may be called by the property sheet manager 332 to get or set property sheet information. Alternative embodiments may utilize other communication methods in order to provide management capabilities over the property sheets.
The IPluginPropertySheet object defines the methods show and described below in Table 4.
Methods Implemented by Resource Property Sheet Interface
Properties GetData(
Retrieves data from
string strID
the property sheet.
string strObjectInstanceID
A "Properties"
object containing
the properties for
strID is the identifier for the property
the object identified
sheet and
strObjectInstanceID is the instance
identifier for the object whose data is
is returned by the
used by the property page.
given example.
Properties GetDataForCondition(
This method returns
ConditionData conditiondata );
the plugin's data for
Where conditiondata defines the
a property sheet,
condition that the properties will be
based on a
based on.
condition, in
"Properties" object.
Properties GetPageInitData (
Retrieves initial
PageInitData pageinitdata );
data for the property
Where pageinitdata is the data used to
sheet, i.e., initializes
initialize the property page.
the data for a
property page, in
"Properties" object.
Task SetData(
Sets data in the
Properties psData );
property sheet.
Where psData is the property sheet
Task is a an object
data values that have changed.
that should be run
on a client system.
Using the methods shown in Table 4, the management module 304, and in particular, a property sheet manager, may get data from a plugin or resource and modify data that is stored in the resource with respect to property pages.
The flow 600 begins as receive operation 602 receives information related to a supported object. In one embodiment, receive operation relates to the property sheet manager 332 receiving a property page and an indication of the parent object, i.e., property sheet for that property page. Upon receiving the property page, a determine operation 604 determines whether the parent object, i.e., property sheet for that property page has already been defined by another resource. If so, the flow branches YES to append an operation 606.
The append operation 606 appends the received property page to the property sheet. Essentially, the property sheet definition is modified, such as by the property page manager to include a pointer to the new property page. Thus, the next time the property sheet is called, the new property page information is displayed along with other property pages for the supported object.
Following the append operation 606, a store operation 608 stores the revised property sheet information, such as in a property sheet datastore, e.g., store 344 shown in
The ability to extend an existing property sheet by other, independent resources provides the management module 304 with an effective means of displaying and launching functions based on an object-centric approach. That is, an object, such as a user object, may be located by the management module 304 and displayed. The displayed object may include property pages supplied by more than one resource. Thus, the display is based on the user object and not based on the many and various resources that may or may not support the user object. In other words, displaying an object may display all the information about that object, even if some of the information is supplied by different resources.
Besides providing an object-centric approach to displaying information, the environment 300 (
Tasks or task groups may be displayed on user interface control 702 by a task management service module 704. A further description of a GUI suitable for the user interface control 702, or task list, is described below with respect to the management console. In a particular embodiment, the user of the system may search for tasks using either quick search or advanced search techniques, as described below. Searching for the tasks causes the task manager 328 and task management service 704 to return a list of tasks that match or are related to the task that was requested. Alternatively, the user may browse a list of available tasks with the control of the task manager 328. In an embodiment, browsing may be performed by scrolling through a hierarchical list of tasks based on the application or resource associated with the task or based on which object is associated with the task.
In a particular embodiment, the task list 702 displays a list of tasks associated with a given instance or object. These tasks can be provided by the framework in response to a query and subsequent generation of a "results list" described below. Thus, the framework provides the end user with tasks that are appropriate based on the environment and state of the data object when the user locates and/or selects such an object. The task list can also be segmented into task groups. Groups can be predefined by the application or redefined by the administrator.
Once the set of tasks has been discovered by the user and displayed in the task list 702, the list 702 provides a launch point for the tasks. That is, a user may provide an indication to execute a task from the user interface. Once indicated, the task management service 704 receives the task request. In turn, the task manager 328 may begin to carry out the task. The task manager 328 may need to reference the task request with information in the task store 340 to locate which resources need to be accessed and which parameters need to be passed to those resources.
Upon determining which resources must be accessed, the task manager 328 communicates with those resources, such as resources 318, 320 and 322 through a SOAP proxy and a firewall, as shown in
In displaying the tasks, different display methods may be implemented. In a particular embodiment of the present invention, an XML definition of tasks, task groups and the handlers for those tasks is used. An example XML definition of tasks, task groups and the handlers for those tasks is provided below in Table 5. In this case, the "Manage Computers" task groups will, when rendered, contain a "Properties" and a "Terminal Server" task.
Sample XML File for Generating and Displaying a Task List
<name>Manage Computers</name>
<description>Change the properties</description>
<handler><![CDATA[alert ('Not implemented');]]></handler>
<name>Terminal Server</name>
<description>Launch terminal server</description>
// task handler script here
Using an XML file similar to the one shown in Table 5, a task list, such as task list 702 shown in
Initially, the flow 800 begins as a receive operation 802 receives a request to display a task list for a selected object. That is, prior to receive operation, a user or the system selects an object and conducts a request indicating that the associated tasks for that object should be collected and displayed. For example, an administrator may highlight a particular user object. Highlighting or otherwise selecting the user object may, in one embodiment, automatically causes a request to be made for the tasks associated with that object. The request to collect and display all the tasks for the object typically includes the object type and the information about the instance or context of the object.
Upon receiving the request, a collect operation 804 collects all the definitions that statically apply to the particular object type. Static tasks are defined as those tasks which may also be performed on a particular object. In one embodiment, when a task is created by a resource and associated with an object the resource may designate the task as a static task and that task may always be performed on any object of that object type. For instance, for a user object having user information, static tasks may relate to editing the user information and/or deleting the object. Since these tasks are static, the collect operation 804 may locate the tasks in a local store of information, such as store 340 shown in
While the collect operation 804 is collecting static task definitions, a get operation 806 gets the task handler address for the particular object type. The task handler address may be found in the definition of the object and/or property page itself. The address indicates a particular resource that may have dynamic tasks that are to be displayed.
Using the task handler address, a request is generated and sent to the identified resource to collect all dynamic tasks. Dynamic task information relates to functions that may be performed on particular data object, e.g., a particular user, but may not be available for all objects of that type, e.g., all users. Additionally, dynamic tasks may relate to the particular instance of an object, e.g., a task relating to disabling an account is dynamic since it depends on whether the account has been enabled.
Following the request for dynamic tasks at operation 806, a receive operation 808 receives the dynamic tasks from the indicated resource. Once the static and dynamic functions have been collected and located, a merge operation 810 merges the task information. Upon merging the information, a render operation 812 renders the list information to the user in the form of task list 702 (
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, the task manager 328 may also provide the ability to group functions or tasks that may be performed across multiple resources. In one embodiment, the grouping of functions are implemented as "scripts" and actions taken within the user interface trigger these scripts, thereby passing various parameters. The parameters may be provided explicitly by the user or the parameters may be extrapolated, by the framework from the context of the user interface when a particular script is invoked. Having all functions implemented as scripts increases the manageability of objects. Scripts may run on a local server or be pushed to the managed resources and executed on the resource. Additionally, scripts can be amalgamated in process to support customization for the end user. Extensibility of functions relates to the extending application simply adding a new script to the library of the original application or resource.
In an embodiment, the scripts for all applications are stored in a central script library and are referenced by a script identification value. An end user may invoke a script by referencing the script using the identification value while passing in a set of parameters. Alternatively, a query may be passed in place of the parameter list, which causes the script to be executed on all objects that satisfy the query parameter.
Following the execute operation 902, a convert operation 904 converts the macro into an XML format file. The conversion necessarily separates the actual tasks from the parameters used in performing each task. Next, using the XML file, a create operation 906 creates a script from the XML file. Creating the script involves storing the task information independent from the parameters. Some indication may be stored along with the task information within the script that prompts the user to supply one or more needed parameters. Alternatively, the indication may refer to the store to determine the information from the context that the script was executed, or to locate supplied parameters from a query list.
Upon creating the script, a store operation 908 stores the script in the script datastore. The user may call the script at a later time to execute the plurality of functions. Alternatively, the script may be executed automatically in response to a predetermined event or as a periodically timed task.
To illustrate the scripting functionality, consider the following example. Assume that a human resources specialist is charged with creating a new user profile within the company. The specialist may record a macro of all the separate tasks that must be performed in order to create a new user profile. Those tasks may include notifying the accounting department to inform them that they need to address payroll information for the user and notifying the corporate security department indicating that a new key card should be made. Similarly, other relevant departments may be notified. A script of all these functions and notifications is created and stored in a script store so that the next time a new user profile must be generated; only the script needs to be called. In this case, the script prompts the specialist for user information to complete the profile and then the script notifies accounting, corporate security, etc. Consequently, the specialist does not have to perform repetitive steps in creating a new user profile for each new user.
With respect to other aspects of the present invention, the management module 304 provides search capabilities. The environment 300 and the management module 304 includes a search or query manager 324 that is used to carry out various searches, such as searches for objects types, particular objects, resources, tasks, groups of tasks, among others. The search manager 324 interacts with the user interface manager 326 to receive queries and, in turn interacts with resources 312, 314 and 316 to locate requested items based on the given query.
In an embodiment of the invention, the manager 324 uses a schema driven search method which greatly enhances the flexibility of traditional searching capabilities by allowing the search parameters to be fully configurable through XML schema by the resources themselves. In essence, a resource may choose what object attributes can be searched over and in what domains the search is to be performed while still maintaining the uniformity of the user-interface and the architectural interface across different renderings of the management module 304.
More particularly, in an embodiment the plugin may provide such information to the configuration manager at process step 402 described above in conjunction with
Based on the information provided by the plugin, the management module 304 can generate the appropriate user-interface, as well as pass the schema to other resources to ensure an appropriate search is performed and the correct search results are displayed. In this embodiment, the environment does not have to specify all attribute names that are searchable for all possible object types. Instead, the plugin provides this information.
Additionally, as shown in
In an embodiment, the protocol relates to use of an XML schema that conforms to the following Document Type Definition (the rules of the schema) shown in Table 6. The DTD shown in Table 6 provides the schema for defining an object type, which includes the schema to define the objects search parameters.
TABLE 6 Object Type XML DTD <!ELEMENT objectTypes (objectType+)> <!ELEMENT objectType (id, domain?, name, imageURL, quickSearchHandlerURL, quickSearchHandlerType, advancedSearchHandler, advancedSearchUI, adInfo?, attributes, tasks)> <!ELEMENT attributes (attribute+)> <!ELEMENT attribute (((isScope, scopeHandlerURL, scopeHandlerType) | (isInstanceID?, id, name, isQuickSearchable?, dataType, advancedQueryDisplayHints, resultsDisplayHints)))> <!ELEMENT (show, requiredValue, defaultValue, advancedQueryDisplayHints order, width)> <!ELEMENT resultsDisplayHints (show, order, width)> <!ELEMENT tasks (static?, dynamic?)> <!ELEMENT static (taskgroup)> <!ELEMENT taskgroup (id, name, task+)> <!ELEMENT task (name, description, id, icon, handler)> <!ELEMENT handler (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT dynamic (publishers)> <!ELEMENT publishers (publisher+)> <!ELEMENT adInfo (objectCategory, objectClass)> <!ELEMENT publisher (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT objectCategory (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT objectClass (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT icon (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT show (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT requiredValue (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT defaultValue (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT order (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT width (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT scopeHandlerURL (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT scopeHandlerType (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT isInstanceID (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT isQuickSearchable (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT dataType (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT isScope (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT id (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT domain (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT imageURL (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT (#PCDATA)> quickSearchHandlerURL <!ELEMENT (#PCDATA)> quickSearchHandlerType <!ELEMENT (#PCDATA)> advancedSearchHandler <!ELEMENT (#PCDATA)> advancedSearchHandlerUI
An example XML schema to define a search is shown in Table 7.
Sample XML Schema to Define a Search
<NAME> Computer </NAME>
<ISDEFAULT> True </ISDEFAULT>
<NAME> Office </NAME>
<DATATYPE> String </DATATYPE>
The above example defines part of an object having an attribute named "Office" that is to be exposed to the search system. That is, when an end user of the management system 304 wishes to search for an object of this type they can do so using the office attribute.
In another embodiment, the line "http://MMP/Search/ADS_Search.ASP" is replaced with "http://MMP/Search/ADS_Search.asmx" such that the example defines part of an object including a pointer to the search engine that is to be used to search for objects of the above type. In this case the pointer is now http://MMP/Search/ADS_Search.
In a particular embodiment, the search manager 324 may provide two options to the user, a quick search and an advanced search. With respect to the advanced search function, the user may supply an advance-search query to the search manager 324, which, in turn, parses the query. Based on the results of the parsing action, the search manager may then access the various resources and subsequently search information stored in conjunction with those resources to locate the requested information. Many different advanced search algorithms may be implemented to perform the search function. The search manager 324, however, controls the searches performed, either using plugin search engines, such as engine 1002 or a search engine located on the resource management module 304, not shown. Results from searches may be marshaled back to the user through a search management service 1004 and displayed in the user interface 1006, as described below.
Upon receiving the query, a send operation 1104 sends the query to the search manager 324 (
Following determine operation 1106, a package operation 1108 packages the data into an XML formatted file. The query may include attributes that can be passed to a resource. However, prior to passing to the resource, the information is first put into a recognized format, e.g., XML. Once packaged, a send operation 1110 sends the information or data to the resource. The resource that receives the information relates to the resource that manages the search handler. The resource then performs a search amongst its managed objects to locate the requested information.
Following the send operation 1110, and once the resource has located the requested information, a receive operation 1112 receives the results from the resource. The received information may be formatted into an XML format. Additionally, any parsing of the results may be done by the receive operation 1112. Furthermore, should the results contain multiple pages of information, the receive operation 1112 may also page the results into memory. Next, a send operation 1114 sends the results of the query to the client. As stated, the results may contain a significant amount information and therefore the results may be divided into pages for the client.
The method shown and described in conjunction with
On the other hand, the quick search feature is intended to compliment the advanced search feature by providing the plugin with a way to expose their most frequently sought data to the user through a simple, easy to use search interface. In an embodiment, the quick search feature is a subset of the advanced search, i.e. it's queries feed into the advanced search algorithm. Alternatively, the quick search operates independently of the advanced search algorithm. Further particulars related to the quick search features are discussed in detail below with respect to the management console GUI.
As described, the systems and methods of the present invention allow for the management or administration of a number of varied resources in a computer network. As will now be described in greater detail, the management or administration of the varied resources may be carried out via a unique graphical user interface displayed on a client computer system, such as the client computer system 302 shown in
As described above, the user interface manager 326, of the management module 304, provides appropriate communication links and protocols between the client computer system 302 and the management module 304 in a manner that allows a browser, such as the web browser 116 on the client computer system 116, to provide remote resource management capabilities to a system administrator. In one embodiment, the interface manager 326 includes a web service. As is known, a web service is a unit of application logic providing data and services to other applications, such as the web browser 116 running on the client computer system 102.
As also described above an application, such as the browser 116, may access the web service of the interface manager 326 using web protocols and data formats, such as HTTP, XML, and SOAP. During an initial access of the interface manager 326 by the browser 116, the interface manager 326 downloads a small application, herein referred to as the console applet 313, to the web browser 311, as shown in
In one embodiment of the present invention, the layout of a format of the particular management console being rendered in the browser 311 on the client computer system 116 is specified by an XML document sent from the interface manager 326 to the console applet 313. In this embodiment, the console applet then opens the XML file by loading the XML file into an XML Document Object Model (DOM) object. The DOM object is then used to access the data defining the format of the consol. The console applet 313 then interprets the data and generates appropriate HTML, DHTML, or scripts (such as java script or jscript) for rendering the management consol in the browser 311.
Additionally, data relating to requests or inquiries from the client environment 302 to the management module 304, or responses from the management module 304 to the client environment 302, may also be formatted and transferred between the client environment 302 and the management module 304 as XML documents. Once the interface manager 326 has received a request or inquiry from the client environment 302, the interface manager functions to distribute the request or inquiry to the appropriate manager or resource.
The format of the XML documents sent between the console applet 313 and the interface manager 316 are predetermined. In one embodiment, the format of any XML document sent between the interface manager 326 and the console applet 313 is specific to the particular manager that will ultimately access or handle the data contained in the XML document. For example, as described above, information or requests that are to be handled by the search manager may be transmitted in an XML document that has a format that is uniquely configured for search specific data and commands.
As shown in
As is known, a web browser is a client application, software component, or operating system utility that communicates with server computers via standardized protocols such as HTTP, FTP and Gopher. Web browsers receive documents from the computer network and present them to a user. Microsoft Internet Explorer, available from Microsoft Corporation, of Redmond, Wash., is one example of a web browser.
The console 1200 employs a GUI-type visual presentation to convey information to and receive commands from users for controlling or accessing one or more of the resources 306. The console 1200 relies on a variety of GUI elements or objects, including windows, icons, text, drop-down menus, dialog boxes, toolbars, buttons, controls, and the like. A user, such as a system administrator, may interact with the GUI presentation of the console 1200 by, for example and without limitation, using a pointing device (e.g., a mouse) to position a pointer or a cursor over an object and "clicking" on the object or by using keys on a keyboard.
The style and behavior of any component that is laid out on the console can be persisted. Users can completely customize their consoles, specifying everything from the content and configuration of the zones to the level of information displayed in a property page. Customized consoles can be saved for personal use or published for use by others.
As shown in
The console selection element 1222 allows a user to select from among a number of predefined consoles. That is, the user may use the console selection element 1222 to access a number of different "console layouts." Additionally, consoles may be saved, as described below. A system administrator may "author" a number of different consoles, each of which may contain different elements and features. For example, and without limitation, consoles may be authored to include graphical control elements that are appropriate for various scenarios or tasks. Alternatively, consoles may be authored to include graphical control elements that are specific to a specific user's job functions or administrative level.
As shown in
To select a particular console layout, the user may use a mouse (or keyboard) to move a cursor to the entry point 1330, and thereafter click on (or select) the entry point 1330. When the user clicks on the entry point 1330, the drop-down menu 1332 is displayed, as shown in
Additionally, located in the drop-down menu 1332 of the console selection element 1222 are a console "save" element 1334 and console "save as" buttons 1336. The console "save" element 1334 may be used to save the current state of the console layout 1200, under the current console name. In contrast, the console "save as" element 1336 may be used to save the current state of the console 1200 under a different console name. In one embodiment, the console "save" element 1334 and the console "save as" 1336 element 1336 may be implemented as buttons located in the drop-down menu 1332, as shown in
As shown in
In addition to the "hide left zone" element 1342 and the "hide right zone" element 1344, in one embodiment, the show drop-down menu 1340 may also include other elements for selecting or deselecting the display of the various tools located in the first zone 1212 and/or the second zone 1216 of the console 1200. For example, as shown in
Returning to
The second zone display element 1220 allows a user to "toggle-off" and/or "toggle-on" the second zone 1216. That is, the second zone display element 1220 allows a user to add or remove the second zone 1216 from the console 1200. The second zone display element 1220 may be implemented in a similar manner to that just described with respect to the first zone display element 1218.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the first zone 1212 and the second zone 1216, are operable to display one or tools, where a tool is a graphical user interface element that provides a user quick access to features or functions of the console 1200. For example, as shown in
The work zone 1214 is where much of the functionality of the console 1200 is carried out. As shown in
Located within the workspace is workspace window 1252, which is operable to display one or more modules 1254. Also included in the workspace 1250 is a scroll bar 1255. The scroll bar is a graphical control element that allows a user to view information outside of the viewing area of the workspace window 1252. For example, the scroll bar 1255 may be used to scroll the workspace window 1252 in a manner that brings one or another module of the modules present in the workspace 1250 into view in the workspace window 1252. As is typical, the scroll bar 1255 includes a scroll box 1256 that may moved up and down inside the scroll bar using a mouse. Scroll arrows 1258 at each end of the scroll bar 1255 can also be clicked to move the viewing area of the workspace window 1252 in a specified direction. Additionally, the scroll box may be moved up and down inside the scroll bar 1255 by clicking inside of the scroll bar in an area not occupied by the scroll box 1256, as is conventional.
Located within the workspace window 1252 are one or modules 1254. Where a workspace is mapped to job functions, modules 1254 typically map to a specific object(s) upon which work is done. As discussed above, there are two types of distinct modules—those which reside in a workspace and pertain to a specific object type and those which reside in the first and second zones, herein referred to as tools. Table 8, shown below, illustrates a list of several modules that may be displayed within the various zones.
Example Modules
Module Name
Quick Search
Module to launch and perform any job
function by quickly searching object types.
Launch point for workspaces and modules
provides user with a snapshot of the current
state of the console.
Provides user with a snapshot of the status
of requests, tasks, or objects.
Provides user with explicit notifications
when predetermined rules are met.
Advanced Search
Provides advanced search functions for the
user beyond capabilities of Quick Search.
Alternative searching capability through
Browse techniques.
Results List
Workspace area for storing the results of a
query, may be provided by the Quick
Search or Advanced Search function.
Task List
Workspace area provided to display a list
of tasks associated with given instances.
Task Pads
Tool that allows for customization of
available tasks.
Property Sheets
Workspace display of various properties
for the particular object selected.
Wizards provide the ability to specify
complex workflow relationships between
Workspace area for viewing various data,
such as monitored data in graph format.
Editable Grid
Editable Grid functions similar to a
spreadsheet. Provides the user the ability
to view, edit and modify tabular data.
Drawing Surface
Drawing area providing visual display of
workflow for such items as Wizards and
other components.
Enterprise Event Log
Viewer to provide administrator with the
useful display of events alerts or trouble
Module for scheduling events for managed
Hosted or Spawned
Other applications used within a
predetermined workspace, such as Instant
Messenger or Terminal Server.
Each module 1254 contains a module window 1260. Each module window 1260 includes one or more associated panes. As shown in
In general, the object pane 1264 is operable to display information about one or more objects that are applicable to the module 1260 in which the object pane 1264 resides. For example, the object pane 1264 may include a list of objects associated with a given module that may be selected for access by a user. The objects in the object pane may be presentation in a number of ways, depending on the number of objects to be displayed and the preferences of the author of the console 1200. For example, and without limitation, the objects may be displayed in a simple object list, as shown in
The task pane 1266 is operable to display various tasks that are or applicable to, and available for, an object that has been selected in the object pane. As with the object pane, tasks in the task pane 1266 may be presentation in a number of ways, depending on the number of tasks to be displayed and the preferences of the author of the console 1200. For example, and without limitation, the tasks may be displayed in the task pane 1266 as a simple task list, as shown in
Once a task has been selected from the task list 1266, the function of the selected task may be immediately carried out or, alternatively, a work pane 1268 may be displayed showing additional information and/or presenting additional functionality, or sub-tasks, related to the selected task. The additional information, the presented additional functionality, and/or the related sub-tasks, may be displayed in the work pane 1268 in a number of ways, depending on the type of information or functionality that is to be displayed and the preferences of the author of the console 1200.
The query pane 1262 is operable to search multiple resources associated with the software environment 300 (
The query pane 1262 may be presented in a number of ways, depending on the type of resources that are to be queried and the preferences of the author of the console 1200. In one embodiment, such as shown in
In one embodiment, the result of executing a query produces one of three states: 1) no objects found; 2) one object found; or 3) multiple objects found. If an object or multiple objects are found, they are displayed in the objects pane 1264. As such, refreshing or modifying the query may result in different objects being displayed in the object pane.
The query pane provides a unique and cohesive approach to object selection and management. Instead of requiring the network administrators to navigate to an application and then navigate to an object or group of objects, as was common in prior network administration tools. The query pane 1262 allows a network administrator to navigate directly to an object or group of objects. Once an object(s) is located the network administrators is then able to perform all task that are associated with that object(s).
Turning now to
As described above, the quick search tool 1418 provides a hierarchical selection structure that enables a user to quickly search for different objects from a variety of resources and to populate the work zone 1414. More particularly, the quick search tool 1418 includes GUI controls that allow a system administrator to easily combine a specific object instance (or instances) and an action to be performed against that object instance, as well as specify the scope of the search.
As shown in
In one embodiment, the quick search drop-down menu 1518 includes an object type selection element 1530, a search scope selection element 1532, an instance(s) selection element 1534, an action selection element 1536, and a quick search initiation element 1538, each of which will now be described.
The object type selection element 1530 provides a graphical representation of the various object types that are searchable by a user, such as a system administrator. The number and selection of the various object types that are displayed by the object type selection element 1530 may be preselected, such as by an author of a consol. Additionally, the number and selection of the various object types that are displayed by the object type selection element 1530 may vary when either a different console 1400 or a different workspace 1426 are selected.
The object type selection element 1530 may display the various object types for selection in a number of ways. Furthermore, the object type selection element 1530 may provide any of a number of different mechanisms by which an object type may be selected from the display of the various object types. For example, and without limitation, the object type selection element 1530 may display the various object types for selection in the form of a list of objects in a drop-down menu 1610, as shown in
Once the user has selected a particular object from the list of objects 1612, the search scope selection element 1532 is enabled and may be used to define the scope of the desired quick search. In one embodiment, the user may define the scope of the search either by entering a desired scope. Alternatively, based on the type of object selected, the scope of the search may be defined to reflect an appropriate list of areas within which to search for the object instance the user has specified. For example, as shown in
The search scope selection element 1532 may display the various search scopes for selection in a number of ways. Furthermore, the search scope selection element 1532 may provide any of a number of different mechanisms by which a search scope may be selected from the display of the various search scopes. For example, and without limitation, the search scope selection element may display the various scopes for selection in the form of a list in a drop-down menu, in the same manner as described above with respect to the object type selection element 1530 shown in
As shown in
After selecting a particular scope for the search, the user may then select an instance of the object type specified using the instance selection element 1534. An instance of an object type is specific, named object. For example if an object is of a type type 'User', then the instance will be an actual user. The instance selection element 1534 may display the various instances for selection in a number of ways. Furthermore, the instance selection element 1534 may provide any of a number of different mechanisms by which a instance may be selected from the display of the instances. For example, and without limitation, the instance selection element 1534 may display the various instances for selection in the form of a list in a drop-down menu. Alternatively, the instance selection element 1534 may allow the user to input the desired instance(s) manually. For example, as shown in
After selecting a particular instance(s) for the search, the user may select from a number of actions that are available for the selected object type, scope, and instance(s) using the action selection element 1536. The action selection element 1536 may display the various actions for selection in a number of ways. Furthermore, the action selection element 1536 may provide any of a number of different mechanisms by which an action may be selected from the display of the actions. For example, and without limitation, the action selection element 1536 may display the various instances for selection in the form of a action list in a drop-down menu 1810, as shown in
The available action list is populated with a list of allowable actions for the selected object, again provided to the configuration manager by the resource during the installation process. As discussed above, available actions may be segmented into static and dynamic tasks. A static action or task is one that the resource knows will be associated with all instances of the given object, e.g. the reset password action is one that is associated with all user objects and can therefore be labeled as static. A dynamic task on the other hand is a task that may or may not be associated with a given object depending on its state, e.g. a "disable account" task is one that is only valid for users who's accounts are enabled. If a user's account is already disabled then the "disable account" task is not displayed in the available actions list, e.g., list 1014. In an embodiment, the drop down list on the quick search pane is populated only with static tasks. Once the results set has been returned and a specific object has been selected then the task list in the scratch module will be populated with both dynamic and static tasks. The tasks are obtained by querying the task manager, discussed above.
Once a user has selected an object type, scope, instance(s), and action, the search is initiated using quick search initiation element 1538. The quick search initiation element 1538 may be displayed in a number of ways. For example, and without limitation, the quick search initiation element 1538 may display as a search button, as shown in
In one embodiment, it is not necessary for the user to select an action with the action selection element 1536 before a search is initiated. In such a case, if the user does not select an action, the results of the search will be returned for whatever object instance(s) has been selected, together with all associated actions.
When the user selects GO button 1538, a search string is generated and embedded in an XML document described above with respect to Table 7. The XML document is passed to the search management service (an asmx file that exposed the search manager object) and then passed directly to the search manager 324. The search manager 324 parses the query string in the XML document to obtain the object type identification. The search manager then searches an object type database and obtains the XML schema for the provided object type, such as during the determine operation 1106 described above. The search manager then inserts the query string from the query string XML document into an attribute designated as quick searchable.
The resulting XML document has both an object type definition and a search string, and this XML document makes up the query that is passed along to the resource. This query contains the URL or other identifier for the search handler, as specified by the plugin. The search manager 324 reads the value of the search handler URL and creates a proxy, passing it the URL and the XML query. The proxy enables the system to reach the URL regardless of its location (e.g. behind a firewall etc.) as shown in
In a particular embodiment, the proxy communicates the query XML document to the search handler using SOAP as shown in
Once a quick search has initiated, the results of that search may be displayed in a number of different ways in the console 1200. For example, as shown in
Using the above system and method, administrators are able to use a search driven model for locating and working with objects, of differing types, without having to navigate through varying applications will increase user satisfaction and productivity. That is, since administrators work with many different objects of differing types, the above system provides a framework that allows an administrator to work with a specific object or group of objects, without first navigating to the application that is associated with the desired object type and then navigating to the specific object or group of objects. Instead of requiring the user to navigate to an application and then navigate to an object or group of objects, the above framework allows the user to navigate directly to the object or group of objects. Once an object(s) is located, the user is able to perform all tasks that are associated with that object(s).
Returning now to
The explorer drop-down menu 2118 is operable to display a list of workspaces 2120 and modules 2122 associated with the workspaces 2120, as shown in
In an embodiment, a visual indicator may be associated with a selected workspace and/or module. A number of mechanisms may be employed to indicate a particular workspace and/or module has been selected. For example, as shown in
Selection of a particular workspace 2120 in the explorer tool 1420 will cause that particular workspace to be displayed in the work zone 1414 of the console 1400, as shown in
There may be any number of explorer tool 1420 taxonomies that define the particular workspaces and modules that will appear in a given explorer tool 1420, and the arrangement of those particular workspaces and modules in a given explorer tool 1420. Table 9 illustrates an exemplary explorer tool taxonomy that may be employed in the management of a number of resources. It should be understood that the particular taxonomy illustrated in Table 2 is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting in any way. The exemplary explorer tool taxonomy simply provides one example taxonomy to illustrate how an explorer tool taxonomy may be arranged.
Example Explorer Tool Taxonomy
Conferencing Server
Application Center Server
Performance Monitoring
Counter Collection
Application Dependencies
Operations Management
Distributed Events
Model Applications and Dependencies
Software Distribution
Add/remove Programs
Web Structures
Net Meeting
Net Theater
Streaming Media
Files and Shares
Group Policy
Turning now to
In response to the selection of the particular object 2220, a list of applicable tasks 2222 is displayed in the task pane 2214. Included in the list of applicable tasks 2222 is a properties task 2224, that has been selected in the task pane, as shown by highlighting. In response to the selection of the properties task 2224, the work pane 2216 has been populated with a property sheet 2226 associated with the particular object 2220 selected in the object pane 2212.
Included in the property sheet 2226 is a list of property pages 2228 that are associated with the property sheet 2226. Included in the list of property pages 2228 is a general property page 2224 that has been selected, as shown by highlighting. In response to the selection of general property page 2224, the work pane 2216 has been populated with a property page 2230 including number of controls for editing the general property page 2224. In one embodiment, the user may, at this point, compare various property sheets for different objects by simply selecting another object in the object pane. For example, the user may use the tab key to "tab" between the objects in the object pane. In such a case, the property sheet for the newly selected object will replace the property sheet of the previously selected object in the work pane.
In one embodiment, the selection of multiple property sheets for display and/or manipulating in the work pane 2316 may be accomplished as follows. As shown in
In response to the selection of the particular objects 2320 and 2334, a list of applicable tasks 2322 has been displayed in the task pane 2314. Included in the list of applicable tasks 2322 is a compare properties task 2332 that has been selected in the task pane, as shown by highlighting. In response to the selection of compare properties task 2332, a section of the work pane 2316 has been populate with a property sheet 2326 associated with the object 2320 titled "Kristy Wallace." Included in the property sheets 2326 is a list of property pages 2328 that are associated with the property sheet 3326. Included in the list of property sheets 2326 is a general property page 2324 that has been selected in the list of property pages 2328, as shown by highlighting. In response to the selection of general property page 2324, the work pane 2316 has been populated with a general property page 2330 associated with the "Kristy Wallace" object 2320, as well as a general property page 2340 associated with the "Tim Jones" object 2320. Each of the property pages includes a number of controls for editing the general property pages 2330 and 2340.
In the case where more than two objects are selected for comparison, the size and position of the work pane 2316, as well as the size and position of the property sheet and associated property pages may be dynamically adjusted. Additionally, if a great number of objects are selected for comparison by a user for display in work pane 2316, alternate display elements may be employed to show the property sheet and property pages. For example, and without limitation, the various property pages may be displayed in a tabular form in the work pane 2316.
Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features, methodological acts, and computer readable media containing such acts, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific structure, acts or media described. Therefore, the specific structure, acts or media are disclosed as preferred forms of implementing the claimed invention.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|May 6, 1993
|Feb 28, 1995
|Xerox Corporation
|User interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects
|Dec 20, 1991
|Jun 27, 1995
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for computer aided software engineering
|May 12, 1994
|Aug 15, 1995
|Aggregate Computing, Inc.
|Integrated remote execution system for a heterogenous computer network environment
|Aug 17, 1992
|Nov 28, 1995
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|Network management system and network status display method
|Sep 22, 1993
|Jan 2, 1996
|National Instruments Corporation
|Method and apparatus for providing attribute nodes in a graphical data flow environment
|Oct 23, 1992
|Feb 13, 1996
|Net Labs, Inc.
|Apparatus for remotely managing diverse information network resources
|Aug 30, 1993
|Mar 19, 1996
|Taligent, Inc.
|System for browsing a network resource book with tabs attached to pages
|Mar 8, 1995
|Aug 5, 1997
|Bmc Software, Inc.
|System for monitoring and managing computer resources and applications across a distributed computing environment using an intelligent autonomous agent architecture
|Sep 20, 1995
|Jan 27, 1998
|Galileo Frames, Inc.
|Non-overlapping tiling apparatus and method for multiple window displays
|Nov 17, 1995
|Jun 2, 1998
|Hewlett-Packard Co.
|System and method for automatically and reliably managing global resources in a computer network
|Dec 20, 1995
|Aug 4, 1998
|Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
|Workspace management apparatus
|Jun 13, 1995
|Aug 25, 1998
|Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson
|Telecommunication system
|Mar 1, 1996
|Nov 17, 1998
|Chromatic Research, Inc.
|System and method for dynamic resource management across tasks in real-time operating systems
|Dec 24, 1996
|May 18, 1999
|Correlate Technologies Ltd
|System and method for managing semantic network display
|Jun 4, 1993
|Jun 8, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Database search facility having improved user interface
|Dec 29, 1995
|Jul 27, 1999
|Hewlett-Packard Co
|System and method for on demand registration of tasks
|Jan 31, 1997
|Sep 7, 1999
|The Foxboro Company
|Dynamic property sheet system
|Dec 6, 1996
|Sep 7, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Computerized design automation method using a single logical PFVL paradigm
|Jun 19, 1997
|Oct 5, 1999
|Nec Corporation
|Network management system with a hardware resource management module shared between networks
|Oct 30, 1997
|Dec 14, 1999
|Novell, Inc.
|Navigation between property pages with tabs and menus
|Aug 16, 1996
|Jan 11, 2000
|Inprise Corporation
|Development system with methods for improved visual programming with hierarchical object explorer
|Jul 1, 1996
|Apr 18, 2000
|Sun Microsystems, Inc.
|Object-oriented system, method and article of manufacture for a client-server session web access in an interprise computing framework system.
|Jul 16, 1998
|May 23, 2000
|E Guanxi, Inc.
|Dynamic organization model and management computing system and method therefor
|Jan 30, 1998
|Jun 13, 2000
|Intel Corporation
|User interface for displaying information about a computer network
|Jan 29, 1998
|Jun 20, 2000
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Computer program product and apparatus for retrieval of OLE enabled BLOBs from an RDBMS server
|Mar 11, 1997
|Jun 27, 2000
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|System using environment manager with resource table in each computer for managing distributed computing resources managed for each application
|Oct 16, 1998
|Sep 26, 2000
|Commerce One, Inc.
|Market makers using documents for commerce in trading partner networks
|May 21, 1999
|Nov 28, 2000
|Call; Charles Gainor
|Methods and apparatus for disseminating product information via the internet using universal product codes
|Mar 14, 1997
|Jan 9, 2001
|Novell, Inc.
|Apparatus and method for performing actions on object-oriented software objects in a directory services system
|Jan 11, 1996
|May 15, 2001
|Cabletron Systems, Inc.
|Replicated resource management system for managing resources in a distributed application and maintaining a relativistic view of state
|May 7, 1997
|May 15, 2001
|Sybase, Inc.
|Development system with reference card and parameter wizard methodologies for facilitating creation of software programs
|Jun 18, 1998
|Jun 26, 2001
|International Business Machines Corp.
|Method for mapping a text-oriented user interface to a graphics user interface by means of a class library
|Sep 30, 1999
|Jul 31, 2001
|Rockwell Technologies, L.L.C.
|Data structure for use in enterprise controls
|Jan 21, 1999
|Aug 7, 2001
|Wired Solutions, Llc
|System and method for facilitating a windows based content manifestation environment within a WWW browser
|Oct 1, 1999
|Sep 25, 2001
|Eagle Engineering Of America, Inc.
|Network-based system for the manufacture of parts with a virtual collaborative environment for design, developement, and fabricator selection
|Nov 2, 1999
|Oct 2, 2001
|Idini Corporation
|Directory-based failure recovery and load balancing system
|Jul 22, 1999
|Oct 23, 2001
|Barbara L. Barros
|Graphic-information flow method and system for visually analyzing patterns and relationships
|Apr 3, 1998
|Nov 13, 2001
|Avid Technology, Inc.
|Taxonomy of objects and a system of non-modal property inspectors
|May 10, 1999
|Jan 8, 2002
|Microsoft Corporation
|System and method for facilitating generation and editing of event handlers
|Oct 19, 1998
|Jan 29, 2002
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Specification language for defining user interface panels that are platform-independent
|Mar 31, 1998
|Feb 5, 2002
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Data processor controlled display system with a plurality of selectable basic function interfaces for the control of varying types of customer requirements and with additional customized functions
|Aug 25, 1998
|Mar 19, 2002
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method and computer program product for graphical user interface (GUI) organization control for extending GUI applications
|Dec 6, 1999
|Jul 9, 2002
|Shyam Sundar Sarkar
|Method and apparatus for processing markup language specifications for data and metadata used inside multiple related internet documents to navigate, query and manipulate information from a plurality of object relational databases over the web
|Aug 25, 1998
|Aug 6, 2002
|Highground Systems, Inc.
|Method and apparatus for providing data storage management
|Oct 23, 2000
|Oct 22, 2002
|Hewlett Packard Company
|System and method for managing the execution of system management tasks
|Sep 21, 1998
|Dec 31, 2002
|Microsoft Corporation
|Extensible user interface for viewing objects over a network
|Aug 3, 1999
|Feb 18, 2003
|Worldcom, Inc.
|Method and system for maintenance of global network information in a distributed network-based resource allocation system
|Aug 31, 1999
|Jun 3, 2003
|Intel Corporation
|Active topology discovery in active networks
|Jul 1, 1999
|Jul 15, 2003
|Netshadow, Inc.
|Method and system for gathering information resident on global computer networks
|Sep 24, 1998
|Oct 7, 2003
|Worldcom, Inc.
|Integrated proxy interface for web based report requester tool set
|Jan 12, 2001
|Nov 4, 2003
|Saba Software, Inc.
|Method and apparatus for managing data exchange among systems in a network
|Nov 12, 1999
|Jan 13, 2004
|Taskserver.Com, Inc.
|Computer-implemented task management system
|May 5, 2000
|Jan 13, 2004
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Systems, methods and computer program products for locating resources within an XML document defining a console for managing multiple application programs
|Mar 8, 2001
|Jan 27, 2004
|Fujitsu Services Limited
|Electronic content store
|May 1, 2000
|Mar 23, 2004
|Xilinx, Inc.
|Client-server task distribution system and method
|Sep 1, 2000
|May 4, 2004
|Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
|Object-oriented exchange managing system and exchange resources installing method
|Jul 26, 2002
|Jun 1, 2004
|Stretch, Inc.
|Programmable logic core adapter
|Nov 23, 1999
|Jun 22, 2004
|Invensys Systems, Inc.
|Methods and apparatus for controlling object appearance in a process control configuration system
|Apr 30, 1999
|Aug 17, 2004
|Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
|Intelligent management module application programming interface with utility objects
|Apr 21, 2000
|Sep 7, 2004
|Sprint Communications Company, L.P.
|System and method for remediating a computer
|Jul 8, 1999
|Dec 21, 2004
|Osi Software, Inc.
|Method for creating master recipes
|Jan 29, 1999
|Feb 15, 2005
|Intermec Ip.Corp.
|Remote anomaly diagnosis and reconfiguration of an automatic data collection device platform over a telecommunications network
|Jan 31, 2000
|Aug 2, 2005
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Hybrid task and file oriented user interface
|Aug 16, 2000
|Sep 20, 2005
|Entrust, Inc.
|Controlling use of a network resource
|Dec 11, 2001
|Feb 7, 2006
|Microsoft Corporation
|User interface for managing multiple network resources
|Oct 31, 2001
|Apr 10, 2007
|Avaya Technology Corp.
|Dynamic allocation of processing tasks using variable performance hardware platforms
|Dec 11, 2001
|Dec 11, 2007
|Microsoft Corporation
|System and method for representing an object used in management of multiple network resources
|Dec 11, 2001
|Mar 4, 2008
|Microsoft Corporation
|Method and system for query-based management of multiple network resources
|Mar 1, 2001
|Oct 11, 2001
|Yoshiko Naito
|System and method of managing resource in network system
|Dec 20, 2001
|May 16, 2002
|Nicholas James J.
|Non-intrusive interactive notification system and method
|Apr 7, 2000
|Feb 13, 2003
|Reuven Battat
|Method and apparatus for intuitively administering networked computer systems
|Aug 19, 2003
|Aug 5, 2004
|Alcorn Robert L.
|Internet-based education support system, method and medium with modular text-editing component for use in a web-based application
|Jun 13, 1997
|Dec 17, 1997
|The Foxboro Company
|Dynamic property sheet system
|"Application Software-Vendor Contenders", Network Computing, 1994, n 507, 69, 1994.
|"The Programmable Web: Web Services Provides Building Blocks for the Microsoft.NET Framework", Mary Kirtland, MSDN Magazine, msdn online at msdn.Microsoft.com.
|"Wyse puts new spin on thin client", Jun. 1999, Network World, v16, n24, p. 20.
|Dorshkind, Brent, "Microsoft Server", Jun. 1992, LAN Technology, v8, n6, p. 89(1).
|Jay Tyo, "Pilot gets serious about OLAP," 1998, Information Week, n692, pp. 55-58.
|Johg-Tae Park, "Web-based customer network management", 1997, IEEE, vol. iss., Jun. 11-12, 1997, pp. 160-169.
|John Bass et al., "King of the NOS hill Netware holds the performance reins, but Windows 2000 reigns supreme for features overall", Jan. 2000, Network World, p. 71.
|John Bass, "Remote control hardware options Vendor-specific add-on cards outperform stand-alone devices", Mar. 2000, Network World, p. 53.
|John Cox, "Oracle shedding its skin for the Net", 1999 Network World, p. 12.
|Notes, Greg R., "On the Nets", Online 1996, 20 5, pp. 65-68.
|PCT International Search Report for PCT/US01/48014.
|S.P. Reiss, "Cacti: a front end for program visualization", 1997 IEEE Symposium Information Visalization, Oct. 1997, pp. 46-49, 120.
|Schroeter et al., "An Application Interface with Multiple Workspaces: The Context Switcher", 1996 IEEE, p. 318-319.
|Thomas Powell, "The challenges of a wireless Web", 2000, Network World, p. 81.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Apr. 28, 2004, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Aug. 10, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Aug. 6, 2004, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,120.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Aug. 8, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Feb. 12, 2004, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Feb. 21, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Feb. 3, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Feb. 7, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Mar. 25, 2009, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 11/346,807.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Mar. 29, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Mar. 8, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,120.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Nov. 28, 2003, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Oct. 20, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Oct. 7, 2004, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,050.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Sep. 13, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Sep. 17, 2004, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, dated Sep. 17, 2008, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 11/346,807.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Apr. 5, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Aug. 27, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Feb. 5, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Jul. 19, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Jun. 29, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Jun. 5, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated May 19, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,050.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated May 22, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,177.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Nov. 14, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,114.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Nov. 16, 2007, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Nov. 30, 2006, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,129.
|U.S. PTO Action, Notice of Allowance dated Sep. 6, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/014,120.
|U.S. PTO Action, Suppl. Notice of Allowance dated Jun. 9, 2005, regarding U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,050.
|W3C, Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0, Feb. 10, 1998, Recommendation 10, pp. 1-38.
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Feb 3, 2006
|Mar 30, 2010
|Microsoft Corporation
|User interface for managing multiple network resources
|Feb 9, 2007
|Dec 7, 2010
|Research In Motion Limited
|System and method for managing databases associated with respective personal information manager service accounts
|May 23, 2003
|Jul 19, 2011
|Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
|System and method for discovering managed information technology resources
|Sep 22, 2010
|Jun 4, 2013
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders
|Sep 30, 2004
|Dec 3, 2013
|The United States Postal Service
|System and method for providing centralized management and distribution of information to remote users
|Aug 2, 2011
|Feb 4, 2014
|Microsoft Corporation
|Optimized datacenter management by centralized task execution through dependency inversion
|Jul 30, 2010
|Aug 5, 2014
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for activating an item in a folder
|Aug 3, 2010
|Sep 2, 2014
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for creating a new folder
|Sep 22, 2010
|Nov 4, 2014
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders
|Sep 22, 2010
|Nov 4, 2014
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders
|Sep 30, 2004
|Apr 7, 2015
|At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
|Electronic calendar for automatically scheduling a plurality of events based on a scheduling request and obtained additional information
|Sep 22, 2010
|Oct 27, 2015
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders
|Mar 21, 2011
|Feb 16, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Device access using voice authentication
|Oct 31, 2013
|Mar 22, 2016
|United States Postal Service
|System and method for providing centralized management and distribution of information to remote users
|Jan 10, 2011
|Apr 19, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Intelligent automated assistant
|Apr 2, 2008
|May 3, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Methods and apparatus for altering audio output signals
|Sep 26, 2014
|May 10, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Intelligent automated assistant for TV user interactions
|Jan 5, 2006
|Jul 12, 2016
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for providing profile enhancement using scheduling information
|Aug 31, 2011
|Aug 2, 2016
|Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development Lp
|Automating software testing
|Mar 6, 2012
|Nov 1, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Handling speech synthesis of content for multiple languages
|Mar 12, 2013
|Nov 15, 2016
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and user interface for voice-activated navigation and browsing of a document
|Sep 5, 2013
|Jan 3, 2017
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Managing data distribution to networked client computing devices
|Jun 17, 2015
|Jan 3, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Mobile device having human language translation capability with positional feedback
|Jun 9, 2012
|Jan 17, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Intelligent automated assistant
|Feb 2, 2007
|Jan 24, 2017
|Blackberry Limited
|Electronic device and method of meeting notification
|Jun 6, 2014
|Feb 28, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Unified ranking with entropy-weighted information for phrase-based semantic auto-completion
|Jun 6, 2014
|Apr 11, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|System and method for user-specified pronunciation of words for speech synthesis and recognition
|Apr 4, 2016
|Apr 18, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Intelligent text-to-speech conversion
|Nov 13, 2015
|Apr 25, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|User profiling for voice input processing
|Jun 5, 2014
|Apr 25, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|System and method for detecting errors in interactions with a voice-based digital assistant
|Aug 25, 2015
|May 9, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Caching apparatus for serving phonetic pronunciations
|Dec 21, 2015
|May 9, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Fast, language-independent method for user authentication by voice
|Mar 30, 2016
|May 30, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Intelligent automated assistant for TV user interactions
|Aug 25, 2015
|May 30, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Social reminders
|Dec 7, 2015
|Jul 4, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Unit-selection text-to-speech synthesis using concatenation-sensitive neural networks
|Sep 30, 2014
|Jul 25, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Reducing the need for manual start/end-pointing and trigger phrases
|Nov 21, 2014
|Jul 25, 2017
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for providing profile enhancement using scheduling information
|Aug 31, 2015
|Aug 1, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Competing devices responding to voice triggers
|Jun 9, 2016
|Aug 1, 2017
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for providing profile enhancement using scheduling information
|May 22, 2015
|Sep 12, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Predictive text input
|Feb 29, 2016
|Sep 26, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders
|May 28, 2015
|Oct 10, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Text prediction using combined word N-gram and unigram language models
|Feb 25, 2015
|Oct 24, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Text correction processing
|Aug 28, 2015
|Nov 14, 2017
|Apple Inc.
|Method and apparatus for discovering trending terms in speech requests
|May 23, 2003
|Nov 25, 2004
|Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
|System and method for discovering managed information technology resources
|Sep 30, 2004
|Sep 8, 2005
|Pat Mendonca
|System and method for providing centralized management and distribution of information to remote users
|Sep 30, 2004
|Feb 23, 2006
|Aaron Jeffrey A
|An electronic calendar
|Feb 3, 2006
|Jun 15, 2006
|Microsoft Corporation
|User interface for managing multiple network resources
|Jan 5, 2006
|Jul 5, 2007
|Ibm Corporation
|System and method for providing profile enhancement using scheduling information
|Feb 2, 2007
|Aug 7, 2008
|Researech In Motion Limited
|Electronic device and method of meeting notification
|Feb 9, 2007
|Aug 14, 2008
|Research In Motion Limited
|System and method for managing databases associated with respective personal information manager service accounts
|Sep 22, 2010
|Oct 13, 2011
|Imran Chaudhri
|Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Managing Folders
|Sep 5, 2013
|Mar 5, 2015
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Managing data distribution to networked client computing devices
|Nov 21, 2014
|Mar 19, 2015
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for providing profile enhancement using scheduling information
|Oct 7, 2016
|Jan 26, 2017
|GoneBusy, Inc.
|Specifically programmed computer-implemented engine systems for real-time on-demand discovery of available time slots across programmed schedule objects and methods of use thereof
|U.S. Classification
|709/226, 707/999.01, 709/225, 709/224, 709/223
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Mar 18, 2002
Owner name: MICROSOFT CORPORATION, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:RAJARAJAN, VIJ;NEDUNGADI, KISHNAN;KIERNAN, CASEY;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:012719/0428
Effective date: 20020307
|Feb 15, 2011
|Certificate of correction
|Oct 4, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Dec 9, 2014
Owner name: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MICROSOFT CORPORATION;REEL/FRAME:034541/0001
Effective date: 20141014
|Feb 16, 2017
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8