Method and system for automatically transitioning of configuration settings among computer systems

A method for automatically applying transition configuration settings, comprising the following steps:

• receiving a transition package on a target computing system from a source computing system, wherein the transition package includes a plurality of manipulated configuration settings from the source computing system and wherein the transition package is used to transition manipulated configuration settings from the source computing system to the target computing system;
• infusing the transition package on the target computing system to automatically transition configuration settings from the source computing system to the target computing system;
• and
• optionally verifying configuration settings from the source computing system on the target computing system to ensure that the transition package has been correctly applied to the target computing system.

A computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of object-oriented data structures for a Personality object for locating configuration settings on a source computing system, the computer readable medium comprising:

• a Desktop object-oriented object for storing information about configuration settings associated with a windowed graphical user interface;
• a Network object-oriented object for storing information about configuration settings associated with a computer network;
• an Internet object-oriented object for storing information about configuration settings associated with the Internet;
• a Mail object-oriented object for storing information about configurations settings associated with electronic mail;
• and
• an Application object-oriented object for storing information about configuration settings associated with software applications.

An automatic transition system, the system comprising in combination:

• a user interface application for preparing an extraction plan and a transition plan to extract and transition configuration settings from a source computing system to a target computing system;
• an extraction application for locating and extracting configuration settings on a source computing system to transition to a target computing system, wherein the extraction application uses a Personality object to locate, and an extraction plan to extract configuration settings on the source computing system;
• a preparation application for manipulating configuration settings extracted from a source computing system and for preparing a transition package using a transition plan, wherein the transition package includes a plurality of manipulated configuration settings from the source computing system and wherein the transition package is used to transition configuration settings from the source computing system to a target computing system;
• an injection application for infusing manipulated configuration settings from a transition package to transition configuration settings from a source computing system to a target computing system;
• and
• a database for storing configuration settings extracted from a source computing system, manipulated configuration settings from a source computing system, and transition packages to transition configuration settings from a source computing system to a target computing system.

A method for automatically transitioning configuration settings from a source computing system to a target computing system, comprising the steps of:

• locating a plurality of configuration settings on one or more source computing systems;
• extracting selected ones of the plurality of configuration settings from a plurality of locations on the plurality of source computing systems;
• and
• creating a plurality of transitions packages from the selected ones of the plurality of extracted configuration settings.

A method for automatically transitioning configuration settings from a source computing system to a target computing system, comprising the steps of:

• preparing an extraction plan and a transition plan with a User Interface application;
• locating a plurality of configuration settings on a source computing system with an Extraction application using a Personality object;
• extracting the plurality of configuration settings from a plurality of locations on the source computing system with the Extraction application and the extraction plan;
• storing the plurality of extracted configuration settings in a database format on the source computing system;
• manipulating the plurality of extracted configuration settings stored in the database format with a Preparation application and the transition plan;
• preparing a transition package from the plurality of manipulated configuration settings stored in the database format with the Preparation application, wherein the transition package is used to transition configuration settings from the source computing system to a target computing system;
• preparing an Injection application including the transition package with the Preparation application, wherein the Injection application uses the transition package to transition configuration settings from the source computing system to the target computing system;
• and
• sending the Injection application including the transition package from the source computing system to the target computing system.