Managed object framework for network management application development

A method of developing one or more application programs in operative communication to manage a network including one or more servers, wherein at least one application program is associated with each server, the method including the steps:

• a) defining one or more managed objects associated with the network in an object-oriented resource definition language and storing the definition of the one or more managed objects in one or more resource definition language files, wherein the definition of the one or more managed objects is based on an existing design and hierarchical structure of the network, wherein parent-child relationships between the one or more managed objects are identified in the one or more resource definition language files using the object-oriented resource definition language to define the one or more managed objects in relation to the hierarchical structure of the network;
• b) parsing the one or more resource definition language files to ensure conformity with the object-oriented resource definition language and creating an intermediate representation of the network from the one or more conforming resource definition language files, wherein the intermediate representation of the network created in the parsing step includes a parse tree;
• c) processing the parse tree to form one or more programming language classes, wherein the one or more programming language classes formed include at least one of one or more system classes, one or more module classes, one or more managed object classes, and one or more composite attribute classes;
• d) providing a reusable asset center framework to facilitate development of the one or more application programs, the reusable asset center including a managed object framework that provides management functionality to the one or more application programs to support commands communicated to the distributed system from a network management station to selectively manage the one or more managed objects;
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• e) building the one or more application programs from at least the one or more programming language classes and the reusable asset framework.

A method of developing an application program to manage a network, the method including the steps:

• a) defining one or more managed objects associated with the network in an object-oriented resource definition language and storing the definition of the one or more managed objects in one or more resource definition language files, wherein the definition of the one or more managed objects is based on an existing design and hierarchical structure of the network, wherein parent-child relationships between the one or more managed objects are identified in the one or more resource definition language files using the object-oriented resource definition language to define the one or more managed objects in relation to the hierarchical structure of the network;
• b) parsing the one or more resource definition language files to ensure conformity with the object-oriented resource definition language and creating an intermediate representation of the network from the one or more conforming resource definition language files, wherein the intermediate representation of the network includes object meta-data;
• c) processing the object meta-data to form one or more programming language classes, one or more database definition files, and one or more script files, wherein the one or more programming language classes formed include at least one of an index class and a query class;
• d) providing a reusable asset center framework to facilitate development of the application program, the reusable asset center including a managed object framework that provides management functionality to the one or more application programs to support commands communicated to the distributed system from a network management station to manage the one or more managed objects;
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• e) building the application program from at least the one or more programming language classes, one or more database definition files, one or more script files, and the reusable asset framework.