Methods and apparatus for representing resources in a computing system environment

A method for representing a resource in a computing system environment, the method comprising the steps of:

• creating an object to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy, the at least one location with which the object is associated including a home location identifying a home object in the object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object, the object being a group object created to represent a plurality of related resources in the computing system environment, such that objects in the object hierarchy below the group object share a common relationship to each other identified by the group object,
• the group object being a transparent group object having a home identified by a home location of a first non-transparent ancestral home object in the object hierarchy under which the transparent group object is initially associated as a descendent child object;
• assigning an object identifier to the object, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and a home of the object, the home of the object being assigned as the home location identifying the home object for the object in the object hierarchy;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on a graphical user interface, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• wherein objects subsequently created as child objects of the transparent group object each have a respective home identified by the home location of the first non-transparent ancestral home object in object hierarchy under which the transparent group object is initially associated as a descendent child object.

A method for representing a resource in a computing system environment, the method comprising the steps of:

• creating an object to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy, the at least one location with which the object is associated including a home location identifying a home object in the object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object, the object being a group object created to represent a plurality of related resources in the computing system environment, such that objects in the object hierarchy below the group object share a common relationship to each other identified by the group object,
• the group object being a terminal group object having a home identified by a home location of a home object in object hierarchy under which the terminal group object is initially associated as a child object;
• and
• assigning an object identifier to the object, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and the home of the object, the home of the object being assigned as the home location identifying the home object for the object in the object hierarchy;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on a graphical user interface, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• wherein objects subsequently created as child objects of the terminal group object each have a respective home identified by the home location of the home object in object hierarchy under which the terminal group object is initially associated as a child object.

A computer system, comprising:

• a display;
• a memory system;
• a processor;
• and
• an interconnection mechanism connecting the display, the processor and the memory system;
• wherein the memory system is encoded with a resource management application that when performed on the processor, produces a resource management process that includes a graphical user interface for representing a resource in a computing system environment on the display of the computer system, the resource management process causing the computer system to perform the operations of;
• creating an object in the memory system to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy in the memory system such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy in the memory system, the at least one location with which the object is associated including a home location identifying a home object in object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object;
• receiving a simple name for the object to uniquely identify that object;
• and
• assigning an object identifier to the object in the memory system, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and a home of the object;
• assigning a suffix to the home of the object if the home of the object is not unique in the computing system environment, such that object identifiers for objects having a home that is not unique will be different from each other based on the suffix;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on the graphical user interface on the display of the computer system, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home and suffix of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object further displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home and suffix of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface.

A computer system, comprising:

• a display;
• a memory system;
• a processor;
• and
• an interconnection mechanism connecting the display, the processor and the memory system;
• wherein the memory system is encoded with a resource management application that when performed on the processor, produces a resource management process that includes a graphical user interface for representing a resource in a computing system environment on the display of the computer system, the resource management process causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• creating an object in the memory system to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy in the memory system such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy in the memory system, the at least one location with which the object is associated including a home location identifying a home object in object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object, the group object being a transparent group object having a home identified by a home location of a first non-transparent ancestral home object in object hierarchy under which the transparent group object is initially associated as a descendent child object;
• assigning an object identifier to the object in the memory system, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and a home of the object;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on the graphical user interface on the display of the computer system, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object further displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• wherein objects subsequently created as child objects of the transparent group object each have a respective home identified by the home location of the first non-transparent ancestral home object in object hierarchy under which the transparent group object is initially associated as a descendent child object.

A computer system, comprising:

• a display;
• a memory system;
• a processor;
• and
• an interconnection mechanism connecting the display, the processor and the memory system;
• wherein the memory system is encoded with a resource management application that when performed on the processor, produces a resource management process that includes a graphical user interface for representing a resource in a computing system environment on the display of the computer system, the resource management process causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• creating an object in the memory system to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy in the memory system such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy in the memory system, the at least one location with which the object is associated including a home location identifying a home object in object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object—the group object being a terminal group object having a home identified by a home location of a home object in object hierarchy under which the terminal group object is initially associated as a child object;
• assigning an object identifier to the object in the memory system, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and a home of the object;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on the graphical user interface on the display of the computer system, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object further displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• wherein objects subsequently created as child objects of the terminal group object each have a respective home identified by the home location of the home object in object hierarchy under which the terminal group object is initially associated as a child object.

A computer program product having a computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that, when executed on a computer system having a coupling of a memory system, a processor, and a display that displays a graphical user interface, the computer program logic is executed on the processor, and the computer program logic provides a method for representing resource in a computing system environment by causing the processor to perform the operations of:

• creating an object in the memory system to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created in a manner associating the object with at least one location within an object hierarchy in the memory system such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy in the memory system, the at least one location to which the object is associated in the object hierarchy including a home location identifying a home object in object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object so as to define a home context for the object;
• receiving a simple name for the object to uniquely identify that object
• assigning an object identifier to the object in the memory system, the object identifier including at least the simple name of the object and a home of the object, the object identifier being assigned such that the home of the object is the home location identifying the home object for that object in object hierarchy
• assigning a suffix to the home of the object if the home of the object is not unique in the computing system environment, such that object identifiers for objects having a home that is not unique will be different from each other based on the suffix;
• displaying at least one representation of the object on the graphical user interface on the display of the computer system, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home and suffix of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home and suffix of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface.

A computer system, comprising:

• a display;
• a memory system;
• a processor;
• and
• an interconnection mechanism connecting the display, the processor and the memory system;
• wherein the memory system is encoded with a resource management application that when performed on the processor, produces a resource management process that includes a graphical user interface for representing a resource in a computing system environment on the display of the computer system, the resource management process configuring the computer system with:
• means for creating an object in the memory system to represent a resource in the computing system environment, the object being created so as to be associated with at least one location within an object hierarchy in the memory system such that the object becomes a child object of at least one parent object in the object hierarchy, the object hierarchy representing relationships between resources in the computing system environment which are represented by objects in the object hierarchy in the memory system, the at least one location to which the object is associated in the object hierarchy including a home location identifying a home object in object hierarchy under which the object is initially associated as a child object, so as to define a home context for the object;
• means for receiving a simple name for the object to uniquely identify that object;
• means for assigning an object identifier to the object in the memory system, the object identifier including at least a simple name of the object and a home of the object, the object identifier being assigned such that the home of the object is the home location identifying the home object for that object in object hierarchy;
• means for assigning a suffix to the home of the object if the home of the object is not unique in the computing system environment, such that object identifiers for objects having a home that is not unique will be different from each other based on the suffix;
• means for displaying at least one representation of the object on the graphical user interface on the display of the computer system, each of the at least one representation of the object including the simple name of the object;
• determining whether a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface;
• and
• if a home condition exists for one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, including the home and suffix of the object in the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface, and if a home condition does not exist, omitting the home and suffix of the object from the representation of the one of the at least one representation of the object displayed on the graphical user interface.