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Application Instrumentation and Control (AIC) API, Version 1.0
Copyright © 1999 The Open Group

Futures

Language Bindings

The current revision of the specification is based upon C, as the most widely used programming lanaugage. The languages Java and C++ are acknowledged as firm requirements. However at this stage it is expected an enhancement of the specification in the form of a new revision will contain proper Java and C++ language bindings, in a form consistent with expectations from such a language (properly object orientated).

WBEM Integration

It is acknowledged that Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) integration is key to the future of AIC. This integration will require integration with the CIM data model, an XML query mechanism and a http transport. This section details potential integration options with the CIM data model. It is expected the next revision of this specification will provide details of WBEM integration.

The Management Object property "semantics" has been added to this specification as a placeholder for future CIM integration. It could be used, for example, to hold a CIM class name, delimiter, then instance name - all as one string.

There are three possible CIM integration alternatives considered to-date. To attempt to explain these further a table is presented below. In general it is expected that the use of AIC can map to two CIM schema:

  1. The existing Application schema (what application functional components are out there)

  2. Some new CIM schema for representation of run time data within an application.

The former information, mapping what application components exist into CIM could be performed automatically by an implementer of the AIC product without the programmer/user of the specification needing to be involved. The latter - mapping run time data into new CIM schema - is presented below.

As part of the incorporation of WBEM/CIM, the development of a common transport protocol or at least common transport semantics will be considered.

Option Description AIC objects CIM objects Mapping mechanism
(1) AIC object with associated AIC leaf objects in the tree1 5 1 The parent AIC object maps to a single CIM object. The child AIC objects map to properties of the CIM object.
(2) AIC object maps to CIM objects 5 5 A single AIC object maps to a single CIM object.
(3) AIC objects map to CIM objects 5 5 Data held in the AIC Host services is used to map AIC object references to CIM schema. Sophisticated mapping tool could be provided to generate this mapping data.

For options (1) and (2), some additional data is required to be added against an object. For this capability (described as forward compatability in the object properties section) a single string data field is available. This could hold class name and potential instance name in some encoding scheme to be defined later. If more than a single value is required a delimiter could be assigned.

The semantics property field of an object can be used to do the mappings (1) and (2).

Relationship Service

In a future version of this standard, a relationship service is expected.

In such a service, relationships such as "Parentof", "Childof", "BelongsTo", etc. can be defined.

Operations Support

In the next release of this standard, further extensions are expected to augment the capability to execute operations through the AIC interfaces. This includes defining those operations within AIC so that they can be easily recognized and understood through the CL interface and the management interface.


Footnotes

1.
Within the AIC specification there is no formal semantic of parent/child relationship between objects. An application programmer can simulate this relationship by creating appropriately named objects. A mapping scheme could make use of such a parent/child simulation. For example, creation of an object named /a/b/c/d/object1 does not imply a parent /a/b/c/d exists. Creation of /a and /a/b simulates /a/b is a child of /a.


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