Claims
- 1. An apparatus, comprising:
an adapter having a uniform interface including at least one predefined abstraction, the adapter capable of being communicatively coupled to a native interface of a tool and using at least one feature of the tool in the form of the predefined abstraction; and a provider module communicatively coupled to the adapter and capable of being coupled to the predefined abstraction of the uniform interface.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a status module communicatively coupled to the tool.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:
an alert module communicatively coupled to the status module.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a usage monitor communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a report module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a user preference module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a feature selection module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a service bundler module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a multi-user enabling module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the multi-user enabling module includes a user-specific control module.
- 11. A system, comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including an adapter having a uniform interface, the adapter capable of being communicatively coupled to a native interface of a tool, and a provider module communicatively coupled to the adapter and capable of being coupled to the uniform interface.
- 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
a status module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
an alert module communicatively coupled to the provider module.
- 14. A method, comprising:
selecting features provided by a native interface of a tool; collecting the features from the native interface to form a service having a uniform interface including at least one predefined abstraction of the features; and providing the service using the uniform interface and the at least one predefined abstraction of the features.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein providing further comprises:
gathering a plurality of usage statistics associated with the service and a selected one of a plurality of users.
- 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
reporting selected ones of the plurality of usage statistics associated with the service to the selected one of the plurality of users.
- 17. The method of claim 14, wherein providing further comprises:
gathering status information associated with the service.
- 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:
sending an alert message associated with the status information to a selected one of a plurality of users.
- 19. The method of claim 14, wherein providing further comprises:
collecting a plurality of preferences associated with a selected one of a plurality of users.
- 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:
storing the plurality of preferences.
- 21. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having associated data, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:
selecting a first plurality of features provided by a native interface of a first tool; collecting the first plurality of features from the native interface of the first tool to form a first service having a first uniform interface including at least one predefined abstraction of the first plurality of features; and providing the first service using the uniform interface and the at least one predefined abstraction of the first plurality of features.
- 22. The article of claim 21, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:
selecting a second plurality of features provided by a native interface of a second tool; collecting the second plurality of features from the native interface of the second tool to form a second service having a uniform interface including at least one predefined abstraction of the second plurality of features; and providing the second service using the uniform interface and the at least one predefined abstraction of the second plurality of features.
- 23. The article of claim 22, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:
bundling the first and second services to form a service offering.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to co-pending application Ser. No. ______, having attorney docket number 884.632US1, titled “Managed Service Apparatus, Systems, and Methods”, filed on Jul. 11, 2002, which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention.