A
system and method for managing network devices. The framework may provide a suitable
system for
managed object data type conversions between various
data description languages, such as an
interface definition language (e.g., OMG IDL) and an
abstract syntax notation (e.g., ASN1). This conversion facility may be used in both request and event network traffic, so common libraries may be used. Two separate libraries may be used: a converter framework
library and a converter implementation
library. The framework
library provides a collection classes that may be used by the clients of the converter libraries. Most classes in the converter framework library are
handle classes (or wrappers) to the real implementation (or body) classes in the converter implementation library. Framework classes hide the details of the real implementation classes and provide a simple, consistent interface to any
data type converter via IDL. The converter implementation library provides the implementation needed by the framework to function properly, and may allow various different mappings to be used easily by implementing them as plug-in modules. The combination of using IDL and generic
typing provides an efficient, generic solution to mapping data types across multiple platforms, multiple
programming languages, and multiple object classes.