This information describes the basic terminology and functions of the Common Information Model (CIM) agent object models.
The CIM agent specifications use the following concepts
and terminology to describe the object models:
- Association
- A class with two references that define a relationship between
two referenced objects.
- Class
- The definition of an object within a specific hierarchy. An object
class can have properties and methods and serve as the target of an
association.
- Indication
- An object representation of an event.
- Instance
- An individual object that is the member of a class. In object-oriented
programming, an object that is created by instantiating a class.
- Managed Object Format (MOF)
- A language for defining Common Information Model (CIM) schemas.
- Method
- A way to implement a function on a class.
- Namespace
- The scope within which a CIM schema applies.
- Object path
- An object that consists of a namespace path and a model path.
The namespace path provides access to the CIM implementation that
the CIM agent manages, and the model path provides navigation within
the implementation.
- Property
- An attribute that is used to characterize instances of a class.
- Qualifier
- A value that provides additional information about a class, association,
indication, method, method parameter, instance, property, or reference.
- Reference
- A pointer to another instance that defines the role and scope
of an object in an association.
- Schema
- A group of object classes defined for and applicable to a single
namespace. Within the CIM agent, the supported schemas are the ones
that are loaded through the Managed Object Format (MOF) compiler.