Patent ID: 7523130

Claim:
A method of assembling a catalog of objects and object references from objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with each computer storing a plurality of objects and a plurality of object catalogs, the method comprising: running a plurality of agent programs on each computer, the plurality of agent programs containing a plurality of programmable virtual machine environments, a plurality of standardized collections of executable functions suitable for communication with a respective one the computers, and a plurality of executable functions for managing objects and sending and receiving messages; compiling a plurality of messages, each message including source and destination meta data, meta data describing properties of the message, object data embedded within the message, and a plurality of object data payloads; receiving at least one first message from at least one a computer, a program executed on a computer receiving the at least one first message, and a plurality of sensors that perform measurements, the at least one first message including source and destination meta data, meta data describing properties of the message, object data embedded within the message, and a plurality of object data payloads; transmitting at least one second message to at least one of a computer and a program executed on a computer transmitting the at least one second message, the at least one second message including source and destination meta data, meta data describing properties of the message, object data embedded within the message, and a plurality of object data payloads; determining the disposition of at least one of the plurality of messages by executing code written for the virtual machine embedded within the agent program; and creating a plurality of catalogs containing a plurality of references to a plurality of object data and a plurality of object properties, each catalog comprising a plurality of indices and a plurality of object storage areas.