Patent ID: 8458703

Claim:
A method for managing an enabler, the method comprising: executing an application by a computer system; executing the enabler by the computer system, the enabler comprising: a northbound interface providing an abstract, network agnostic interface providing notification of network events and for invoking one or more of a plurality of functions of a network resource, wherein the enabler is between the application and the network resource and wherein the application interacts with the network resource through the enabler, a southbound interface providing an interface specific to the network resource regardless of a network or protocol of the northbound interface, and a management interface providing an abstraction of one or more management functions for managing the enabler or dependencies of the enabler; receiving, by the computer system, a request from the application via the management interface of the enabler, the request comprising a request to perform one of the one or more management functions for managing the enabler or dependencies of the enabler; providing, by the computer system, metadata associated with the management interface, wherein the application reads the metadata associated with the management interface and determines whether the management function is available or unavailable, wherein requesting the management function via the management interface of the enabler is performed by the application in response to determining the management function is available.