Patent ID: 7076476

Claim:
An administrative tool to use in managing a computer network service in a computer network comprising: a service object containing information representative of a computing network service, wherein the information identifies the network service by one or more characteristics and is selected from group consisting of the name, type, location, and description of the network service, and information usable to locate a service-specific administrative tool, the information also including a binding information property which is used for identifying at least the location of the network service; a directory service in which the object is published; a generalized tool for guerving the directory service and for obtaining the information representative of the network service, wherein the generalized tool includes: a directory service user interface providing options for querying network services by at least one of a service keyword or a service class upon querying, providing a list of one or more selectable service objects corresponding to one or more network services that are identified during the query and that correspond to the at least one of said service keyword or service class, wherein each of the selectable objects is also associated with information representative of each corresponding service; and in response to the user selection selecting one of the service objects from the list, means for launching a service specific user interface for managing the service corresponding to the selected service object, and locating and binding the corresponding service to the service-specific administrative tool associated with the service specific user interface for enabling administrative of the corresponding service from the service specific user interface; and mean for the service-specific administrative tool, which is in communication with the generalized tool, and which is receiving the information representative of the network service to use the information representative of the network service to administer the service.