Patent ID: 8655998

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for requesting a router to perform an operation on management data maintained by the router, the method comprising computer-implemented steps of: generating, at a client, an XML file that comprises XML tag information that corresponds to attribute values for each property of a plurality of properties for one or more components that are supported by the router, wherein the XML file is generated based in part on command line interface (CLI) definition files corresponding to each of the one or more components; receiving, at the client from a client application, a non-XML request that conforms to a table-based data model to perform an operation on management data maintained by the router; examining one or more parameters contained in the non-XML request and retrieving the XML tag information that corresponds to the one or more parameters, wherein the XML tag information is retrieved from the XML file; generating an XML request that specifies the operation to be performed on the management data maintained by the router and identified in the non-XML request, and that specifies that the router provide, based upon the retrieved XML tag information, values that correspond to the one or more parameters; sending the XML request to the router; in response to receiving, at the client, an XML response from the router, extracting, from the XML response, one or more XML tags and the values that correspond to the one or more parameters and are associated with the extracted XML tags; in response to the non-XML request, providing to the client application the values associated with the extracted XML tags and the corresponding one or more parameters.