Patent ID: 7756931

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for automatic programmatic communications via an instant messaging network, the method comprising steps implemented by the data processing system of: establishing a connection to the instant messaging network; responsive to establishing the connection to the instant messaging network, automatically receiving a programmatic communication through the connection to the instant messaging network without user intervention, wherein the programmatic communication is a script originating from the instant messaging network; responsive to automatically receiving the programmatic communication, automatically executing, by a script engine of the data processing system, the script originating from the instant messaging network to obtain component status information for a component accessible by the data processing system, wherein the script is automatically received from a management agent that remotely monitors the component using the instant messaging network to generate system management information for use in managing the resource; and returning a response to the management agent after automatically executing the script by the script engine, wherein the response is returned to a chat session that the management agent belongs to; wherein the script engine is located in an agent, wherein the agent is a computer process that logs on to the instant messaging network.