RE: modify association provider

If you want to get the instance that is associated, you can do a getInstance() using the path name in the REF property.

Barbara Craig
[email protected]

From: Kirk Augustin [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 1:53 PM
To: Ricardo Mendes; Potter, Timothy (Linux & Open Source)
Cc: John McLaughlin; [email protected]
Subject: Re: modify association provider

What you are getting from the association instance is correct.
The association is not supposed to have to give the full contents of an instance that it associates.
All it is supposed to have and give is the key properties, which are what you need in order to just get the real instance yourself.
Think of this as a relational database, where the rules of normalization would not allow for duplicate storage of information.
In which case the association instance it just an instance of a relational entity, which tells you how to get the actual entity linked in the relation.
If it tried to actually give you the information of that instance, it would not only be duplication, but then would not enable you or anyone else accessing the instance through the association, from being able to modify, delete, or add to the actual instance.
The only way to maintain the data integrity is for the association just to give you what you need in order to get the actual instance yourself.  Then there is only one copy of its contents, and then whomever finds the instance through the association, has total control over what they want to do to the real, singular instance.

Kirk & Trish Augustin
11821 NW McNamee Rd
Portland, OR 97231


________________________________
From: Ricardo Mendes <[email protected]>
To: Tim Potter <[email protected]>
Cc: John McLaughlin <[email protected]>; Kirk Augustin <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Sent: Thu, July 8, 2010 3:42:15 AM
Subject: Re: modify association provider

Hi,

Thanks once again for your explanations.

I'm facing other problem, that is about the association references.
I have my association Instance (Instance_A) and I want one of it
associated instances (Instance_A1),
When I do : Instance_A->Instance_A1 to retrieve the associated
instance, it is incomplete because I can only get the key properties
and the others are empty.

How can I the get the instance with all properties?

I'm using CIMPLE and the instances are stored in a Instance_Map.

Thanks in advance,
Ricardo Mendes


On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 1:01 AM, Tim Potter <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> There's also the very rare three-way association.  From the depths of the
> SMI-S schema the CIM_SCSIInitiatorTargetLogicalUnitPath associates an
> initiator and target protocol endpoint with a storage extent.
>
> Tim.
> On 08/07/2010, at 6:28 AM, John McLaughlin wrote:
>
> Actually, an Association object can carry data as well (see SMI-S BasedOn
> and CompositeExtentBasedOn).  These objects can be retrieved with a
> “references()” call from either end of the association, and their
> CIMObjectPaths from a “referenceNames()” call.  I have not done this, but I
> assume you can (if your provider supports it as an Instance provider in
> addition to being an Association provider) simply call the
> “modifyInstance()” or “setProperty()” methods to modify the object.
>
> However, if you are not the provider developer there’s no assurance that the
> Association provider was created to support any or all of these features.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
> John McLaughlin
> iStor Networks, Inc.
>
> ________________________________
> From: Kirk Augustin [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 5:18 PM
> To: Ricardo Mendes; [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: modify association provider
>
> Not sure exactly what you mean.
> And association is just an object that hold the paths of 2 other objects, so
> that they can be linked in a query and each found.
> The association provider copies the paths into the association instance, but
> does not change or effect the actual instances that it linked together, so
> should not be expected to call those instance providers.
> But since your provider must have the paths of each object, then it could
> also access and modify them if it wanted to.
> However, it would be somewhat inappropriate for an association provider to
> do that.
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Ricardo Mendes <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
> Sent: Tue, July 6, 2010 4:15:25 PM
> Subject: modify association provider
>
> Hi Everybody,
>
> I have one association provider, if I modify one of it's associated
> providers trough the association provider, should the modify_instance
> of the associated provided be invoked?
> Mine isn't being invoked, which is a problem for me.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> RM
>