Pegasus Status and work on Qualifiers

13 Feb 2002, Original, KS

17 Feb 2002, V 0.2, KS

This table defines the qualifiers that are valid for CIM effective with the CIM Specification 2.2.1 (specification 2.2, errata, and addendum 2.2.1). It does not yet cover extensions for CIM specification 2.3. That will be added. We have attempted to define the qualifier and its characteristics from the existing documentation and then to define the state of usage of the qualifier in Pegasus and any work needed for Pegasus 2.0

Qualifier	Default	Source	QualType	Applies To	Type	Meaning	Status Pegasus	Work
Association		Spec 22	Meta		Boolean	The object class is defining an association.	Done
Indication		Spec 22	Meta		Boolean	The object class is defining an indication.	Done
Abstract	False	Spec 22	Standard	Class, Association, Indication	Boolean	Indicates that the class is abstract and serves only as a base for new classes. It is not possible to create instances of such classes.	???	Possible extra validation
Aggregate	False	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	Boolean	Defines the "parent" component of an Aggregation association. Usage Rule: The Aggregation and Aggregate qualifiers are used together – Aggregation qualifying the association, and Aggregate specifying the "parent" reference.	ignored	Resolution – See aggregate qualifier.
Aggregation	False	Spec 22	Standard	Association	Boolean	Indicates that the association is an aggregation.	ignored	resolution – Should we check if other side has aggregation qualifier. YES
Alias	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Reference, method	String	Establishes an alternate name for a property or method in the schema.	Possible to be dropped.	TBD- Until we understand future
Arraytype	“bag”	Spec 22	Standard	Property, parameter	String	Indicates the type of the qualified array. Valid values are "Bag", "Indexed" and "Ordered". Usage rule: The ArrayType qualifier should only be applied to properties and method parameters that are arrays (defined using the square bracket syntax specified in Appendix A).	ignored	Resolution – Add test - Should only apply to property that is an array
Bitmap	NULL	Spec 22	Standard	Property, method, parameter	String Array	Indicates which bit positions are significant in a bit map. The position of a specific value in the BitMap array defines an index that is used in selecting a string literal from the BitValues array.	Installed correctly but no validation against bitvalues	Resolution – Test for existence of bitvalues
Bitvalues	NULL	Spec 22	Standard	Property, method, parameter	String Array	Provides translation between a bit position value and an associated string. See the description for the BitMap qualifier.	See Bitmap	See Bitmap
Counter	FALSE	Spec 22	Standard	Property, method, parameter	Boolean	Applicable only to unsigned integer types. Represents a non-negative integer which monotonically increases until it reaches a maximum value of 2^n-1, when it wraps around and starts increasing again from zero. N can be 8, 16, 32 or 64 depending on the datatype of the object to which the qualifier is applied. Counters have no defined "initial" value, and thus, a single value of a Counter has (in general) no information content	Ignored	Resolution- confirm it applies only to unsigned integers
Description	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Any	String	Provides a description of a Named Element.	Done
Displayname	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Any	String	Defines a name that will be displayed on UI instead of the actual name of the element.	Nothing Special
DN	False	Add 221	Standard	Property, Parameter	Boolean	When applied to a string property or method, the DN qualifier specifies that the string must be a distinguished name as defined in section 9 of X.501.	ignored	???
EmbeddedObject	False	Add221	Standard	Property, Parameter	Boolean	This qualifier can only be used in conjunction with string properties and method parameters. In indiates that the qualified entity contains an encoding of an instance’s data. At this time the DMTF defines twoo possible encodings – character striing encoded in MOF (INSTANCE OF abc {…}: or an XML representation (<INSTANCECLASSNAME=”abc”>…</INSTANCE>). It is desirable that the encoding of the embedded object data match the encoding of the instance/indication that contains this property or method parameter. This allows the same parsing engine that decodes the instance/indication envelope to decode the EmbeddedObject string. (However, encodings are defined by an implementation and are not the subject of this document). Please see Appendis H for examples and furher explanation.	Must handle through indications. State unknown today	Work unknown
Expensive	False	Add 221. Moved from Optional	Standard	Property, Reference, Class, Association, Method	Boolean	Indicates the property or class is expensive to compute.	Nothing to do
Gauge	False	Spec 22 and erratta22	Standard	Property, method, parameter	Boolean	.Applicable only to integer types. Represents an integer which may increase or decrease in any order or magnitude. The value of a Gauge is capped at the implied limits of the effected property’s datatype. If and while the information being modeled exceeds an implied limit, the value represented will instead be that limit; values do not wrap. For unsigned integers, the limits are zero (0) to 2^n-1, inclusive. For signed integers, the limits are –(2^(n-1)) to 2^(n-1)-1, inclusive. N can be 8, 16, 32, or 64 depending on the datatype of the property to which the qualifier is applied.	Ignored today	Resolution – Check for integer type
In	True	Spec 22	Standard	Parameter	Boolean	Indicates that the associated parameter is used to pass values to a method.	Ignored today by CIMOM	Question if provider or CIMOM should enforce
Key	False	Spec 22 and erratta	Standard	Property, Reference	Boolean	Reference Indicates that the property is part of the namespace handle (see Section 5.3.1.2 for information about namespace handles). If more than one property has the KEY qualifier, then all such properties collectively form the key (a compound key). Usage Rule: Keys are written once at object instantiation and must not be modified thereafter. It does not make sense to apply a default value to a KEY-qualified property. Properties which are of an array type must not be qualified with KEY.	OK	Modification – refuse modifications to key properties
MappingStrings	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Class, property, association, indication, reference	String Array	Mapping strings for one or more management data providers or agents. See Section 2.5.5 and 2.5.6 for more details.		Resolution – Should we check values??
Max	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	INT	Indicates the maximum cardinality of the reference (i.e. the maximum number of values a given reference can have for each set of other reference values in the association). For example, if an association relates A instances to B instances, and there must be at most one A instance for each B instance, then the reference to A should have a Max(1) qualifier.	Ignored by CIMOM today	Should CIMOM Check?
Maxlen	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method Parameter	INT	Indicates the maximum length, in characters, of a string data item. When overriding the default value, any unsigned integer value (uint32) can be specified. A value of NULL implies unlimited length.	? Provider or CIMOM	Instance – Should CIMOM check in 1) requests 2) Responses
Maxvalue	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method Parameter	INT	Maximum value of this object.	Installed but not used by CIMOM. Not tested by compiler	Resolve – Check for integer type property. Instance – Should CIMOM Verify or provider?
Min	0	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	INT	Indicates the minimum cardinality of the reference (i.e. the minimum number of values a given reference can have for each set of other reference values in the association). For example, if an association relates A instances to B instances, and there must be at least one A instance for each B instance, then the reference to A should have a Min(1) qualifier.	Ignored today	Should the CIMOM Check or the provider?
Minvalue	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method Parameter	INT	Minimum value of this object.	Installed but not used by CIMOM. Not tested by compiler	Resolve – Check for integer type property. Instance – Should CIMOM Verify or provider?
Model Correspondence	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property	String Array	Indicates a correspondence between an object’s property and other properties in the CIM Schema. Object properties are identified using the following syntax: <schema name> "_" <class or association name> "." <property name>	Ignored	???
NonLocal	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	String	Indicates the location of an instance. Its value is <namespacetype>://<namespacehandle> Usage Rule: Cannot be used with the NonLocalType qualifier.	Installed but ignored by CIMOM	Not clear. Needs more explanation
NonLocalType	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	String	Indicates the type of location of an instance. Its value is <namespacetype> Usage Rule: Cannot be used with the NonLocal qualifier.		See NonLocal
Nullvalue	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property	String	Defines a value the presence of which indicates that the associated property is NULL – that is that the property cannot be considered as having a valid or meaningful value. The conventions and restrictions used for defining null values are the same as those applicable to the ValueMap qualifier. Note this qualifier cannot be overridden as it seems unreasonable to permit a subclass to return a different null value to that of the superclass.	No check today	Needs check by compiler and CIMOM. Also needs clarification
OctetString	False	Erratta 22	Standard?	Property, Parameter	Boolean	Parameter This qualifier is used to identify the qualified property or parameter as an octet string. When used in conjuction with an unsigned 8-bit integer (uint8) array, the OCTETSTRING qualifer indicates that the unsigned 8-bit integer array	Unsure. May need testing	????
Out	False	Spec 22	Standard	Parameter	Boolean	Indicates that the associated parameter is used to return values from a method.	Installed but ignored by CIMOM today	? Provider or CIMOM
Override	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method, Reference	String	Indicates that the property, method, or reference in the derived class overrides the similar construct (of the same name) in the parent class in the inheritance tree, or in the specified parent class. The value of this qualifier MAY identify the parent class whose subordinate construct (property, method, or reference) is overridden. The format of the string to accomplish this is: [<class>.]<subordinate construct> If the class name is omitted, the Override applies to the subordinate construct in the parent class in the inheritance tree. Usage Rule: The Override qualifier can only refer to constructs based on the same meta model. Also, it is not allowed to change a construct's name or signature when overriding.	Unsure	Part of general create class validation and processing that we may need to extend. Verify
Propagated	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property	String	The propagated qualifier is a stringvalued qualifier that contains the name of the key that is being propagated. Its use assumes the existence of only one weak qualifier on a reference that has the containing class as its target. The associated property must have the same value as the property named by the qualifier in the class on the other side of the weak association. The format of the string to accomplish this is: [<class>.]<subordinate construct> Usage Rule: When the PROPAGATED qualifier is used, the KEY qualifier must be specified with a value of TRUE.	CIMOM	Resolution – Verify reference class exists and has weak. See weak for contra test.
Read	true	Spec 22	Standard	Property	Boolean	Indicates that the property is readable.	Installed but ignored by CIMOM today	Should CIMOM verify for instances?
Required	False	Spec 22	Standard	Property	Boolean	Indicates that a non-NULL value is required for the property.	Nothing now	Need to check that CIMOM is validating for create instance. Should response handler validate for instance responses?
Revision	Null	Spec 22	Standard		String	Provides the minor revision number of the schema object. Usage Rule: The VERSION qualifier must be present to supply the major version number when the REVISION qualifier is used.	Installed but ignored	Nothing to do
Schema	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Propety method	String	The name of the schema in which the feature is defined.	Needs clarification
Source	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Class, Association, Indication, Reference	String	Indicates the location of an instance. Its value is <namespacetype>://<namespacehandle> Usage Rule: Cannot be used with the SourceType qualifier.		???
Sourcetype	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Class, Association, Indication, Reference	String	Indicates the type of location of an instance. Its value is <namespacetype> Usage Rule: Cannot be used with the Source qualifier.		???
Static	False	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method	Boolean	For methods indicates that the method is a class method that does not depend on any per-instance data. For properties, indicates that the property is a class variable rather than an instance variable.		? Do we need to do validation?
Terminal	False	Spec 22	Standard	Class	Boolean	Indicate that the class can have no subclasses. If such a subclass is declared the compiler will generate an error. Note this qualifier cannot coexist with the Abstract qualifier. If both are specified the compiler generates an error.	???	Superclass not terminal on create. Abstract not set if terminal set
Units	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method, Parameter	String	Provides units in which the associated data item is expressed. For example, a Size data item might have Units ("bytes"). The complete set of standard units is defined in Appendix C.	Nothing Now	Resolve – Check against standard set from spec
Valuemap	Null	Spec 22, Add221 (add .. syntax)	Standard	Property, Method, Parameter	String Array	NOTE: See the addenda for latest description. The following is from V 2.2 spec. Defines the set of permissible values for this property, method return type or method parameter. The ValueMap can be used alone, or in combination with the Values qualifier. When used in combination with the Values qualifier, the location of the value in the ValueMap array provides the location of the corresponding entry in the Values array. ValueMap may only be used with string and integer values. The syntax for representing an integer value in the ValueMap array is: [+|-]digit[*digit] The content, maximum number of digits and represented value are constrained by the type of the associated property. For example, uint8 may not be signed, must be less than four digits, and must represent a value less than 256.		???
Values	Null	Spec 22	Standard	Property, Method Parameter	String Array	Provides translation between an integer value and an associated string. If a ValueMap qualifier is not present, the Values array is indexed (zero relative) using the value in the associated property, method return type or method parameter. If a ValueMap qualifier is present, the Values index is defined by the location of the property value in the ValueMap.		???
Version	Null	Spec 22 and erratta	Standard	Class, Schema, Association, Indication		Provides the major version number of the schema object. This is incremented when changes are made to the schema that alter the interface.	Installed but ignored today	Request to provide option in compiler.
Weak	False	Spec 22	Standard	Reference	Boolean	Indicates that the keys of the referenced class include the keys of the other participants in the association. This qualifier is used when the identity of the referenced class depends on the identity of the other participants in the association. No more than one reference to any given class can be weak. The other classes in the association must define a key. The keys of the other classes in the association are repeated in the referenced class and tagged with a propagated qualifier.	Boolean	See propagated
Write	False	Spec 22	Standard	Property	Boolean	Indicates whether write access is allowed for a property by any "consumers" of that property’s data. This qualifier does not address the initial assignment of a property value, nor its maintenance by its "provider". It describes the maximal level of access that is allowed, and does not address whether security and authorization restrictions may actually prevent writing of the data. A value of true indicates that the property is readable and writable by "consumers", given appropriate administrative authorization. A value of false indicates that the property is only readable by "consumers", regardless of authorization.	Boolean	Should test against write requests (set property, create, modify instance) Is that a CIMOM task?
Delete	False	Spec 22	Optional	Association, Reference	Boolean	For associations: Indicates that the qualified association must be deleted if any of the objects referenced in the association are deleted, AND the respective object referenced in the association is qualified with IFDELETED. For references: Indicates that the referenced object must be deleted if the association containing the reference is deleted, AND qualified with IFDELETED, or if any of the objects referenced in the association are deleted AND the respective object referenced in the association is qualified with IFDELETED. Usage Rule: Applications must to chase associations according to the modeled semantic and delete objects appropriately. Note: This usage rule must be verified when the CIM security model is defined.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
Expensive		Spec 22	Optional		Boolean	NOTE: Changed in Erratta. See standard.
IfDeleted	False	Spec 22	Optional	Association, Reference	Boolean	Indicates that all objects qualified by DELETE within the association must be deleted if the referenced object or the association, respectively, is deleted.		See Delete
Invisible	False	Spec 22	Optional	Association, Property, Method, Reference, Class	Boolean	Indicates that the association is defined only for internal purposes (for example, for definition of dependency semantics) and should not be displayed (for example, in maps).		Is there any use case to implement this?
Large	False	Spec 22	Optional	Property, Class	Boolean	Class Indicates the property or class requires a large amount of storage space.		Nothing to do
Provider	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Any	String	An implementation specific handle to the instrumentation that populates those elements in the schemas which refer to dynamic data.	Used today	Ignore it will not be used after provider registration works
Syntax	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Property, Referene, Method, Parameter	String	Specific type assigned to a data item. Usage Rule: Must be used with the SyntaxType qualifier.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
Syntaxtype	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Property, Reference, Method, Parameter	String	Defines the format of the SYNTAX qualifier. Usage Rule: Must be used with the SYNTAX qualifier.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
Triggertype	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Class, Property, Method, Association, Indication, Reference	String Array	Indicates the circumstances under which a trigger is fired. Usage Rule: The trigger types vary by meta-model construct. For classes and associations, the legal values are CREATE, DELETE, UPDATE and ACCESS. For properties and references, the legal values are: UPDATE and ACCESS. For methods, the legal values are BEFORE and AFTER. For indications, the legal values are THROWN.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
UnknownValues	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Property	String Array	Defines a set of values the presence of which indicates that the value of the associated property is unknown – that is that the property cannot be considered as having a valid or meaningful value. The onventions and restrictions used for defining unknown values are the same as those applicable to the ValueMap qualifier. Note this qualifier cannot be overridden as it seems unreasonable to permit a subclass to treat as a known value a value that is treated as unknown by some superclass.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
UnsupportedValues	Null	Spec 22	Optional	Property	String Array	Defines a set of values the presence of which indicates that the value of the associated property is unsupported – that is that the property cannot be considered as having a valid or meaningful value. The conventions and restrictions used for defining unsupported values are the same as those applicable to the ValueMap qualifier. Note this qualifier cannot be overridden as it seems unreasonable to permit a subclass to treat as a supported value a value that is treated as unknown by some superclass.		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.
PropertyUsage	CurrentContext	Add 221	Optional			NOTE: See the addendum since it will not let me copy the text		Ignore, this is an optional qualifier.