Working with Qualifier Types and Qualifiers

A CIM qualifier is an element that characterizes a CIM class, instance, property, method, or parameter. Qualifiers have the following attributes:

• Type

• Value

• Name

In Managed Object Format syntax, each CIM qualifier must have a CIM qualifier type declared in the same MOF file. Qualifiers do not have a scope attribute. Scope indicates which CIM elements can use the qualifier. Scope can only be defined in the qualifier type declaration; it cannot be changed in a qualifier.

The following sample code shows the MOF syntax for a CIM qualifier type declaration. This statement defines a qualifier type named key, with a Boolean data type (default value false), which can describe only a property and a reference to an object. The DisableOverride flavor means that key qualifiers cannot change their value.

Qualifier Key : boolean = false, Scope(property, reference), 
								Flavor(DisableOverride);

The following sample code shows the MOF syntax for a CIM qualifier. In this sample MOF file, key and description are qualifiers for the property test. The property data type is an integer with the value a.

{
[key, Description("test")]
int a
}

Example -- Getting CIM Qualifiers

The code segment in Example 6-18 uses the CIMQualifier class to identify the CIM qualifiers in a vector of CIM elements. The example returns the property name, value, and type for each CIM Qualifier.

A qualifier flavor is a flag that governs the use of a qualifier. Flavors describe rules that specify whether a qualifier can be propagated to derived classes and instances and whether or not a derived class or instance can override the qualifier's original value.

Example 6-18 Getting CIM Qualifiers (CIMQualifier)

	
...
 
    } else if (tableType == QUALIFIER_TABLE) {
		CIMQualifier prop = (CIMQualifier)cimElements.elementAt(row);
		if (prop != null) {
		    if (col == nameColumn) {
			return prop.getName();
		    } else if (col == typeColumn) {
			CIMValue cv = prop.getValue();
			if (cv != null) {
			    return cv.getType().toString();
			} else {
			    return "NULL";			      }
		  } 
 
...
 
 

Example -- Setting CIM Qualifiers

Example 6-19 is a code segment that sets a list of CIM qualifiers for a new class to the qualifiers in its superclass.

Example 6-19 Set Qualifiers (setQualifiers)

   ...
	try 	{
	    	cimSuperClass = cimClient.getClass(new CIMObjectPath(scName));
	    	Vector v = new Vector();
	    	for (Enumeration e = cimSuperClass.getQualifiers().elements();
					e.hasMoreElements();) { 
					CIMQualifier qual = (CIMQualifier)((CIMQualifier)e.nextElement()).clone();
					v.addElement(qual);
	    	}
	    	cimClass.setQualifiers(v);
		} catch (CIMException exc) {
	    	return;
		}
}