Abstract: A network system includes a reconfigurable network and a network management system. The network management system can represent the network in the form of a network image. Network image objects, corresponding to network objects, can be selected as copy sources and paste targets. A copy-and-paste operation modifies the network image to indicate a potential modification of the actual network in which the configuration of the network object corresponding to the selected copy source object is applied to the network object corresponding to the selected image object. In addition, the copy-and-paste operation can automatically represent a common connection of a source object input and a target object input to a common data source. Furthermore, the copy-and-paste operation can automatically connect outputs of source and target objects to a comparison function so that the implementation of the copy-and-paste operation on the actual network can be validated.

Abstract: A software application includes a document generator. A user can download from an upgrade website documentation (e.g., release notes) describing the differences in operation between a post-upgrade version of the application that would result if a target upgrade is implemented and a pre-upgrade version of the application, e.g., the one available on the user computer system. The document generator can generate full documentation for the post-upgrade version from the pre-upgrade documentation and the upgrade documentation. The post-upgrade documentation has a revision display mode and a non-revision display mode, the former showing the changes from the operation of the pre-upgrade version to the operation of the post-upgrade version.