Abstract: Communication system management apparatus, methods, and interfaces are disclosed. A group of objects that are associated with different types of communication system components in a representation of a communication system are configured in a group. A further representation of the objects of the group is provided, and includes an indication of component operational status for one or more communication system components respectively associated with one or more of the objects of the group. The further representation of the objects of the group may also or instead provide access to the objects of the group, so that information associated with the objects may be more easily displayed, for example. The communication system representation and the group representation are provided in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) in some embodiments.

Abstract: Methods for efficiently filtering and sorting a large number of managed objects of different object types are presented. A single context-sensitive listing form is employed, the operation and display of which changes dynamically according to the selection of a target object. Whenever the user changes the selected target object, the items of a list type menu change to display the applicable list types. An action menu and/or a context-sensitive tool bar changes based on the selected target object to provide quick access selected object type specific actions. The solution allows users to paste objects into the listing form, perform complex filtering based on the object type used, provide a quick assessment of list filtering effectiveness, and invoke appropriate actions on managed object hits. Advantages of the solution include enhanced complex context-sensitive filtering and sorting capabilities, improved performance in dealing with large lists as well a reduction in window management.