Abstract: Runtime polymorphism may be enabled with metadata that is usable for casting objects to casted objects. In an exemplary media implementation, processor-executable instructions cause operations including: discover at least one type of an object while in a runtime environment; and create a casted object from the object by casting the object to the casted object using metadata. An exemplary computing device implementation includes: one or more processors; and one or more media in operative communication therewith, the one or more media including: an object of a first type; metadata that is capable of being used to cast unknown objects in a runtime environment; and processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform an action including: casting the object of the first type to a casted object of a second type using the metadata in the runtime environment, the first type differing from the second type.

Abstract: An exemplary software architecture allows for defining and accessing data and auxiliary data for an item in a navigable namespace. For example, such an exemplary architecture can include a provider engine operable to access data for an item in a navigable namespace, an auxiliary provider engine operable to access auxiliary data for the item and an auxiliary provider class for use in defining the auxiliary data for the item and accessing the auxiliary data for the item. Various other exemplary technologies are also disclosed.

Abstract: A remote administration system is described herein that provides varying permissions to invoke administrative commands to multiple users. An application host provisions users of different organizations and defines one or more commands that the users can invoke remotely. The system associates the commands with users and/or groups to specify the users and/or groups that are authorized to execute the commands. When the remote administration system receives a remote request to perform a command, the system determines a user associated with the command and whether the user is authorized to execute the command. The system also creates an execution context for each connected user that defines the roles and access privileges associated with the user and that isolates the user from other users. Thus, the remote administration system provides remote administration of hosted applications in a way that is easy for administrators of the hosted service to manage.

Abstract: The adaptation of at least a portion of an object provided by a previous script component to a subsequent script component, despite the subsequent component being incapable of recognizing a format of the at least a portion of the object as provided by the previous component. The previous component generates an object having a property. Adaptation script identifies adaptation(s) to perform on the property prior to being used by the subsequent component. The adaptation is performed, and the adapted property is then used by the subsequent component.

Abstract: Computerized facilitation of an assessment of risk associated with running interpretable code. The interpretable code under evaluation is parsed to identify a command unit within the interpretable code. One or more risk factors associated with the identified command unit is then identified using the parsed code. A report is then made of including identification of the command unit found the interpretable code along with the identified associated one or more risk factors. Thus, a user need not have to read and evaluate the interpretable code itself, but may instead review the much less complex report to evaluate the risks associated with running the interpretable code.

Abstract: A system and method for securely transferring computer-readable objects across a remote boundary is provided. The method decomposes any type of object into a hierarchy of sub-components based on a list of known object types. Each sub-component either corresponds to a known object type or an unknown object type. The unknown object types may be decomposed further into known object types at another level in the hierarchy. The known objects in the hierarchy are serialized into a package that is transmitted to a remote entity. The remote entity reconstructs the hierarchy. For any of the known object types, the remote entity instantiates an object of the known object type and populates the object with information transmitted in the package. The decomposition may be limited by specifying a level for the hierarchy, specifying a number that limits the known objects that are serialized, or specifying the properties within the object to serialize.

Abstract: The techniques and mechanisms described herein are directed to a taint mechanism. An object-based command declares a taint directive for a parameter within a command declaration. The taint directive is then associated with that parameter in a manner such that when an engine processes the command, the engine determines whether to process the command based on the taint directive and input for the parameter. The taint directive may specify that the input may be tainted or untainted. The command declaration may also include a taint parameter that specifies a taint characteristic for output from the command. The taint characteristic may be tainted, untainted, or propagated. Any type of object may become tainted. An untaint process may be applied to tainted data to obtain untainted data if an authorization check performed by the engine is successful.

Abstract: A command line environment is configured to receive a command line that implicates a plurality of remote nodes. The command line environment is configured to establish a session, which may be persistent, to each implicated remote node, and to initiate execution of the remote command on those nodes. The session may be assigned to a variable, and the remote execution may be performed concurrently. Results of the remote execution are received and may be aggregated into an array. The command line environment may distribute the task of establishing sessions to other systems to improve performance.

Abstract: A command line utility is described that overlays the management infrastructure of an enterprise to provide easier command options for administrators to effectively manage the enterprise. The primary intent of the command line utility is to facilitate management of the environment without requiring administrators to write scripts or navigate a vast schematized enterprise exposed through the management infrastructure. The command line utility provides command options through class aliases that enable the mapping of management queries and operations to a common term or friendly name that can be extended both in an alias file or at run time in the command line.

Abstract: The present mechanism obtains constraints within an interactive environment, associates these constraints with constructs, and then applies these constraints to the constructs when encountering the constructs. The constraints may be saved in metadata associated with the respective construct. The constraints may specify a data type for the construct, a predicate directive, a documentation directive, a parsing directive, a data generation directive, a data validation directive, or an object processing and encoding directive. The constraints are extendable to support other directives. The mechanism allows interactive users to easily specify constraints interactively.

Abstract: The present mechanism allows commands entered on a command line in a command line operating environment the ability to execute in a first execution mode or an alternate execution mode. The command is executed in the alternate execution mode if the command includes an instruction to execute in the alternate execution mode. The alternate execution mode is provided by the operating environment and provides extended functionality to the command. The alternate execution mode may visually display results of executing the command, visually display simulated results of executing the command, prompt for verification before executing the command, may perform a security check to determine whether a user requesting the execution has sufficient privileges to execute the command, and the like.

Abstract: The Techniques and Mechanisms Described Herein are Directed to an Extensible security architecture that provides a security mechanism for minimizing security problems within interpretive environments. The extensible security architecture comprises a script engine configured to process a script and a security manager configured to monitor the processing of the script based on a security policy. The security manager determines whether to open an assembly associated with a command within the script, whether to process the command, whether to allow certain input to the command, and the like. The security policy may be implemented by overriding one or more methods of a base security class that are called when processing the script. The input may be an object passed via an object-based pipeline.

Abstract: The techniques and mechanisms described herein are directed to a scripting security mechanism that minimizes security risks associated with interpreting a script written with a scripting language. An interpreter recognizes the scripting-language syntax within the script and processes each line that is designated within a data block using a restrictive set of operations. The restrictive set of operations are a subset of the total operations available for processing. If one of the lines within the data block attempts to perform an operation that is not within the restrictive set of operations, the interpreter provides an indication, such as an exception or message explaining the illegal operation. The interpreter also recognizes a list of export variables associated with the data block and exports only the variables identified in the list to an external environment if the export variable meets a constraint identified for it, if any.

Abstract: The present invention is directed at a reflection-based shell that provides reflection-based processing of input parameters for a command. The reflection-based processing includes parsing, data generation, data validation, object encoding, object processing, documentation, and the like. The reflection-based shell provides a mechanism for specifying a grammar for the input parameters using a class. The method includes receiving a parsable stream that includes a command and at least one parameter. Retrieving definitional information that describes an expected parameter for the command. Using the definitional information to create an object for storing the at least one parameter in a format in accordance with the description of the expected parameters. Passing the object to the command. The object not having a method invocable by the command.

Abstract: The present invention is directed at a reflection-based shell that provides reflection-based processing of input parameters for a command. The reflection-based processing includes parsing, data generation, data validation, object encoding, object processing, documentation, and the like. The reflection-based shell provides a mechanism for specifying a grammar for the input parameters using a class. The method includes receiving a parsable stream that includes a command and at least one parameter. Retrieving definitional information that describes an expected parameter for the command. Using the definitional information to create an object for storing the at least one parameter in a format in accordance with the description of the expected parameters. Passing the object to the command.

Abstract: A computer system with a command shell that supports execution of commands within transactions. The command shell responds to commands that start, complete or undo transactions. To support transactions, the command shell may maintain and provide transaction state information. The command shell may interact with a transaction manager that interfaces with resource managers that process transacted instructions within transacted task modules to commit or roll back transacted instructions from those task modules based on transaction state information maintained by the shell. Parameters associated with commands can control behavior in association with transaction process, including supporting nesting transactions and non-nested transactions and bypassing transacted processing in some instances of a command.

Abstract: The present mechanism provides a data driven command line output within an environment that supports a pipeline of object-based commands. Each object-based command inputs a parseable object for processing and outputs another parseable object for subsequent command processing. The mechanism is operative to direct formatting and subsequent processing of the commands based on a type of the incoming parseable object. Format information is obtained for the type, such as shape, properties to display, and the like. The format information may be specified within an XML-based document. The mechanism utilizes one or more output processing commands, such as format commands, markup commands, convert commands, transform commands, and out commands. These output processing commands may be arranged within the pipeline in various ways to achieve the desired output results.

Abstract: The present mechanism provides a data driven command line output within an environment that supports a pipeline of object-based commands. Each object-based command inputs a parseable object for processing and outputs another parseable object for subsequent command processing. The parseable objects do not have methods. The mechanism is operative to direct formatting and subsequent processing of the commands based on a type of the incoming parseable object. Format information is obtained for the type, such as shape, properties to display, and the like. The format information may be specified within an XML-based document. The mechanism utilizes one or more output processing it commands, such as format commands, markup commands, convert commands, transform commands, and out commands. These output processing commands may be arranged within the pipeline in various ways to achieve the desired output results.

Abstract: Described herein are technologies directed towards providing a common mechanism for tracking the activity status of one or more software actions of a computer system. Furthermore, the described technologies facilitate managing the presentation of the tracked activity status of individual actions and/or of a collection of such actions.

Abstract: The present mechanism provides a grammar for specifying required prerequisites (e.g., number and type of input parameters) that an object must possess in order for processing to occur on the object. The mechanism allows programmers and non-programmers to easily specify these prerequisites. The prerequisites may be associated directly or indirectly with a data structure. For a direct specification, the data structure comprises a parameter declaration for each expected input parameter. For an indirect specification, the data structure comprises a parameter definition that references an external description, such as in an XML document. The data structure also providing a mechanism that identifies a corresponding parameter within an input source for each expected input parameter based on its declaration. The mechanism further populates each expected input parameter with information associated with the corresponding parameter when the data structure becomes instantiated into an object.