Abstract: Methods are provided for parsing, in a message parser P1, P2 of a message processing system 1, a plurality of messages comprising respective corresponding sets of data fields arranged in a predetermined format, to extract a corresponding data field from each message. The format is defined by format information which is stored in the system 1 and which indicates a name for each data field in a said set. In response to a handle request, which indicates the name of a required data field, received from a component 2, 3, 6 of the system, the format information is accessed to determine the location of the required data field in a said message. A handle, indicative of this location, is then supplied to the component. In response to subsequent parsing requests, each comprising the handle and a said message, from the component, the required data field is extracted from the message in each parsing request according to the location indicated by the handle.

Abstract: A method of installing and configuring a computer program onto a computer system involves loading a default bundle of objects into the computer system along with configuration data of said objects, including attributes and inter-object relationships. Some of the default bundle of objects are model objects and these, along with their respective attributes and inter-object relationships, are sent to a systems administrator's display screen, where they may be altered. The model objects and the first-mentioned default bundle of objects are then merged together to form the bundle of image objects which represents a working version of the installed computer program.