5.1 Understanding Distinguished Names

Each Operations Center element has a unique distinguished name, or dname, consisting of its path in the hierarchy and the individual ID (usually a name) and class components of each container in the hierarchy. Dnames are read from right to left, from least specific to most specific, unlike the well-known pattern of file system paths.

Distinguished names are persistent. After an element has a dname, it always retains that dname, even if the Operations Center server restarts.

Distinguished names have the individual textual portions of their components encoded in a URL format, so they can be transmitted over HTTP and other textual mediums. For example:

var theAdmin = formula.Root.findElement( 'root=Administration' )
var theSessions = formula.Root.findElement( 'sessions=Sessions/formulaServer=Server/root=Administration' )