vSphere Methods for Property Collection

The

PropertyCollector

supports the following approaches to obtaining objects and properties from the server:

If your client application does not keep a synchronized representation of server state, use the

RetrievePropertiesEx

method.

RetrievePropertiesEx

instantiates a filter, collects the specified objects and properties, and returns the data to your client application as an

ObjectContent

data object. The server does not add the filter to the

PropertyCollector.filter

array. The server destroys the filter after returning the results to your client.

If your application maintains a synchronized representation of server state, use the

CreateFilter

and

WaitForUpdatesEx

methods.

WaitForUpdatesEx

returns descriptions of property changes, organized by the filter that identified the properties.

In either case, you create a

PropertyFilterSpec

data object to specify the objects and properties you want to retrieve from the server.

The following table shows the

PropertyCollector

methods organized by the context in which you use them. For more information about these methods, see the

vSphere API Reference

Method Context	Method	Description
Monitor properties using different filters	CreatePropertyCollector	Creates a new PropertyCollector object to monitor properties using different filters. The vSphere server handles requests for a PropertyCollector instance independently of any other instances of the PropertyCollector on the server.
Monitor properties using different filters	DestroyPropertyCollector	Destroys an instance of a PropertyCollector that was created by a call to CreatePropertyCollector from your client application.
Single collection operation	RetrievePropertiesEx	Retrieves property data for the managed objects specified by a single-use PropertyFilterSpec .
	ContinueRetrievePropertiesEx	Retrieves additional property data for an operation started by RetrievePropertiesEx .
	CancelRetrievePropertiesEx	Cancels a RetrievePropertiesEx or ContinueRetrievePropertiesEx operation.
Incremental collection or monitoring operation	WaitForUpdatesEx	Retrieves changes to property data since the last WaitForUpdatesEx cycle. WaitForUpdatesEx blocks until one or more changes are detected or until the request times out.
Incremental collection or monitoring operation	CancelWaitForUpdatesEx	Cancels a WaitForUpdatesEx operation.
General	CreateFilter	Creates a new instance of a PropertyFilter managed object.

VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0