The class statement is used within a group definition to identify the developer of the group and the version information that applies to the group. All groups that share the same value for the class statement must also share the same attribute definitions, including the same type, access, storage, and ID statements. The name, description, and value statements on the attribute definitions can vary. Identical class strings indicate identical group definitions. The conformance provided by the class statement enables management applications to determine the semantics of the group's attributes. Only one class statement is allowed for each group definition.

The syntax of the class statement is:

class = "class string"

class string generally takes the following form:

"defining body|specific name|version"

In this convention, defining body is the name of the organization, specific name identifies the contents of the group, and version identifies the version of the group definition. Spaces are significant in this convention, so that "DMTF|ComponentID|1.0" is not interpreted as being the same as "DMTF | ComponentID | 1.0".

Although the MIF does not require that any particular convention be used when defining the class statement, any class statements that do not follow this convention generate a warning message during the installation of the MIF file. Because applications and service layers might use this convention when obtaining information with the List Component command, component developers are encouraged to use this convention.

If you are developing a component that does not use the entire set of attributes defined by a class, specify the unsupported keyword in the definitions for the unused attributes. Read Value Statement for more information about using this keyword.