Local client database for remote support

1. A method for communicating information between a client computer and a server to provide remote support of the client, the method comprising:

generating status information by one or more support applications executing on the client computer, the one or more support applications including at least a diagnostic function that stores diagnostics results as status information, the status information relating to operations of the client computer;

storing the status information in a client computer database on the client computer;

mapping a database definition of the client computer database for a data item to a first tag, the client data item including the status information; and

communicating the first tag to the server through a network having a server database dissimilar from the client computer database;

wherein the storing the status information, mapping and communicating are supported with tags communicated between the client and server, the tags relating the client computer database and the server database, and the tags are managed to store the status information in the client database and the server database through a functional abstraction layer comprising an application program interface that translates between the dissimilar client and server databases.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating the first tag to the server further comprises retrieving the status information from the server database via a functional abstraction layer comprising the application program interface.

3. The method of claim 1 , in which the mapping associates the dissimilar client computer and server database definitions with pre-defined document tags.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at the computer a message document from the server, the message document including a second tag, the second tag mapped from a server database definition for a server data item; and

invoking a client database command on the client database in response to the receiving of the server message document.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein invoking the client database command further comprises:

parsing the second tag from the server message document;

mapping the second tag to a second client database definition; and

calling an application program interface (API) to invoke a database command that retrieves a client data item defined by the second tag from the client database.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein invoking the client database command further comprises:

parsing the second tag from the server message document;

modifying the client database in accordance with the second tag; and

modifying the mapping between a plurality of tags and a plurality of database definitions in accordance with the second tag.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein modifying the mapping comprises adding a new database definition corresponding to the second tag.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein invoking the client database command further comprises:

parsing the second tag and a server data item associated with the second tag from the server message document; and

modifying the client database with the server data item in accordance with the second tag.

9. The method of claim 4 , which comprises displaying the server message document on the supported client computer.

10. The method of claim 4 , which comprises:

detecting a change in configuration of the client database of the supported client computer;

generating the status information in response to the change; and

periodically communicating the status information in the client message document to the support server.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions which, when executed by one or more computers, perform the method of claim 1 .