1. A system comprising: a namespace and storage management server having an integrated management framework executing program instructions for facilitating configuration of and management of pathnames in a logical namespace, and creating a layer of abstraction that presents to a client the logical namespace that is accessible via a particular storage access protocol, and extracting logical views and pathnames from the namespaces exported by heterogeneous services, and configuring the pathnames so that they are accessible in the logical namespace via the storage access protocols; a namespace and storage management console having a computer screen; and a namespace and storage management application executing on the management console, the namespace and storage management application configured to initiate performance of commands directed to managed objects including facilitating configuration and management of pathnames in a logical namespace, and configured to spawn a graphical user interface thread for use by a GUI toolkit, the GUI toolkit configured to produce reusable GUI components, the GUI components including a navigation frame having a plurality of navigation panels simultaneously displayed on the computer screen, the navigation panels including a hierarchy panel, an operations panel, a view panel and a display panel to allow a user to manage various said pathnames exported by heterogeneous namespace services and protocol implementations within the logical namespace, said GUI toolkit supporting reusable templates that facilitate reuse of the GUI components within one of the management application and other applications.
1. A system comprising: a namespace and storage management server having an integrated management framework executing program instructions for facilitating configuration of and management of pathnames in a logical namespace, and creating a layer of abstraction that presents to a client the logical namespace that is accessible via a particular storage access protocol, and extracting logical views and pathnames from the namespaces exported by heterogeneous services, and configuring the pathnames so that they are accessible in the logical namespace via the storage access protocols; a namespace and storage management console having a computer screen; and a namespace and storage management application executing on the management console, the namespace and storage management application configured to initiate performance of commands directed to managed objects including facilitating configuration and management of pathnames in a logical namespace, and configured to spawn a graphical user interface thread for use by a GUI toolkit, the GUI toolkit configured to produce reusable GUI components, the GUI components including a navigation frame having a plurality of navigation panels simultaneously displayed on the computer screen, the navigation panels including a hierarchy panel, an operations panel, a view panel and a display panel to allow a user to manage various said pathnames exported by heterogeneous namespace services and protocol implementations within the logical namespace, said GUI toolkit supporting reusable templates that facilitate reuse of the GUI components within one of the management application and other applications. 8. The system of claim 1 wherein the navigation frame has a layout that includes a forward/backward utility having forward and back buttons that enable a user to switch forward and back, respectively, between navigation panels of the frame.