MECHANISM FOR LOCATING WITHOUT SEARCH DISCRETE APPLICATION RESOURCES KNOWN BY COMMON NAME ONLY IN A DISTRIBUTED NETWORK COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

Method and apparatus facilitating the processing of a request from a client application for a service, or for access to a resource, in a distributed computing environment. A shared repository is organized in such a manner that binding information, defining how a server is accessed, can be stored in the repository and accessed by multiple clients without their having knowledge of more than the common name for the requested service, or the common name of a specific resource for performing the service. The binding information for each server is stored in a server entry sub-hierarchy of the namespace in the shared repository, and the full names of server entries are stored in a service entry sub-hierarchy of the namespace and a resource entry sub-hierarchy of the namespace. When a client requests access to a service or to a specific resource, the server entry names are accessible from the service entry sub-hierarchy of the namespace or the resource entry sub-hierarchy of the namespace, using only common names for the service or resource. Once a server entry name is obtained, the binding information is retrieved for the client, and a logical connection can be established between the client and the requested service or resource, without having to provide each client with detailed information about the location or name of the server binding information.