Method and system for publishing virtual applications to a web server

• US 10,110,663 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Murphey, C. Michael, Obata, Kenji C., Zeller, Mark Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Aftab N.
• Application Number:
  US14/609,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20150149537A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• Field of Search: 709201, 709202, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method and system for publishing virtual applications on the Internet. The method includes obtaining a list of applications associated with a publisher from a server computing device and displaying the list to a user via a user interface. Next, a selection by the user of one of the applications is received from the user interface. A new virtualized version of the selected application is built. The virtualized version includes at least one application file that at least partially implements the new virtualized version of the selected application. Then, the application file is uploaded to the server computing device. An application address is received from the server computing device and a link to the application address is displayed to the user via the user interface. The virtualized version of the application is available at the application address for download and execution over a network (e.g., the Internet).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for use with a first server computing device and a second server computing device connected to the first server computing device over a network, the method comprising:

building, by an authoring tool executing on a client computing device, a virtualized version of a selected application, the virtualized version comprising an application file;

uploading, by the authoring tool, the application file to the first server computing device over the network;

instructing, by the authoring tool, the first server computing device to copy the application file to the second server computing device;

receiving, by the authoring tool, an application address from the first server computing device after the application file has been fully copied to the second server computing device, the application file being available on the second server computing device at the application address for download and execution over the network; and

displaying, by the authoring tool, a link to the application address to a user after the application file has been fully copied to the second server computing device, wherein the first server computing device parses the application file for parsed information, and stores the parsed information in an application library database, the parsed information comprising an application identifier identifying the selected application, and version information identifying a version associated with the selected application, the selected application being in a list of applications associated with a publisher, the list of applications having been assembled by the first server computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein uploading the application file to the first server computing device further comprises:

successively uploading portions of the application file separately.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, by the authoring tool, the list of applications from the first server computing device;

displaying, by the authoring tool, the list of applications to a user, the selected application being a selected one of the list of applications displayed; and

receiving, by the authoring tool, the selection of the selected application before building the virtualized version of the selected application.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the application address to a different user over the network.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

before forwarding the application address to the different user, modifying the application address to indicate that when the virtualized version of the selected application is executed, the execution of the virtualized version of the selected application is to be profiled.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving application information from the user related to the selected application; and

incorporating the application information received into the application file when building the virtualized version of the selected application.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the application information comprises an identifier associated with the publisher.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the application information comprises an identifier of a domain whereat the virtualized version of the selected application is to be published.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the application address is an address on the domain.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the application information comprises the application identifier and the version information.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the version information comprises a major version indicator, a minor version indicator, a build indicator, and a revision indicator.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein uploading the application file to the first server computing device further comprises:

uploading portions of the application file separately; and

before uploading each portion, validating that the user is authorized to upload the application file.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein validating that the user is authorized to upload the application file further comprises:

receiving a user name and a password from the user; and

determining whether the user has entered a valid user name and password.

14. A system for use with a client computing device, the system comprising:

an application library;

an upload server computing device connected to the application library and the client computing device, the upload server computing device being configured to receive an application file uploaded by the client computing device, parse the uploaded application file to obtain information related to the application file, and store the information in the application library; and

a website server computing device connected to the upload server computing device, the upload server computing device being configured to receive an instruction from the client computing device to copy the application file to the website server computing device, copy the application file to the website server computing device at an application address in response to receiving the instruction, determine when the application file has been fully copied to the website server computing device, and forward the application address to the client computing device after the application file has been fully copied to the website server computing device.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the upload server computing device is configured to query the application library for a list of applications associated with a publisher and forward the list to the client computing device before receiving the application file from the client computing device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the website server computing device is configured to generate a website with a link to the application address;

receive a request from a different client computing device to download the application file;

download the application file to the different client computing device; and

as the application file is downloading, receive a new version of the application file from the upload server computing device and store the new version of the application file without interrupting the downloading of the application file to the different client computing device.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the application file is a binary file that at least partially implements a virtual application.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

an account database storing account information, the upload server computing device being configured to query the account database to determine whether a user operating the client computing device is authorized to upload the application file.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the website server computing device is configured to generate a website with a link to the application address.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the website server computing device is further configured to query the application library and generate a web page displaying a result received in response to the query.

21. A computer-implemented method for use with a client computing device and a second server computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first server computing device, an application file uploaded by the client computing device, the application file at least partially implementing a virtualized version of an application;

receiving, by the first server computing device, an instruction from the client computing device to copy the application file to the second server computing device;

in response to receiving the instruction, copying, by the first server computing device, the application file to the second server computing device;

after the application file has been fully copied to the second server computing device, forwarding, by the first server computing device, an application address to the client computing device, the application address being on the second server computing device, and the application file being available for download and execution over the Internet at the application address;

identifying, by the first server computing device, a plurality of applications associated with a publisher;

parsing, by the first server computing device, the application file for information comprising an application identifier identifying one of the plurality of applications, and version information identifying a version associated with the identified application; and

storing, by the first server computing device, the information parsed from the application file in an application library database.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the version information comprises a major version indicator, a minor version indicator, a build indicator, and a revision indicator.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, at the first server computing device, a request for a list of applications associated with the publisher from the client computing device; and

in response to the request, identifying, by the first server computing device, the plurality of applications associated with the publisher, assembling the list of applications associated with the publisher, and forwarding the list to the client computing device.