Method and system for installing applications via a display page

• US 20060212548A1
• Filed: 03/15/2005
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Faisal, Adil, Nedikov, Nikolai, Graham, Christine M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,610 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method and system for downloading via a browser a target application using a target control is provided. An installation system provides a web page that is downloaded from a web server to a computer system on which the target application is to be installed. The web page includes a setup frame, a test frame, and an execution frame. The test frame determines whether the target application is installed at the computer system and, if not, effects the invocation of a download/installation component to download and install the target application and an associated target control. The test frame is periodically reloaded and checks to see if the target control is installed. If the target control is installed, then the test frame notifies the execution frame. The execution frame then invokes the target control to effect the launching of the target application.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for downloading a target application, the method comprising:

receiving a display page having a first frame and a second frame;

under control of the first frame,

determining whether the target application is installed; and

when the target application is not installed, initiating the downloading and installing of the target application; and

under control of the second frame,

polling for an indication that the target application has been installed; and

when the polling indicates that the target application has been installed, effecting execution of the target application.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication that the target application has been installed is successful loading of a target control associated with the target application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication that the target application has been installed is storing of a cookie associated with the target application.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein cookies are stored for multiple domains including a domain from which the display page was retrieved.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the display page includes a third frame and the effecting execution of the target application includes signaling the third frame to launch the target application.

6. The method of claim 1 including when the target application is installed but another version of the target application is available, initiating the downloading and installing of the other version of the target application.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the display page includes a third frame that determines whether another version of the target application is available.

8. The method of claim 6 including using storing of a cookie as a result of downloading and installing the other version of the target application as an indication that the other version of the target application has been downloaded and installed.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the indication that the target application has been installed is registration of a MIME-type file extension associated with the target application.

10. A method in a computer system for launching a target application from a display page, the method comprising:

providing an association between the target application and a target file type;

receiving the display page, the display page including target information to be provided to the target application;

storing the target information in a file of the target file type; and

directing the loading of the file wherein the target application is launched to process the target information of the loaded file.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the target information is authentication information to be used by the target application to register with a server.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the target application is a client component used to interact with a server.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the target information is time sensitive information.

14. A method in a computer system for signaling that a target application has been downloaded, the method including:

receiving a display page from a display page domain;

under control of the display page, initiating the downloading and installing of the target application from a download domain;

when installing the target application, registering a cookie for the web page domain; and

under control of the display page,

detecting when a cookie for the web page domain has been registered; and

upon detecting that a cookie for the web page domain has been registered, indicating that the target application has been loaded.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the display page can be received from one of a plurality of display page domains and when installing the target application, installing a cookie for each of the display page domains.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the downloading and installing is initiated when a first version of the target application is installed but a second version of the target application is available.

17. The method of claim 16 including before installing the second version of the target application, overwriting the display page so that the display page is not accessing the first version of the target application.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the display page accesses the target application through a target control associated with the target application.