Organization of application state and configuration settings

• US 20070261048A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bernabeu-Auban, Jose, Peschel-Gallee, Frank, Zachwieja, Stephan, Dossick, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

The operating system manages software entities by creating a construct called a context that organizes and manages software-related state and configuration settings of applications. A context may comprise an installation service, a configuration service and an activation service. Contexts can be linked or arranged hierarchically to form parent-child relationships. Hierarchies may be used to affect accessibility of software items, to satisfy dependencies, to control the visibility/invisibility of software items, to provide access to configuration settings and to override software availability, dependencies and configuration settings. An override may be applied to set policy when more than one context has a configuration setting, dependency or access to a software entity.

Claims

1. A system for organizing state and configuration settings of a software entity comprising:

an operating system that creates at least one context for the software entity, the at least one context comprising;

an installation service for storing, installing, removing and servicing the software entity, wherein the software entity comprises a single resource including executable code and metadata packaged together into a unit, the metadata comprising configuration settings associated with the software entity, the installation service providing the configuration settings for the software entity to a configuration service; and

the configuration service for maintaining and managing the configuration settings associated with the software entity and for providing the configuration settings for the software entity to an activation service when the software entity is activated; and

the activation service for creating an execution environment for the software entity, the activation service receiving the executable code for the software entity from the installation service and the configuration settings for the software entity from the configuration service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of:

an identifier of the software entity, versioning information of the software entity, a description of configuration data the executable code uses, a list of resources the executable code requires, or a list of other software entities required by the executable code to execute.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one context is a first context and the operating system establishes a hierarchical link between the first context and a second context, wherein the first context is a parent context of the second context.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second context is a child context.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein software entities of the parent context are accessible to the child context.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the software entities of the parent context is needed by executable code of a software entity of the child context to run.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein configuration settings for software entities of the parent context are accessible to the child context.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the parent context controls the child context'"'"'s access to software entities.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the parent context controls the child context'"'"'s access to configuration settings.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the parent context can override values of configuration settings of the child context.

11. A method for organizing software state and configuration settings at the operating system level comprising:

receiving a process request for a software item, the software item comprising a single resource comprising program code and metadata associated with the program code packaged together into a single unit, the process request comprising one of install, remove or service;

creating a context for the software item comprising;

storing the program code in an installation store of the context; and

storing configuration settings for the software item in a configuration store of the context; and

determining additional software items the program code requires for execution.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising listing unavailable required software items.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the context is a first context and creating a second context and linking the first context to the second context, the first context being a parent of the second context.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein software items and configuration settings for the software items stored in the parent context are made accessible to the child context.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the software items comprise a first software item and a second software item, the first software item requiring the second software item to run.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the parent context can override use of a software item or use of a configuration setting in the child context.

17. A computer-readable medium having program code stored thereon that, when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

select a first context, already existing in the computing environment, and create a second context based on the first context, wherein the first context comprises a first installation service that manages installation of a first software item, a first configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the first software item and a first activation service that creates an execution environment for the first software item based on the configuration settings associated with the first software item; and

link the first context and the second context together such that the first context is a parent of the second context, wherein the first software item comprises a single resource comprising a piece of program code and metadata associated with the program code stored in the parent context by the first installation service and wherein the first software item is accessible to the child context and wherein configuration settings stored by the first configuration service in the parent context are accessible to the child context.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

to override metadata associated with a second software item in the child context, as directed by the parent context, wherein the child context comprises a second installation service that manages installation of the second software item, a second configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the second software item and a second activation service that creates an execution environment for the second software item.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

to override the second software item executed in the child context, as directed by the parent context.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

prevent the parent context from accessing a second software item of a child context, wherein the child context comprises a second installation service that manages installation of the second software item, a second configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the second software item and a second activation service that creates an execution environment for the second software item.