VERSION-RESILIENT LOADER FOR CUSTOM CODE RUNTIMES

• US 20080201568A1
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Quinn, Thomas E., Whitechapel, David A., Shneerson, Michael, Cook, Richard A., Robertson, William A., Vajranabhaiah, Pallavi
• Granted Patent: US 8,793,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically identifying and loading a version of a runtime for custom code of a host application without modifying the host application is provided. A loading system dynamically identifies the version of the runtime during execution of the host application. The loading system is also dynamically linked into the host application so that its algorithm for identifying the version of the runtime can be modified without modifying the host application. When requested by the host application to load custom code, the loading system identifies a version of the runtime to load, loads the identified version of the runtime, and then requests a load component of the loaded version of the runtime to load the custom code.

Claims

1. A computing system for dynamically identifying and loading a version of a runtime for custom code, the custom code for execution within a host process of a host application, the computing system comprising:

a component that receives from the host application a request to load custom code identified by a custom code identifier;

a component that collects system information including information relating to different versions of the runtime that are available to be loaded and executed within the host process;

a component that identifies, based on the system information, a version of the runtime to load;

a component that loads the identified version of the runtime; and

a component that requests a load component of the loaded version of the runtime to load the custom code identified by the custom code identifier.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the system information includes operating system information.

3. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the components are stored in a dynamic-link library.

4. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the components are implemented using unmanaged code.

5. The computing system of claim 1 including a component that collects custom code information relating to the custom code to be loaded and wherein the component that identifies a version of the runtime performs the identification based on the custom code information.

6. The computing system of claim 5 wherein the custom code information specifies a version of the runtime to load.

7. The computing system of claim 6 wherein the component that identifies overrides the specification of the version by the custom code information when it is determined that a later version of the runtime is compatible with the custom code.

8. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the load component of the runtime dynamically deploys the custom code.

9. The computing system of claim 1 wherein system information specifies compatibility between versions of the host application and versions of the runtime.

10. A computer-readable medium embedded with computer-readable instructions for controlling a computing system to load custom code, the custom code for providing customization of a host application, the custom code using a runtime that supports the customization of the host application, by a method comprising:

under control of the host application, loading a custom code loader proxy;

under control of the custom code loader proxy,

identifying a version of the runtime that is compatible with the host application and the custom code to be loaded;

loading the identified version of the runtime; and

requesting the loaded runtime to load the custom code;

under control of the runtime, loading the custom code; and

under control of the custom code, using services provided by the runtime to effect customization of the host application.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the identifying is based on compatibility between version of the host application, version of the custom code installed on the computing system, and version of an operating system under which the host application executes.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the custom code loader proxy is stored in a dynamic-link library.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein a new custom code loader proxy is installed by replacing the dynamic-link library on which is stored an old custom code loader proxy with a dynamic-link library on which is stored the new custom code loader proxy.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the custom code specifies a version of the runtime.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the identifying overrides the specification of the version when a later version of the runtime is compatible with the custom code.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the loading of the custom code includes deploying of the custom code from a server.

17. A method in a computing system for dynamically identifying and loading a version of a runtime for custom code of a host application, the custom code using services of the runtime to customize the host application, the method comprising:

receiving from the host application a request to load custom code identified by a custom code identifier;

identifying from multiple versions of the runtime stored on the computing system a version of the runtime that is compatible with the host application and the custom code;

loading the identified version of the runtime; and

requesting a load component of the loaded version of the runtime to load the custom code identified by the custom code identifier.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the load component of the runtime deploys the custom code from a server.

19. The method of claim 17 implemented by computer-readable instructions stored in a dynamic-link library.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein different versions of the runtime can be selected without modifying the host application.