DYNAMIC DEPLOYMENT OF CUSTOM CODE

• US 20080201707A1
• 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: Kwak, Justin, Quinn, Thomas E., Young, Jeff, Canter, Adriaan W., Bhangar, Sameer V., Lavery, Darryn O., Rector, Brent
• Granted Patent: US 8,336,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically downloading custom code for execution within a host application is provided. A deployment system augments the manifest used for deploying managed applications to include information describing how the host application is to use the custom code, referred to as host manifest information. The deployment system reports the progress of the downloading of the manifest and the custom code to the host application. The host application can then perform appropriate host-specific processing. The host application may provide to the deployment system an interface for verifying the trust of the custom code. The deployment system also allows the host application to control the uninstalling of the custom code.

Claims

1. A computer system for, upon request of a requestor, downloading custom code for execution within a host application, the computer system comprising:

a component that, when requested by the requester, downloads a manifest for the custom code that specifies components of the custom code and includes information describing how the custom code is to be used;

a component that reports to the requestor progress during the download of the manifest so that additional processing can be performed by the requestor when downloading the manifest;

a component that downloads the custom code in accordance with the downloaded manifest;

a component that verifies trust of the custom code by invoking functionality provided by the requester;

a component that reports to the requestor progress during the download of the custom code so that additional processing can be performed by the requestor when downloading the custom code; and

a component that uninstalls the custom code when requested by the requestor.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the components compose an in place hosting manager object.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the in place hosting manager object is instantiated by a custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) that provides to the in place hosting manager object an interface for verifying trust and for reporting progress.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) is instantiated by the requestor, which provides the interfaces for verifying trust and for reporting progress.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) and interfaces for verifying trust and reporting progress are provided by a custom code loader that is invoked by the host application.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) and interfaces for verifying trust and reporting progress are provided by the host application.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein the in place hosting manager object does not automatically uninstall custom code.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the in place hosting manager object is adapted to download managed applications and custom code.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the host application and the custom code are managed code.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the component that downloads custom code installs the custom code in a cache so that subsequent downloads of the custom code can be satisfied from the cache.

11. A computer system for downloading custom code for execution within a host application, the computer system comprising:

a component that receives an identification of the custom code, a verify trust interface, and a report progress interface;

a component that installs custom code by downloading a manifest for the identified custom code, downloading the custom code in accordance with the downloaded manifest, verifying trust of the manifest using the verify trust interface, and reporting progress of the downloading using the report progress interface, the manifest including information describing how to use the custom code; and

a component that uninstalls custom code that has been previously installed.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the components compose a custom code deployment manager object (CCDM).

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) instantiates an in place hosting manager object to download the manifest and the custom code and to report on progress of downloading using events.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein when an event indicates progress in downloading, reporting the progress to the host application using the report progress interface.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein a host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) instantiates the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM), passing the identification of the custom code, the verify trust interface, and the report progress interface.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) and the host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) are provided by a custom code loader that is invoked by the host application.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) and the host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) are provided by the host application.

18. A method in a computer system of downloading custom code for execution within a host application, the method comprising:

instantiating a host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) that provides a verify trust interface and a report progress interface;

instantiating a custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) that is provided with an identification of the custom code, the verify trust interface, and the report progress interface, that downloads the custom code, that verifies the trust of the custom code using the verify trust interface, and that reports progress of the download using the report progress interface; and

under control of the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM), instantiating an in place hosting manager object that downloads a manifest for the custom code, downloads the custom code in accordance with the manifest, and reports to the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) progress of the download using events.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) and the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) are instantiated by a loader invoked by the host application.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the host custom code deployment manager object (hostCCDM) and the custom code deployment manager object (CCDM) are instantiated by the host application.