APPLICATION MANAGEMENT WITHIN DEPLOYABLE OBJECT HIERARCHY

• US 20090241104A1
• Filed: 03/20/2008
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shukla, Dharma, Zhang, Junfeng, Amiga, Ori, Macintyre, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,753,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

The management of applications in a computing environment often involves a significant number of computing operations, such as acquiring the application, deploying data objects in various locations, and configuring the application with respect to the deployed device. Conventional computing environments may provide inadequate support throughout a typical application life cycle, especially for a computing environment distributed across many devices. Instead, the computing environment may be represented in a deployable object hierarchy that may be distributed to various devices. An application management service may therefore be provided to install representations of the application in the object hierarchy, and to support many other aspects of the application life cycle, such as application discovery, sharing, updating, and removal. The devices may therefore provide the applications of the computing environment to the user in a consistent manner with reduced manual management among the devices comprising the computing mesh.

Claims

1. A method of managing a deployment of an application in an object hierarchy representing a computing environment upon a device, the method comprising:

receiving a request to deploy the application to the device;

acquiring the application from the application store;

mapping the device represented in the object hierarchy to the application;

deploying the application in the object hierarchy; and

transmitting at least a portion of the object hierarchy to the device.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon receiving an application query from a user;

selecting applications satisfying the application query, and

presenting selected applications to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon receiving a request to share the application with a user, sharing the application with the user.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon detecting at least one update of the application, updating the application in the object hierarchy.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon receiving a request to revoke the application, revoking the application in the object hierarchy.

6. A system for managing the deployment of at least one application managed by an application store to an object hierarchy representing a computing environment upon at least one device, the system comprising:

an application acquisition component configured to;

receive a request to install an application, and

acquire the application from the application store;

an application mapping component configured to map at least one device represented in the object hierarchy to at least one installed application; and

an application deployment component configured to deploy the at least one installed application in the object hierarchy.

7. The system of claim 6, the system comprising an application store representing at least one application, respective applications comprising at least one application resource.

8. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an object hierarchy store configured to store the object hierarchy, and

an object hierarchy transmission component configured to transmit at least a portion of the object hierarchy to the at least one device.

9. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application discovery component configured to;

receive from a user an application query,

select applications satisfying the application query, and

present selected applications to the user.

10. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to:

present an application license to a user through the device, and

upon receiving an acceptance of the application license from the user, record the acceptance of the application license.

11. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to broker an acquisition transaction with a user of the at least one device.

12. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to generate a user account representing a user of the application.

13. The system of claim 6, the deploying comprising:

configuring the application with respect to at least one of the device and a user of the device.

14. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application launching component configured to launch the application on the at least one device.

15. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application sharing component configured to;

receive a request to share the application with a user, and

upon receiving the request to share the application, sharing the application with the user.

16. The system of claim 15, the application sharing component configured to share with the user a portion of the object hierarchy comprising at least one of:

the application, an application session, an application configuration, and at least one data object generated by the application.

17. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application updating component configured to update the application.

18. The system of claim 17, the application updating component configured to update at least one application resource in the object hierarchy.

19. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application revocation component configured to revoke the application.

20. A system for managing the deployment of applications in an object hierarchy representing a computing environment upon at least one device, the system comprising:

an object hierarchy store configured to store the object hierarchy;

an application store representing at least one application, respective applications comprising at least one application resource;

an application discovery component configured to;

receive from a user an application query,

select applications satisfying the application query, and

present selected applications to the user;

an application acquisition component configured to;

receive a request to install an application,

present an application license to a user through the device, and

upon receiving an acceptance of the application license from the user, record the acceptance of the application license,

generate a user account representing a user of the application, and

broker an acquisition transaction with a user of the at least one device;

an application mapping component configured to map at least one device represented in the object hierarchy to at least one installed application;

an application deployment component configured to deploy the at least one installed application in the object hierarchy by configuring the application with respect to at least one of the device and a user of the device;

an object hierarchy transmission component configured to transmit at least a portion of the object hierarchy to the at least one device;

an application launching component configured to launch the application on the at least one device;

an application sharing component configured to;

receive a request to share the application with a user, and

upon receiving the request to share the application, sharing with the user a portion of the object hierarchy comprising at least one of;

the application, an application session, an application configuration, and at least one data object generated by the application;

an application updating component configured to update at least one application resource in the object hierarchy; and

an application revocation component configured to revoke the application.