COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING SOFTWARE COMPONENTS ON DEMAND TO A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20090282403A1
• Filed: 05/15/2009
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Univirtua Ireland Limited
• Original Assignee: Univirtua Ireland Limited
• Inventors: Beckles, Rohan Nathaniel, Poole, Joseph Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,312,451 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• 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 computing system includes a computer network, a server connected thereto, and a client device for communicating with the server over the computer network. The client device runs an application shell software module providing a dynamically configurable application in a piecemeal manner by individually downloading and running a plurality of software components that are individually stored on the computer network and downloaded/run when needed. The server receives a request for available software components from the application shell software module, controls a search of an index for available software components and transmits a response to the application shell software module providing details of available software components. The application shell software module receives details of available software components from the server, retrieves a selected software component from the location identified by location data for the selected software component, and starts and stops the selected software component within the application shell software module in accordance with received data.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a computer network;

a server connected to the computer network; and

a client device operable for communicating with said server over said computer network;

wherein said client device is operable to run an application shell software module that provides a dynamically configurable application in a piecemeal manner by individually downloading and running a plurality of software components, each software component being individually stored on the computer network and being downloaded and run when needed;

wherein said server is operable to receive a request for available software components from the application shell software module, to control a search of an index for available software components and to transmit a response to said application shell software module providing details of available software components, including, for each software component;

i) identification data identifying the software component;

ii) location data identifying a location from which the software component can be obtained; and

iii) start and stop data identifying how to start and stop the software component;

wherein said application shell software module is operable;

i) to receive said details of available software components from said server;

ii) to retrieve a selected software component from the location identified by said location data for the selected software component; and

iii) to start and stop the selected software component within the application shell software module in accordance with the received start and stop data.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said software components are stored in different locations within a common store connected to said computer network.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein said application shell is operable to transmit a text string request for available software components and wherein said server is operable:

i) to receive said text string request for available software components from the application shell software module;

ii) to parse the text string request and to generate a query using the text in the request; and

iii) to control the search of said index for available software components using the query.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said server is operable to transmit a text string response to said application shell software module providing details of available software components, including, for each software component:

i) text identifying the software component; and

ii) text identifying a location from which the software component can be obtained;

wherein said application shell software module is operable;

i) to receive said text string response;

ii) to parse the received text string response to obtain the text identifying the available software components and the text identifying the locations of the available software components; and

iii) to retrieve and run a selected software component using the text identifying the location of the selected software component.

5. A client device for use in the system of claim 1, the client device being operable to run an application shell software module that provides a dynamically configurable application in a piecemeal manner by individually downloading and running a plurality of software components, each software component being individually stored on the computer network and being downloaded and run when needed;

and

wherein said application shell software module is operable;

i) to receive said details of available software components from said server;

ii) to retrieve a selected software component from the location identified by said location data for the selected software component; and

iii) to start and stop the selected software component within the application shell software module in accordance with the received start and stop data.

6. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module is operable:

iv) to start the component and, once the component is no longer required, to stop the component in accordance with the start and stop data.

7. A client device according to claim 6, wherein said start and stop data causes said application shell software module to remove the software component from the memory of the client device.

8. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module comprises a request generator for constructing and sending said request to said server from information obtained from a configuration file containing configuration information for or about said client device.

9. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module comprises:

a response receiver for receiving said server'"'"'s response and for populating a component data table for each available software component with the corresponding details for the software component data contained within the response.

10. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module comprises:

a code provider for retrieving the selected component; and

an application container in which the retrieved software component is run.

11. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module is a Java object.

12. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said software components are single-purpose units of code that each perform a specific function.

13. A client device according to claim 5, wherein each software component is operable to implement a substantially different part of the dynamically configurable application'"'"'s functionality, that part being small in relation to the overall size of the dynamically configurable application.

14. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell software module is operable:

to identify, to a user, the available software components for user selection in accordance with the received data identifying the available software components;

in response to receiving a user selection of a software component, to retrieve the selected software component from the location identified by said location data; and

to start and stop the retrieved software module in accordance with the start and stop data.

15. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said client device is a smart telephone.

16. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell is operable to retrieve said software components by downloading them from said location using a standard download protocol.

17. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said client device is battery powered and comprises solid state memory only.

18. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said software components are retrieved and run in volatile memory only.

19. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said client device comprises a plurality of application shells, each associated with a respective different server on said network, and wherein, when the client device is running one of said application shells, the client device is operable to communicate with the corresponding server associated with that application shell.

20. A client device according to claim 5, wherein said application shell is operable to provide multiple dynamically configurable applications, each associated with a respective server, and wherein said client device is operable to connect to a selected one of said servers in dependence upon a selected one of said dynamically configurable applications.

21. A computer implementable instructions product comprising computer implementable instructions for causing a programmable computer device to become configured as the client device of claim 5.

22. A server for use in the computing system of claim 1, the server being operable to receive a request for available software components from the application shell software module, to control a search of an index for available software components and to transmit a response to said application shell software module providing details of available software components, including, for each software component:

i) identification data identifying the software component;

ii) location data identifying a location from which the software component can be obtained; and

iii) start and stop data identifying how to start and stop the software component.

23. A server according to claim 22, wherein said index is stored in a repository and wherein said server comprises:

a query generator for translating said received request for said available software components into a query suitable for use in querying said index in said repository;

a repository provider for searching said index in said repository for said available software components using said query; and

a response generator for generating said response from search results obtained from said repository provider.

24. A server according to claim 22, wherein said server comprises a repository admin provider for maintaining said index of said software components.

25. A server according to claim 24, wherein said repository admin provider is operable to maintain said index by updating said index to include new components.

26. A server according to claim 24, wherein said repository admin provider is operable to maintain said index by updating said index to remove legacy software components.

27. A server according to claim 22, wherein said available software components are the subset of all possible software components determined in dependence upon data contained in the received request.

28. A server according to claim 27, wherein said server is operable to identify said subset of available software components by matching data received in the request with data stored for each software component in the index.

29. A server according to claim 22, wherein the location of each software component is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator.

30. A server according to claim 22, wherein said index comprises a plurality of descriptors, each descriptor being associated with a respective one of a plurality of software components and comprising a plurality of descriptor nodes each hiving a plurality of attribute key-value pairs relating to the associated software component;

wherein said search of the index is performed by matching attribute key-value pairs defined within said received request with the attribute key-value pairs of each descriptor; and

wherein the server is operable to provide, in said response, details of software components for which a match is found between the attribute key-value pairs of the request and the attribute key-value pairs of the associated descriptor.

31. A server according to claim 22, wherein said index comprises a plurality of descriptor Java objects, each descriptor object being associated with a respective one of a plurality of software components and having a plurality of associated attribute Java objects each defining an attribute key-value pair relating to the associated software component;

wherein said search of the index is performed by matching attribute key-value pairs defined within said received request with the attribute Java objects associated with each descriptor Java object; and

wherein the server is operable to provide, in said response, details of software components for which a match is found between the attribute key-value pairs of the request and the attribute Java objects of the associated descriptor Java object.

32. A server according to claim 22, wherein said server is operable to determine user subscription data for the user of the client device and is operable to control the search of said index so that said response does not include details of available software components for which the user has not subscribed.

33. A computer implementable instructions product comprising computer implementable instructions for causing a programmable computer device to become configured as the server of claim 22.