RUNTIME VERSIONING AND DISTRIBUTION OF DYNAMIC WEB-ELEMENTS

• US 20090288077A1
• Filed: 05/15/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Miranda-Steiner, Emmanuel, Parsell, Ryan
• Granted Patent: US 8,490,077 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/173
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions

Abstract

A product server downloads distributed application component from a resource server and updates an application at a predetermined synchronization time. Other aspects include associating a distributed application component and a local application component with a virtual path. If a product server is unable to access the local application component with a virtual path, the distributed application component is downloaded from a resource server.

Claims

1. A system for updating an application, comprising:

a resource server including a processor executing computer executable instructions for;

storing a plurality of distributed application components;

a plurality of product servers, each product server including a processor executing computer executable instructions for;

hosting an application including one or more local application components, each local application component being associated with a corresponding distributed application component;

downloading each corresponding distributed application component from the resource server to each product server; and

updating the downloaded application at a predetermined synchronization time wherein each product server installs each downloaded application component at said predetermined synchronization time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined synchronization time occurs on a regular basis.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a version request from a particular one of the product servers to the resource server wherein the resource server generates a list of the distributed application components and their corresponding distributed version numbers in response to the received request;

receiving by the particular product server from the resource server the generated list of distributed application components;

downloading at least one distributed application component from the resource server to the particular product server when the distributed version number does not equal the local version of the corresponding local application component of the particular product server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of product servers each send the version request at a random or pseudo-random time within a predetermined reoccurring window of time.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the distributed application component includes one or more of the following:

data, a webform, a web control, data, a web page, a pre-compiled component and a just-in-time (JIT) component.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the installing comprises:

storing the downloaded distributed application component in an application directory of the particular product server and deleting the corresponding local distributed application component stored in a cache of the particular product server wherein the particular product server copies the distributed application component stored in the application directory to the cache when the application requests the local application component.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising compiling the distributed application component in response to the application requesting the local application component wherein the compiled application component is stored in the cache of the particular product server.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the application associated with the particular product server additionally includes one or more application components which do not correspond to distributed application components of the resource server.

9. A method for distributing just-in-time compilation (JIT) components, comprising:

receiving a request from a client for an web page including a JIT component;

determining if a compiled version of the JIT component is stored in a cache;

if the compiled version of the JIT component is not stored in a cache, then;

downloading a JIT file from a resource server;

generating the JIT component by compiling the downloaded JIT file;

storing the JIT component in the cache; and

generating a response by executing the stored JIT component in conjunction with the requested page; and

sending the generated response to the client; and

if the compiled version of the JIT component is stored in a cache, then;

generating a response by executing the stored JIT component in conjunction with the requested page; and

sending the generated response to the client.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the JIT component stored in the cache is deleted when a new version of the JIT component is available on the resource server.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the JIT component stored in the cache is deleted in response to receiving a notification that a new version of the JIT component is available from the resource server.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending, to the resource server, a version request at a random or pseudo-random time within a predetermined reoccurring window of time to determine if a new version of the JIT component is available from the resource server.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the JIT component includes one or more of the following:

a webform and a web control.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the JIT component in the cache is associated with a virtual file path, said virtual file path also being associated with the JIT file of the resource server.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the virtual file path is associated with a version number of the JIT file and JIT component.

16. A method for updating an application component, comprising:

receiving a request from a client for an web page including the application component;

requesting a virtual path for the application component, said virtual path providing an indication of a most current version of the application component available on the resource server;

attempting to access a local application component via the virtual path wherein if the attempt fails, then;

downloading the most current version of the application component from a resource server to a local directory; and

associating the downloaded application component stored in the local directory with the virtual path; and

wherein if the attempts succeeds, sending a response to the client, said response generated by executing the application component associated with the virtual path in conjunction with the requested web page.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the application component includes one or more of the following:

a webform, a web control, data, a pre-compiled component and a just-in-time (JIT) component.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

periodically sending a request to the resource server for the most current version of the application component available on the resource server; and

generating a virtual path for the application component wherein the virtual path providing an indication of the most current version of the application component available on the resource server and local application component is not longer associated with the generated virtual path.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sending of the request occurs at a random or pseudo-random time within a predetermined reoccurring window of time.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising compiling the downloaded application component wherein the compiled application component is associated with the virtual path.