PROGRAMMING MODEL FOR INSTALLING AND DISTRIBUTING OCCASIONALLY CONNECTED APPLICATIONS

• US 20100235829A1
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Enders, Raymond, Hilerio, Israel, Shukla, Dharma, Parasnis, Abhay, Mohammed, Farookh, Bhandarkar, Aditya, Ghanaie-Sichanie, Arash
• Granted Patent: US 9,680,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/177
• 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

An application executing in a virtual environment, such as a web browser, may be serviced by an application host, such as a webserver that maintains application resources or provides runtime services to the application. However, it may be difficult to configure the application to operate suitably when the application host is unavailable. Techniques for facilitating such operation include the storing of application resources in a computing environment (such as the local file system or a deployable mesh or cloud environment) while also initiating the application within the virtual environment in the context of the application host, which may reduce difficulties with isolation policies imposed by the virtual environment (e.g., cross-domain restrictions imposed by the web browser.) This configuration may promote the servicing of the application alongside other applications and data objects, e.g., the automated deployment and synchronization of the application among all devices comprising the user'"'"'s mesh environment.

Claims

1. A system configured to manage an installation of an application comprising at least one application resource, the application received from an application host and configured to execute in an application host context within a virtual environment on a computer having a computing environment, the system comprising:

an application installing component configured to;

receive the at least one application resource from the application host, and

store the at least one application resource in the computing environment; and

an application initiating component configured, upon receiving a

request to initiate the application, to;

retrieve the at least one application resource from the computing environment, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the at least one application resource.

2. The system of claim 1, the application initiating component configured to initiate the application in an application host connection context selected from a set of application host connection contexts comprising a connected context and a disconnected context.

3. The system of claim 2, initiating the application comprising:

detect a connection status of the application host comprising at least one of a connected status and a disconnected status;

upon detecting a connected connection status, initiating the application in the virtual environment with the at least one application resource in a connected context; and

upon detecting failing to contact the application host, initiating the application in the virtual environment with the at least one application resource in a disconnected context.

4. The system of claim 2, comprising:

an application host connection context updating component configured to;

after initiating the application, detect a changed connection status of an application host associated with the application; and

upon detecting the changed connection status, update the application host connection context of the application.

5. The system of claim 2:

the application installing component configured to;

receive from the application host a local representation of at least one application resource, and

store the local representation of the at least one application resource in the computing environment; and

the application initiating component configured to;

upon initiating the application in a connected context;

retrieve the at least one application resource from the application host, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the at least one application resource retrieved from the application host; and

upon initiating the application in a connected context;

retrieve the local representation of the at least one application resource from the computing environment, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the local representation of the at least one application resource.

6. The system of claim 3, the application initiating component configured, upon initiating the application in a connected context, to:

for respective application resources, identify a later updated application resource available through the application host than a corresponding application resource in the computing environment, and

upon identifying the later version;

request the later updated application resource from the application host, and

upon receiving the later updated application resource from the application host;

replace the application resource in the computing environment with the later updated application resource, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the later updated application resource.

7. The system of claim 3, the application initiating component configured, upon initiating the application in a connected context, to:

for respective application resources, identify a later versioned application resource stored in the computing environment than a corresponding application resource available through the application host; and

upon identifying the later versioned application resource, send the later versioned application resource to the application host.

8. The system of claim 1, the computing environment comprising a deployable computing environment provided by a computing environment host.

9. The system of claim 8, comprising:

a computing environment component executing on the computer outside of the virtual environment and configured to perform at least one application service on the at least one application resource stored in the deployable computing environment.

10. The system of claim 9:

the application comprising at least one operation on at least one data object of the computing environment associated with a permission comprising at least one permission credential, and

the computing environment component configured to verify the permission using the at least one permission credential on behalf of the application.

11. The system of claim 9:

the computing environment including a representation of at least one device having an application installing component, and

the computing environment component configured to deploy the application to the at least one device by delivering the at least one application resource to the application installing component of the device.

12. The system of claim 1, the application configured to store at least one application resource in a virtual environment memory associated with the virtual environment.

13. The system of claim 12, the system comprising:

an application resource associating component configured to associate at least one application resource stored in the virtual environment memory with at least one corresponding application resource stored in the computing environment.

14. The system of claim 13, the application resource associating component configured to:

for respective application resources, identify a later updated application resource stored in the virtual environment memory than a corresponding application resource stored in the computing environment; and

upon identifying the later updated application resource, replacing the application resource stored in the computing environment with the later updated application resource.

15. The system of claim 13, the application resource associating component configured to:

for respective application resources, identify a later updated application resource stored in the computing environment than a corresponding application resource stored in the virtual environment memory; and

upon identifying the later updated application resource, replacing the application resource stored in the virtual environment memory with the later updated application resource.

16. The system of claim 1:

the at least one application resource comprising an application installing package, and

the application installing component configured to install the application on at least one device by delivering the application installing package to the at least one device.

17. The system of claim 1, storing the at least one application resource comprising:

requesting a user permission to install the application, and

upon receiving the user permission, installing the at least one application resource in the computing environment.

18. The system of claim 1, receiving the at least one application resource comprising:

detecting at least one computer capability relating to the computer, and

requesting from the application host a version of the at least one application resource relating to the at least one computer capability.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to implement a system that, when executed on a processor of a computer having a computing environment, manage an installation of an application comprising at least one application resource, the application received from an application host and configured to execute in an application host context within a virtual environment, the system comprising:

an application installing component configured to;

receive the at least one application resource from the application host, and

store the at least one application resource in the computing environment; and

an application initiating component configured, upon receiving a request to initiate the application, to;

retrieve the at least one application resource from the computing environment, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the at least one application resource.

20. A system configured to manage an installation of an application comprising at least one application resource, the application received from an application host and configured to execute in an application host context within a virtual environment on a computer having a computing environment comprising a deployable computing environment, the system comprising:

an application installing component configured to;

receive the at least one application resource from the application host, and

store the at least one application resource in the computing environment, including a local representation of at least one application resource; and

an application initiating component configured, upon receiving a request to initiate the application, to;

retrieve the at least one application resource from the computing environment, and

initiate the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the at least one application resource in an application host connection context selected from a set of application host connection contexts comprising a connected context and a disconnected context by;

detecting a connection status of the application host comprising at least one of a connected status and a disconnected status;

upon detecting a connected connection status, initiating the application in the virtual environment with the at least one application resource in a connected context by;

retrieving the at least one application resource from the application host;

initiating the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the at least one application resource retrieved from the application host;

for respective application resources, identify a later updated application resource available through the application host than a corresponding application resource in the computing environment, and

upon identifying the later version;

requesting the later updated application resource from the application host, and

upon receiving the later updated application resource from the application host;

 

replacing the application resource in the computing environment with the later updated application resource, and

 

initiating the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the later updated application resource;

for respective application resources, identifying a later versioned application resource stored in the computing environment than a corresponding application resource available through the application host; and

upon identifying the later versioned application resource, sending the later versioned application resource to the application host; and

upon detecting failing to contact the application host, initiating the application in the virtual environment with the at least one application resource in a disconnected context by;

retrieving the local representation of the at least one application resource from the computing environment, and

initiating the application within the virtual environment in the application host context with the local representation of the at least one application resource; and

an application host connection context updating component configured to;

after initiating the application, detect a changed connection status of an application host associated with the application; and

upon detecting the changed connection status, update the application host connection context of the application; and

a computing environment component executing on the computer outside of the virtual environment and configured to perform at least one application service on the at least one application resource stored in the deployable computing environment.