PROGRAMMING MODEL FOR APPLICATION AND DATA ACCESS AND SYNCHRONIZATION WITHIN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20100235830A1
• 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: Hilerio, Israel, Shukla, Dharma, Enders, Raymond, Parasnis, Abhay, Mohammed, Farookh, Bhandarkar, Aditya, Ghanaie-Sichanie, Arash
• Granted Patent: US 8,413,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

Applications executing on computer systems may execute in a virtual environment, such as a web application executing in a web browser. An application may access the actual computing environment (such as the filesystem), but this accessing may be complicated; e.g., the computing environment may be deployed across many computers and devices, and may be synchronized for offline access via a local cache. A computing environment component may service the complex computing environment (e.g., by managing the cache and retrieving remotely stored data objects) and expose it as a well-organized set of data objects. A virtual environment interface (e.g., a web browser plug-in) may allow applications hosted in the virtual environment to access the computing environment through the computing environment component. Programmatic interfaces may also be implemented to permit such accessing via familiar programming languages and techniques, such as JavaScript libraries exposed to web applications in the web browser.

Claims

1. A system configured to apply an operation of an application executing within a virtual environment on a computer to a computing environment of the computer, the system comprising:

a computing environment component executing outside of the virtual environment and configured to apply the operation to the computing environment, and

a virtual environment interface executing within the virtual environment and configured to deliver the operation to the computing environment component on behalf of the application.

2. The system of claim 1:

the virtual environment comprising a browser, and

the virtual environment interface comprising a browser plug-in configured to interface with the computing environment component.

3. The system of claim 1:

the operation specifying a retrieving of at least one data object from the computing environment to be used by the application;

the computing environment component configured to;

retrieve the at least one data object from the computing environment, and

deliver the at least one data object to the virtual environment interface; and

the virtual environment interface configured to;

receive the at least one data object from the computing environment component, and

deliver the at least one data object to the application.

4. The system of claim 3:

at least one data object comprising a remote data object stored in a portion of the computing environment hosted by a remote computer, and

retrieving the at least one data object comprising retrieving the at least one remote data object from the remote computer.

5. The system of claim 1:

the operation specifying a writing of at least one data object to the computing environment by the application;

the virtual environment interface configured to deliver the at least one data object to the computing environment component; and

the computing environment component configured to;

receive the at least one data object, and

write the at least one data object to the computing environment.

6. The system of claim 5:

at least one data object comprising a remote data object to be stored in a portion of the computing environment hosted by a remote computer, and

writing the at least one data object comprising;

delivering the at least one data object to the remote computer for storing in the portion of the computing environment.

7. The system of claim 1, the virtual environment interface comprising a programmatic interface comprising:

at least one operation configured to write a data object to the computing environment, and

at least one operation configured to read a data application in the computing environment.

8. The system of claim 1, the computing environment component configured to apply at least one service to the computing environment.

9. The system of claim 8, the computing environment component comprising a programmatic interface comprising at least one operation relating to at least one service.

10. The system of claim 8:

the computing environment comprising a deployable computing environment, and

at least one service comprising a synchronization service configured to synchronize at least a portion of the computing environment on the computer with a second representation of at least a portion of the computing environment.

11. The system of claim 10:

the representation hosted by a computing environment host, and

the synchronization service configured to synchronize the computing environment with the representation hosted by the computing environment host.

12. The system of claim 10, the second representation stored on a second computer represented in the computing environment.

13. The system of claim 12:

the computing environment comprising at least one application resource of an application that is not installed on the second computer, and

the synchronization service configured to send the at least one application resource to the second computer to be installed on the second computer.

14. The system of claim 10:

the representation comprising least one application resource of an application that is not installed in the computing environment on the computer, and

the computing environment component configured, upon receiving the application resource from the representation during synchronizing, to install the application in the computing environment on the computer using the application resource.

15. The system of claim 8:

the operation associated with a permission based on at least one permission criterion, and

the computing environment component configured to perform at least one operation on behalf of the application comprising;

verifying the at least one permission criterion, and

upon verifying the at least one permission criterion, performing the at least one operation on the computing environment on behalf of the application.

16. The system of claim 1, the virtual environment configured to:

detect an instance of the computing environment component accessible to the computer; and

upon failing to detect an instance of the computing environment component, install an instance of the computing environment component on the computer.

17. The system of claim 1, the virtual environment configured to:

detect an instance of the virtual environment interface accessible to the computer; and

upon failing to detect an instance of the virtual environment accessor interface, install an instance of the virtual environment interface on the computer.

18. The system of claim 1:

the computing environment comprising a deployable computing environment hosted by a computing environment host configured to execute an application on behalf of the computer; and

the virtual environment configured, upon failing to detect an instance of the computing environment component or an instance of the virtual environment accessor interface component, to;

send the application to the computing environment host, and

upon receiving output of the application from the computing environment host, render the output within the virtual environment.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed on a processor of a computer, implement a system configured to apply an operation of an application executing within a virtual environment on the computer to a computing environment of the computer, the system comprising:

a computing environment component executing outside of the virtual environment and configured to apply the operation to the computing environment, and

a virtual environment interface executing within the virtual environment and configured to deliver the operation to the computing environment component on behalf of the application.

20. A system configured to apply an operation of an application executing within a virtual environment comprising a browser on a computer to a computing environment of the computer, the system comprising:

a computing environment component executing outside of the virtual environment and configured to;

apply the operation to the computing environment on behalf of the application;

apply at least one service to the computing environment, including a synchronization service configured to synchronize at least a portion of the computing environment on the computer with a representation of the computing environment hosted by a computing environment host;

expose to the virtual environment interface a programmatic interface comprising;

at least one operation configured to write a data object to the computing environment, and

at least one operation configured to read a data application in the computing environment, and

at least one operation relating to at least one service; and

upon receiving application resource of an application that is not installed in the computing environment on the computer, install the application in the computing environment on the computer using the application resource; and

a virtual environment interface comprising a browser plug-in executing within the virtual environment and configured to deliver the operation to the computing environment component on behalf of the application.