VIRTUALIZATION OF CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

• US 20110010700A1
• Filed: 07/08/2009
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tranxition Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Tranxition Incorporated
• Inventors: Haddan, Eric M., Hannon, Laurie A., Gassib, Christopher L., Lanner, Mats E., Hempel, Shawn M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,464,242 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A hardware and/or software translation system to automatically apply user-specific configuration settings to a computer irrespective of the application version or operation system version for which the settings were originally established. By automatically applying user-specific configuration settings to a version of an application or operating system, the translation system eliminates any post-installation reconfiguration, thereby simplifying the process of changing or upgrading the version of an application or operating system.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system to translate a configuration setting used by two or more versions of an application from a primary format to one or more version-specific formats of the application, the method comprising:

storing the configuration setting in the primary format corresponding to a primary version of the application;

storing a translation definition corresponding to the configuration setting, wherein the translation definition includes an indication of a first transform and a second transform for each of the two or more versions of the application when the version of the application uses a version-specific format that differs from the primary format, and wherein each first transform is used to convert the configuration setting from the primary format to the version-specific format and each second transform is used to convert the configuration setting from the version-specific format to the primary format;

intercepting a request from a version of the application for the configuration setting; and

determining whether the version of the application from which the request was intercepted is the primary version of the application;

when the version of the application from which the request was intercepted is the primary version of the application, performing the intercepted request without applying a transform to the configuration setting; and

when the version of the application from which the request was intercepted is not the primary version of the application,

determining whether the intercepted request is a request to read the configuration setting;

if the request is to read the configuration setting,

selecting the first transform corresponding to the determined version of the application; and

applying the selected first transform to the configuration setting to convert the configuration setting from the primary format to the version-specific format;

if the request is not to read the configuration setting,

selecting a second transform corresponding to the determined version of the application; and

applying the selected second transform to the configuration setting to convert the configuration setting from the version-specific format to the primary format,

wherein code implementing the method is stored in memory of the computing system for execution by a processor of the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary format is a format used by a version of the application for which the setting was originally established by a user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary format is an intermediate format that is independent of a version-specific format of the application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary format is the most widely deployed version of the application within an organization.

5. The method of claims 1 wherein the application is an operating system.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the application is one application within a group of applications and the configuration setting is applicable to each application within the group of applications.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein intercepting a request includes instrumenting an application programming interface of a configuration data store.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein applying the selected first transform comprises:

retrieving the configuration setting;

determining whether a first transform exists for the version of the application; and

when a first transform does not exist, returning the retrieved configuration setting to the application.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepted request is a request to modify the configuration setting, and wherein applying be selected second transform comprises:

determining whether a second transform exists for the version of the application from which the request was intercepted; and

when a second transform does not exist, storing the modified configuration setting.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the intercepted request is a request to create a new configuration setting, and wherein the method further comprises:

ascertaining whether the determined version of the application uses a version-specific format that differs from the primary format;

if the version-specific format and the primary format are the same, generating a translation definition corresponding to the new configuration setting that includes an indication that no first and second transforms exist for the determined version of the application and storing the new configuration setting; and

if the version-specific format differs from the primary format,

identifying a first transform to convert the new configuration setting from the primary format to the version-specific format of the determined version of the application;

identifying a second transform to convert the new configuration setting from the version-specific format of the determined version of the application to the primary format;

applying the identified second transform to the new configuration setting prior to storing the new configuration setting; and

generating a translation definition corresponding to the new configuration setting that includes an indication of the first and second identified transforms;

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

for each version of the application other than the determined version,

ascertaining whether the version of the application uses a version-specific format that differs from the primary format;

if the version-specific format and the primary format are the same, storing an indication that no first and second transforms exist for the version of the application;

if the version-specific format differs from the primary format, storing an indication of a first transform corresponding to the version of the application to convert the new configuration setting from the primary format to the version-specific format and storing a second transform corresponding to the version of the application to convert the new configuration setting from the version-specific format to the primary format.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the translation definition corresponding to the configuration setting further comprises:

receiving a selection of the two or more versions of the application;

for at least one of the two or more selected versions of the application,

launching the selected version of the application;

while the selected version of the application executes, manipulating the configuration setting to ascertain a version-specific format of the configuration setting used by the selected version of the application;

comparing the primary format to the ascertained version-specific format of the selected version of the application; and

if the ascertained version-specific format differs from the primary format,

identifying a first transform to convert the configuration setting from the primary format to the ascertained version-specific format;

identifying a second transform to convert the configuration setting from the ascertained version-specific format to the primary format; and

storing the an indication of the identified first and second transforms within the translation definition for the corresponding configuration setting.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed for a plurality of configuration setting established by a user for one version of the application.

13. The method of 12 further comprising:

if the ascertained version-specific format and the primary format are the same, storing an indication within the translation definition that no first and second transforms exist for the selected version of the application.

15. One or more computer memories collectively storing a data structure to translate configuration settings used by two or more versions of an application, the configuration settings having been established by a user for one version of the application, the data structure comprising a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding to a configuration setting and comprising:

information identifying a value of the configuration setting, wherein the value is stored in a source format; and

information identifying, for each of the two or more versions, a first transform and a second transform,

wherein when a request to read a configuration setting is intercepted from a version of the application, the entry containing the configuration setting is selected to determine whether the version of the application uses a version-specific format that is different from the source format and, if the version of the application uses a version-specific format that is different from the source format, the first transform is applied to the value of the configuration setting to translate the value from the source format to the version-specific format used by the version of the application from which the read request was intercepted; and

wherein when a request to write a configuration setting is intercepted from a version of the application, the entry containing the configuration setting is selected to determine whether the version of the application uses a version-specific format that is different from the source format, and, if the version of the application uses a version-specific format that is different from the source format, the second transform is applied to the value of the configuration setting to translate the value from the version-specific format used by the version of the application from which the write request was intercepted to the source format.

16. The one or more computer memories of claims 15 wherein each entry further comprises information identifying a source location of the configuration setting;

wherein the configuration setting is stored at the source location; and

wherein, when a request is intercepted, the entry containing the configuration setting is selected to determine whether the version of the application uses a version-specific location that is different from the source location and, if the version of the application uses a version-specific location that is different from the source location, a transform is applied to the request to translate the version-specific location used by the version of the application from which the request was intercepted to the source location.

17. The one or more computer memories of claims 15 wherein each entry further comprises information identifying a source name of the configuration setting;

and

wherein, when a request is intercepted, the entry containing the configuration setting is selected to determine whether the version of the application uses a version-specific name that is different from the source name and, if the version of the application uses a version-specific name that is different from the source name, a transform is applied to the request to translate the version-specific name used by the version of the application from which the request was intercepted to the source name.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the intercepted request is a request to create a new configuration setting;

and wherein the system further comprises a linking component that;

for each version of the application,

determines a version-specific format of the new configuration setting that is used by the version of the application;

compares the determined version-specific format to the base format;

if the determined version-specific format is the same as the base format, stores an indication that no transforms exist that correspond to the new configuration setting and the version of the application; and

if the determined version-specific format is a format other than the base format,

identifies a first transform to convert the new configuration setting from the base format to the determined version-specific format;

identifies a second transform to convert the new configuration setting from the determined version-specific format to the base format; and

stores an indication of the first and second transforms corresponding to the new configuration setting and the version of the application.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein, if the version-specific format used by the version of the application from which the request was intercepted is a format other than the base format, the virtualization component applies the second transform corresponding to the version of the application and the new configuration setting prior to storing the new configuration setting in the settings storage component.

21. The system of claim 16 further comprising a settings upgrade component that:

receives a selection of a version of the application; and

for each of the plurality of configuration setting established for the application having a base format in which the value of the configuration setting is stored other than the version-specific format used by the selected version of the application,

applies a transform to the value of the configuration setting to convert the configuration setting from the base format to the version-specific format; and

updates the indication of the base format to reflect the version-specific format.

22. The system of claim 16 wherein the virtualization component is executes at a computer operated by the user.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable storage medium is a removable storage medium.

18. A computer system to translate a configuration setting used by two or more versions of an application from a base format to one or more version-specific formats of the application, the system comprising:

a processor;

a settings storage component that stores, for each of a plurality of configuration settings established for an application by a user, a value of the configuration setting and an indication of a base format in which the value is stored;

a translation storage component that stores transforms to convert the configuration settings between their indicated base format and one or more version-specific formats of the application;

a virtualization component that;

intercepts a request from the application for one of the plurality of the configuration settings;

determines a version-specific format used by the version of the application from which the request was intercepted;

compares the determined version-specific format to the base format; and

completes to the intercepted request, wherein, if the determined version-specific format is a format other than the base format, the virtualization component converts the configuration setting prior to completing the intercepted request by applying a transform.

23. The system of 20 wherein the settings storage component is maintained by a server remote to the computer operated by the user.

24. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions to cause a processor of a computer system to translate a configuration setting used by two or more versions of an application from a primary format to one or more version-specific formats of the application, the computer-readable storage medium comprising:

a configuration setting having a value and a primary format, wherein the configuration setting was established by a user for an application;

transforms to convert the value of configuration setting between the primary format and one or more version-specific formats of the application;

instructions to intercepts a request from the application for the configuration setting;

instructions to determine a version-specific format used by the version of the application from which the request was intercepted;

instructions to compare the determined version-specific format to the base format, wherein a transform is applied to the configuration setting prior to completing the intercepted request if the determined version-specific format is a format other than the base format; and

instructions to complete to the intercepted request.