METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING A CERTIFIED APPLICATION EMPLOYING A PRE-CERTIFIED MASTER APPLICATION TEMPLATE

• US 20110023012A1
• Filed: 04/26/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ESW Holdings, Inc. (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Ensequence Incorporated
• Inventors: Khader, Aslam, York, Halstead Winship, Harper, Jeffrey Todd
• Granted Patent: US 8,307,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A computer system is used to distribute an application using a data resource. An application using a data resource is created using an authoring environment. The application is converted into a certified master application template. The certified master application template is used to create a certified application and certified data resource. The certified application and certified data resource are distributed. During the distribution of the application, the certified master application template is modified and a new certified data resource is created. The new certified data resource is distributed.

Claims

1. In a computer system providing an application authoring environment, a method of deploying a certified application characterized by:

generating a certified executable application with at least one data resource from a certified master application template, the data resource having a modifiable attribute associated with a requirement for modification;

distributing said certified executable application with said at least one data resource; and

during the distribution of said certified executable application;

modifying said certified master application template by modifying the attribute in accordance with the requirement for the modification of said attribute;

generating a modified data resource from said modified application template; and

distributing said modified data resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

creating a representation of said certified executable application and a representation of said at least one data resource;

selecting at least one attribute of the at least one data resource representation that is suitable for modification;

specifying at least one requirement for modification of said selected attribute;

aggregating each of said at least one metadata item;

associating said aggregated metadata with said at least one data resource representation; and

storing said metadata with said application representation and said at least one data resource representation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said data resource representation comprises at least one source code file.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said data resource representation comprises an in-memory representation of said data resource.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said data resource representation comprises an object representation of said data resource stored in a database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said attribute to be modified is the data content of a cell in a data table.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said attribute to be modified is the data content of a resource.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requirement for a modification is that the modified value is one of a list of valid values.

9. In a computer system providing an application authoring environment, a method of deploying a certified application characterized by:

authoring an application using at least one data resource;

converting said application into a master application template;

certifying said master application template;

making a copy of said master application template;

modifying said copy of said master application template;

generating a certified executable application and at least one data resource from said modified copy of said application template;

deploying said executable application and said at least one data resource;

further modifying said modified copy of said master application template;

generating a modified copy of said at least one data resource; and

deploying said at least one modified data resource.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein converting said application into a master application template is characterized by:

creating a representation of said application and a representation of said at least one data resource;

selecting at least one attribute of the at least one data resource representation that is suitable for modification;

creating at least one metadata item that specifies said at least one attribute suitable for modification and specifies at least one requirement for the modification of said attribute;

aggregating each of said at least one metadata item;

associating said aggregated metadata with the at least one data resource representation; and

storing said metadata with said application representation and said at least one data resource representation.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein certifying said master application template is characterized by:

generating a first executable application and at least one first data resource from said application representation;

determining that said first executable application and said at least one first data resource meet all requirements for certification; and

determining that modifying each of said at least one attribute specified in said metadata in accordance with all requirements for the modification of said attribute does not violate any requirement for certification.

12. A system for deploying a certified application, the system comprising:

an application authoring component configured to allow creation of application source code;

a template authoring component configured to create and modify, from the application source code, metadata associated with a master application template and interact with a certification authority to create a certified master application template having a certified data resource; and

a resource creation component configured to create, from a copy of the certified master application template, a certified application having a certified data resource.

13. The system of claim 12, further including an application creation component configured to receive a copy of the certified application template from the template authoring component and create a certified application instance.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the application creation component is further configured to modify source files of the copy of the certified application within constraints embodied in the master application template metadata.

15. The system of claim 12, further including a template repository.

16. The system of claim 12, further including a distribution subsystem coupled to a distribution network and receivers for receiving and executing the certified application.

17. The system of claim 12, further including data resources coupled to provide input to the resource creation component, the resource creation component operating to modify a data resource representation within the copy of the certified application template.