METHOD OF CONFIGURING A VIRTUAL APPLICATION

• US 20110173607A1
• Filed: 01/11/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: OBATA, KENJI C., MURPHEY, C. MICHAEL
• Granted Patent: US 8,954,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method of modifying a virtual application configuration to include modifications made at runtime by a virtual application that is implemented by a first virtualized application file that was created previously using the virtual application configuration. At runtime, the virtual application implemented by the first virtualized application file stores modifications to its configuration in a sandbox memory location. The method includes reading the modifications from the sandbox memory location. Then, the modifications are written to the virtual application configuration. The modified virtual application configuration is then used to create a second virtualized application file that includes the modifications stored in the sandbox memory location.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing device having access to application configuration information for configuring a first virtualized application file and a memory location storing modifications to a virtual application implemented by the first virtualized application file, the modifications having been stored in the memory location by the virtual application during runtime, the method comprising:

reading the modifications from the memory location;

modifying the application configuration information by writing the modifications read from the memory location to the application configuration information; and

creating a second virtualized application file based on the modified application configuration information, the second virtualized application file including the modifications made to the virtual application by the virtual application during runtime.

2. The method of claim 1, for use with an executable first virtualized application file, the method further comprising before reading the modifications from the memory location:

executing the first virtualized application file; and

as the first virtualized application file executes, writing modifications to the virtual application implemented by executing the first virtualized application file to the memory location.

3. The method of claim 1, for use with application configuration information comprising a virtual registry configuration portion, and a first virtualized application file comprising a virtual registry, wherein the modifications stored in the memory location comprise a modification made to the virtual registry by the virtual application during runtime and modifying the application configuration information comprises writing the modification made to the virtual registry to the virtual registry configuration portion of the application configuration information.

4. The method of claim 1, for use with application configuration information comprising a virtual registry configuration portion, and a first virtualized application file comprising a virtual registry, the virtual application implemented by the first virtualized application file being configured to write modifications made to the virtual registry into a hierarchy in a binary file stored in the memory location, wherein reading the modifications from the memory location comprises traversing the hierarchy in the binary file to identify modifications made to the virtual registry.

5. The method of claim 1 for use with application configuration information comprising an application file and a first virtualized application file comprising a portion corresponding to the application file, wherein the modifications stored in the memory location comprise modifications to the portion of the first virtualized application file corresponding to the application file, and

modifying the application configuration information comprises modifying the application file based on the modifications to the portion of the first virtualized application file made by the virtual application during runtime.

6. The method of claim 1 for use with application configuration information comprising an application file and a first virtualized application file comprising a portion corresponding to the application file, wherein the modifications stored in the memory location comprise a modified version of the application file as modified by the virtual application during runtime,

the modified version is created by the virtual application based on the portion of the first virtualized application file corresponding to the application file, and

modifying the application configuration information comprises replacing the application file of the application configuration information with the modified version of the application file stored in the memory location.

7. The method of claim 1, for use with a first virtualized application file configured to implement a virtual filesystem, and application configuration information comprising a virtual filesystem configuration portion used to configure the virtual filesystem, wherein the modifications stored in the memory location comprise modifications to the virtual filesystem, and

modifying the application configuration information comprises modifying the virtual filesystem configuration portion based on the modifications to the virtual filesystem made by the virtual application during runtime.

8. The method of claim 1, for use with a first virtualized application file configured to implement a virtual filesystem, and application configuration information comprising a virtual filesystem configuration portion used to configure the virtual filesystem, the virtual filesystem configuration portion being organized according to a predetermined organizational structure, the modifications stored in the memory location also being organized according to the predetermined organizational structure, wherein the modifications stored in the memory location comprise modifications to the virtual filesystem stored in the predetermined organizational structure, and modifying the application configuration information comprises:

traversing the predetermined organizational structure used to store the modifications in the memory location; and

modifying portions of the predetermined organizational structure of the virtual filesystem configuration portion corresponding to the traversed portions of the predetermined organizational structure of the memory location.

9. A method of creating a second virtualized application file based on an application configuration used to create a first virtualized application file, both the first and second virtualized application files implementing virtualized versions of an application, the method comprising:

executing the first virtualized application file, during execution, the first virtualized application file implementing a first virtualized version of the application;

receiving configuration modifications to the first virtualized version of the application as the first virtualized version of the application is executed;

writing the configuration modifications to a sandbox memory location;

terminating execution of the first virtualized application file;

without executing the first virtualized application file, reading the configuration modifications from the sandbox memory location;

without executing the first virtualized application file, writing the configuration modifications to the application configuration used to create the first virtualized application file; and

after the configuration modifications have been written to the application configuration, creating the second virtualized application file based on the modified application configuration, when executed, the second virtualized application file implementing a second virtualized version of the application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first virtualized application file comprises blocks of data corresponding to application files in a natively installed version of the application, and the configuration modifications to the virtual application comprise modifications to blocks of data of the first virtualized application file.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the application configuration comprises files corresponding to the application files in a natively installed version of the application,

the first virtualized application file comprises blocks of data corresponding to files in the application configuration,

the configuration modifications to the virtual application comprise information indicating one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been deleted, and

writing the configuration modifications to the application configuration comprises deleting one or more files from the application configuration corresponding to the one or more of the blocks of data indicated by the information as having been deleted.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the files in the application configuration corresponding to the application files in the natively installed version of the application are arranged in a hierarchy,

the information indicating the one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been deleted is arranged in a hierarchy corresponding to the hierarchy in which the files are organized in the application configuration, and

reading the configuration modifications from the sandbox memory location comprises traversing the hierarchy of the information indicating the one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been deleted.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration modifications to the virtual application comprise information indicating one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been modified, and

writing the configuration modifications to the application configuration comprises modifying one or more files from the application configuration corresponding to the one or more of the blocks of data indicated by the information as having been modified.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the files in the application configuration corresponding to the application files in the natively installed version of the application are arranged in a hierarchy,

the information indicating the one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been modified is arranged in a hierarchy corresponding to the hierarchy in which the files are organized in the application configuration, and

reading the configuration modifications from the sandbox memory location comprises traversing the hierarchy of the information indicating the one or more of the blocks of data of the first virtualized application file have been modified.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration modifications to the virtual application comprise information indicating one or more new blocks of data have been created for use by the first virtualized application file, and

writing the configuration modifications to the application configuration comprises adding one or more files into the application configuration corresponding to the one or more new blocks of data indicated by the information as having been created.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the application configuration comprises information for configuring a plurality of registry keys,

the first virtualized application file comprises a block of data storing a plurality of registry keys,

the configuration modifications to the virtual application comprise information indicating one or more of the plurality of registry keys of the first virtualized application file have been deleted, and

writing the configuration modifications to the application configuration comprises deleting one or more of the plurality of registry keys from the application configuration corresponding to the one or more of the plurality of registry keys indicated by the information as having been deleted.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second virtualized application files are configured to implement a virtual operating system having a virtual registry with a plurality of registry keys, and writing the configuration modifications to the sandbox memory location comprises:

writing configuration modifications to the plurality of registry keys of the virtual registry implemented by the first virtualized application file to a binary file comprising two hives, information indicating one or more of the plurality of registry keys has been deleted being written to a first one of the hives and information indicating one or more of the plurality of registry keys has been modified being written to a second one of the hives.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein reading the configuration modifications from the sandbox memory location comprises:

traversing each of the hives of the binary file depth first.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second virtualized application files are configured to implement a virtual operating system having a virtual filesystem storing a plurality of files, the sandbox memory location comprises a first sub-directory and a second sub-directory, and writing the configuration modifications to the sandbox memory location comprises:

writing information indicating one or more of the files in the virtual filesystem implemented by the first virtualized application file has been deleted in the first sub-directory; and

writing information indicating one or more of the files in the virtual filesystem implemented by the first virtualized application file has been modified in the second sub-directory.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein reading the configuration modifications from the sandbox memory location comprises:

traversing each of the first and second sub-directories depth first.

21. A computer-readable media comprising instructions that when executed by a processor implement a virtual application authoring tool, the instructions comprising:

an authoring tool module configured to create a virtual application configuration and a first executable virtualized application file based on the virtual application configuration, when executed, the first executable virtualized application file implementing a virtual application configured to store information identifying a modification to its configuration made at runtime in a memory location; and

a merge tool module configured to merge the information identifying the modification stored in the memory location into the virtual application configuration such that when the authoring tool module creates a new executable virtualized application file based on the virtual application configuration, the new executable virtualized application file includes the modification made to the configuration of the virtual application implemented by the first executable virtualized application file.

22. A method of modifying a virtual application configuration used to configure a virtualized version of an application, the method comprising:

using the virtual application configuration to create a read-only virtualized application file;

executing the virtualized application file, the executing virtualized application file storing information identifying modifications to data stored in the virtualized application file in a memory location;

reading the information stored in the memory location; and

writing the information read from the memory location to the virtual application configuration.