SYSTEM FOR DOWNLOADING AND EXECUTING A VIRTUAL APPLICATION

• US 20110185013A1
• Filed: 01/27/2010
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Zeller, Mark, Obata, Kenji C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,517 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A virtual process manager for use with a client application. Both the virtual process manager and the client application are installed on a client computing device. The client application is configured to receive a user command to execute a virtual application at least partially implemented by a virtualized application file stored on a remote computing device. In response to the user command, the client application commands to the virtual process manager to execute the virtualized application file. Without additional user input, the virtual process manager downloads the virtualized application file from the remote computing device and executes the virtual application at least partially implemented by the downloaded virtualized application file on the client computing device. The client application may comprise a conventional web browser or operating system shell process.

Claims

1. A method performed by a virtual process manager and a client application both executing on a first computing device in communication with a second computing device over a network, the second computing device storing a virtualized application file at least partially implementing a virtual application, the method comprising:

the client application receiving a user command to execute the virtual application at least partially implemented by the virtualized application file and in response to the user command, sending a command to the virtual process manager to download the virtualized application file from the second computing device; and

without additional user input, the virtual process manager downloading the virtualized application file from the second computing device, and executing the virtual application at least partially implemented by the downloaded virtualized application file on the first computing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the virtual application at least partially implemented by the virtualized application file comprises:

executing a virtual machine executable to implement a virtualized environment; and

instructing the virtual machine executable to execute the virtualized application file inside the virtualized environment implemented by the virtual machine executable.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the virtual application at least partially implemented by the virtualized application file comprises:

identifying a version associated with the virtualized application file;

identifying a virtual machine executable configured to execute virtualized application files having the identified version;

executing the identified virtual machine executable to implement a virtualized environment; and

instructing the identified virtual machine executable to execute the virtualized application file inside the virtualized environment implemented by the identified virtual machine executable.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the virtual process manager downloads the virtualized application file and without additional user input, the virtual process manager generating a file identifier, associating the file identifier with the virtualized application file, and sending the file identifier to the client application; and

after the virtual process manager begins downloading the virtualized application file and without additional user input, the virtual process manager receiving status inquiries from the client application including the file identifier, and in response to the status inquires, sending status information to the client application on the status of the download of the virtualized application file based on the file identifier.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the status information comprises a status code or a progress value.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

before sending the command to the virtual process manager to download the virtualized application file,

the client application requesting a session with the virtual process manager; and

in response to the session request, the virtual process manager initiating a session with the client application and generating a session identifier, wherein the file identifier is the session identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the session is a Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

) session.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the virtual process manager downloads the virtualized application file from the second computing device and without additional user input, the virtual process manager determining whether the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, the virtual process manager not downloading of the virtualized application file in response to the command to download the virtualized application file from the second computing device from the client application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the virtual process manager downloads the virtualized application file and without additional user input, the virtual process manager determining whether the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, the virtual process manager downloading only a portion of the virtualized application file not previously downloaded.

10. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor implement a virtual process manager configured to receive commands from a client application, the virtual process manager being configured to download and execute a virtualized application file without any user interaction in response to a first command from the client application identifying the virtualized application file for download.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the virtual process manager is further configured to:

identify a virtual machine application configured to execute the virtualized application file;

execute the identified virtual machine application; and

instruct the identified virtual machine application to execute the virtualized application file.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the virtual process manager is further configured to before downloading the virtualized application file:

determine whether the virtualized application file was at least partially downloaded previously; and

if the virtualized application file was at least partially downloaded previously, download only a portion of the virtualized application file not downloaded previously.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the virtual process manager is further configured to during the downloading the virtualized application file:

provide at least one of status and progress of the download to the client application.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the virtual process manager comprises a dictionary of objects and is further configured to:

generate an identifier for the virtualized application file;

send the identifier to the client application;

create an object for the virtualized application file, the object having a progress field;

associate the object with both the virtualized application file and the identifier in the dictionary;

as the virtualized application file is downloading, store a progress value indicating an amount of the virtualized application file downloaded in the progress field;

receive a second command from the client application requesting progress of the download, the second command including the identifier; and

in response to the second command, locate the object in the dictionary using the identifier and provide the progress value in the progress field to the client application.

15. A computer-readable medium comprising:

instructions that when executed by a processor implement a client application configured to;

receive user commands to execute virtualized application files, and

in response to each of the user commands, send a command to execute an associated virtualized application file; and

instructions that when executed by a processor implement a virtual process manager, the virtual process manager being configured to;

receive the commands sent by the client application, and

in response to receiving each of the commands and without additional user input, download the associated virtualized application file, and initiate execution of the downloaded virtualized application file.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein when initiating execution of the downloaded virtualized application file, the virtual process manager is configured to initiate execution of a virtual machine configured to execute the downloaded virtualized application file and instruct the virtual machine to execute the downloaded virtualized application file inside a virtualized environment.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the client application comprises a web browser.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein in response to receiving each of the commands, before the virtual process manager downloads the associated virtualized application file, and without additional user input, the virtual process manager is further configured to generate a unique file identifier, associate the unique file identifier with the associated virtualized application file, and send the unique file identifier to the client application,

after receiving the unique file identifiers associated with the virtualized application files, the client application is configured to send status inquires to the virtual process manager, each status inquiry comprising one of the unique file identifiers, and

after the virtual process manager begins downloading each of the associated virtualized application files in response to receiving the commands, and without additional user input, the virtual process manager is further configured to receive the status inquiries from the client application, and in response to each of the status inquires, determine status information related to the downloading of the virtualized application file associated with the unique file identifier included in the status inquiry and send the status information to the client application.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the status information comprises a status code or a progress value.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein after receiving each of the user commands to download the virtualized application files, the client application is further configured to request a session with the virtual process manager, and

in response to each session request, the virtual process manager is further configured to initiate a session with the client application and generate a session identifier, wherein the unique file identifiers generated by the virtual process manager are the session identifiers.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein each of the sessions is a Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

) session.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein before the virtual process manager beings downloading each of the virtualized application files and without additional user input, the virtual process manager is configured to determine whether the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, the virtual process manager is configured not to download the virtualized application file.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein before the virtual process manager begins downloading each of the virtualized application files and without additional user input, the virtual process manager is configured to determine whether the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, the virtual process manager is configured to download only a portion of the virtualized application file not previously downloaded.

24. A method performed by a first computing device in communication with a second computing device over a network, the method comprising:

at a client application executing on the first computing device, receiving user commands to execute virtualized application files stored on the second computing device, each of the virtualized application files at least partially implementing a virtual application;

in response to each of the user commands, the client application sending a command to a virtual process manager executing on the first computing device to execute a virtual application at least partially implemented by an associated virtualized application file stored on the second computing device;

at the virtual process manager, receiving the commands sent by the client application; and

in response to receiving each of the commands sent by the client application and without additional user input, the virtual process manager downloading the associated virtualized application file from the second computing device, and executing the virtual application at least partially implemented by the downloaded virtualized application file on the first computing device.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

in response to receiving each of the commands sent by the client application and without additional user input, the virtual process manager identifying a virtual machine application configured to execute the associated virtualized application file, wherein executing the virtual application at least partially implemented by the downloaded virtualized application file on the first computing device comprises executing the identified virtual machine application, and instructing the identified virtual machine application to execute the associated virtualized application file.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

in response to receiving each of the commands from the client application, before downloading the associated virtualized application file, and without additional user input, the virtual process manager generating a unique file identifier, associating the unique file identifier with the associated virtualized application file, and sending the unique file identifier to the client application,

after receiving the unique file identifiers associated with the virtualized application files, the client application sending status inquires to the virtual process manager, each status inquiry comprising one of the unique file identifiers, and

after the virtual process manager begins downloading each of the associated virtualized application files in response to receiving the commands from the client application, and without additional user input, the virtual process manager receiving the status inquiries from the client application, and in response to each of the status inquires, determining status information related to the downloading of the virtualized application file associated with the unique file identifier included in the status inquiry, and sending the status information to the client application.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the status information comprises a status code or a progress value.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

after receiving each of the user commands to download the virtualized application files, the client application requesting a session with the virtual process manager, and

in response to each session request, the virtual process manager initiating a session with the client application and generating a session identifier, wherein the unique file identifiers generated by the virtual process manager are the session identifiers.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein each of the sessions is a Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

) session.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

before the virtual process manager beings downloading each of the virtualized application files and without additional user input, the virtual process manager determining whether the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was fully downloaded previously, the virtual process manager not downloading of the virtualized application file in response to the command to download the virtualized application file.

31. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

before the virtual process manager begins downloading each of the virtualized application files and without additional user input, the virtual process manager determining whether the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, and

if the virtualized application file was partially downloaded previously, the virtual process manager downloading only a portion of the virtualized application file not previously downloaded.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the client application comprises a web browser.

33. The method of claim 24 for use with a first computing device having an operating system, wherein the client application comprises an operating system shell process implemented by the operating system of the first computing device.