Application Notifications

• US 20120304116A1
• Filed: 05/27/2011
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: McNeil, Brian K., Woley, Kevin Michael, Ayers, Matthew R., Anand, Gaurav S., Rawat, Anshul, Donahue, Tyler J., Ivanovic, Relja
• Granted Patent: US 8,893,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/808
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

Application notification techniques are described. Implementations are described in which a representation of an application may include notifications that pertain to the application. Techniques are further described which may be used to manage the notifications, including replacement of notifications, use of queues, overrides, selection of notifications based on execution state of an application, cycling a display of a plurality of notifications, cycling a display of different subsets of notifications, examination of a manifest of an application to determine criteria to be used to display the notifications, display priority of the notifications, and so on.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

examining a manifest of an application without executing the application to find criteria specified for display of notifications as part of a representation of the application in a user interface; and

displaying the representation of the application in the user interface according to the specified criteria.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the representation is selectable to launch the application.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the notification is selectable as part of the representation to launch the application in a context of the notification.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the display is performable without executing the application.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the examining and the displaying are caused to be performed by execution of an operating system by the one or more computing devices.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the criteria specifies that is a queue is to be used to manage the notifications that are to be made available for display as part of the representation of the application.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the criteria specifies a maximum number of the notifications that are to be stored using the queue.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the criteria specifies whether display of the notification as part of the representation of the application is permitted.

9. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the criteria specifies whether cycling a display of the notifications as part of the representation of the application in the user interface such that the plurality of notifications are displayed in succession is enabled or disabled.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of notifications, at one or more computing devices of a web service, that are to be displayed as part of respective representations of applications in a user interface of a client device; and

responsive to a determination that the client device is not available to receive the plurality of notifications, managing the plurality of notifications using a queue and criteria that otherwise would be employed by the client device to determine which of the plurality of notifications are to be stored in the queue for subsequent communication to the client device.

11. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the criteria are determined based on applications that are installed on the client device.

12. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the criteria are determined by examining at least one install manifest of an application that is installed on the client device or using system function call at runtime

13. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the criteria are specified via a communication received at the web service from the client device.

14. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of notifications that are to be displayed as part of a representation of an application in a user interface that is selectable to launch the application;

determining a priority in which to order the plurality of notifications; and

causing the plurality of notifications to be displayed in the determined priority successively as part of the representation of the application in the user interface.

15. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the priority is based at least in part on whether a corresponding said notification has already been displayed.

16. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the priority is based at least in part on values assigned by an originator of a respective said notification.

17. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the priority is based at least in part on values assigned to respective said notifications that indicate a particular slot in a queue.

18. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the receiving, the determining, and the causing are performed by the one or more computing devices as part of a web service.

19. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the receiving, the determining, and the causing are performed by an operating system of the one or more computing devices configured as a client device.

20. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the receiving, the determining, and the causing are performed without executing the application.