Packaging Content Updates

• US 20140019956A1
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lerum, Cameron B., Wissink, Catherine A., Seubert, Roxanne M., Subramanian, Sushmita, Rao, Vivek R., Hezroni, Yaron
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• 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

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to obtaining user feedback and causing a package of content updates to be created and distributed based on the received feedback. In accordance with one embodiment, a method is provided for creating a package that contains one or more content updates that are configured for implementation on a remote device.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a network interface configured to enable communication with computing devices via a network; and

a content package creator configured to;

receive, via the network interface, user input from a plurality of the computing devices on which a program executes, the user input defining one or more content updates for the program;

assemble the one or more content updates into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network; and

transmit, via the network interface, the package of content updates to another of the computing devices on which the program executes effective to cause the program executing on the other computing device to implement the one or more content updates.

2. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing logic for implementing the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

3. The device as recited in claim 2, wherein the logic for implementing the one or more content updates is formatted in extensible markup language (XML).

4. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the content package creator is further configured to assemble the package of content updates without user interaction or transmit the package of content updates without user interaction.

5. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the package of content updates is assembled such that the one or more content updates can be implemented without a software update that modifies functionality of the program.

6. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input defining the one or more content updates for the program is obtained through a plurality of respective graphical user interface (GUI) objects executing on the plurality of the computing devices.

7. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the content updates is implemented as resource-only dynamic link library (DLL).

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, via a network interface, user input from a plurality of computing devices on which a program executes, the user input defining content updates for the program;

storing, in a data store, the user input defining the content updates for the program;

determining which of the content updates stored in the data store address a content issue associated with the program;

assembling one or more content updates that address the issue associated with the program into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network; and

transmitting, via the network interface, the package of content updates to another computing device on which the program executes effective to cause the program executing on the other computing device to implement the one or more content updates that address the issue associated with the program.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein the issue associated with the program is a language issue and the one or more content updates include language content.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein the user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices identifies the issue associated with the program.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 10, wherein determining which of the content updates addresses the content issues comprises querying the data store based on the user input that identifies the issue associated with the program.

12. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein the assembling of the one or more content updates is responsive to a command received from one of the plurality of devices one which the program executes.

13. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing rules prescribing conditions under which to implement the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

14. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the rules prescribing conditions under which to implement the one or more content updates are formatted in extensible markup language (XML).

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, via a network interface, user input from a plurality of computing devices on which a program executes, the user input defining content updates for the program;

storing, in a data store, the user input defining the content updates for the program;

querying the data store for one or more content updates that address an issue associated with the program; and

assembling the one or more content updates that address the issue associated with the program into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network, the package including logic effective to implement the one or more content updates on another computing device that executes the program.

16. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 15, further comprising transmitting the package of content updates to the other computing device.

17. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 15, wherein the user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices identifies the issue associated with the program.

18. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 15, wherein the assembling of the one or more content updates is responsive to a command received from one of the plurality of devices on which the program executes.

19. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 15, further comprising transmitting, to at least two of the plurality of computing devices, the package of content updates effective to implement the one or more content updates on the computing device.

20. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 15, wherein the package of content updates includes natural language content that, responsive to implementation on the other computing device, causes the program to load the natural language content in place of default content of the program.