APPLICATION WRAPPING FOR APPLICATION MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

• US 20140109078A1
• Filed: 10/16/2013
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Lang, Zhongmin, Barton, Gary, Walker, James Robert, Aravindakshan, Vipin
• Granted Patent: US 9,170,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/33 using certificates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/52 Binary to binary
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/72 Code refactoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45516 Runtime code conversion or optimisation

Abstract

Methods and systems for developing, modifying, and distributing software applications for enterprise systems are described herein. A software component, such as a native mobile application or a template application, may be modified into a managed mobile application, and metadata associated with the managed mobile application may be generated. The managed application and associated metadata may be provided to one or more application stores, such as public application stores and/or enterprise application stores. Managed applications and/or associated metadata may be retrieved by computing devices from public application stores and/or enterprise application stores, and may be executed as managed applications in an enterprise system.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

modifying, by a computing device, a software component into a managed application;

generating, by the computing device, metadata associated with the managed application; and

providing, by the computing device, the managed application and the metadata to one or more application stores.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the software component comprises a native mobile application, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed application comprises:

receiving the native mobile application;

determining a structure of the native mobile application;

inserting code into the native mobile application to allow the native mobile application to be controlled by an application management framework; and

rebuilding the native mobile application into the managed application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the metadata associated with the managed application comprises:

using a software tool to automatically derive information from the native mobile application;

providing a user interface to prompt a user to input additional information regarding the native mobile application; and

generating the metadata based on the automatically derived information and user input received via the user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the software component into a managed application comprises:

receiving user input identifying a managed application type; and

retrieving a template application based on the user input.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the software component comprises a web application template, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed application comprises:

retrieving the web application template;

receiving user input corresponding to one or more uniform resource locators (URLs);

receiving user input corresponding to a customized user interface for the managed application; and

building the managed application as a web application using the web application template, wherein the web application is configured to support a set of websites corresponding to the URLs, and configured to provide the customized user interface.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the software component comprises a hosted enterprise application template, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed application comprises:

retrieving the hosted enterprise application template;

receiving user input corresponding to a customized user interface for the managed application; and

building the managed application as a customized hosted enterprise application using the hosted enterprise application template, wherein the customized hosted enterprise application is configured to provide the customized user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the managed application and the metadata to one or more application stores comprises:

generating a bundle comprising the managed application and the metadata associated with the mobile application; and

transmitting the bundle to the application store.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the managed application and the metadata to one or more application stores comprises:

providing the managed application to a first public application store; and

providing the metadata associated with the managed application to a second non-public enterprise application store.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the managed application provided to the first public application store is configured to run in an unmanaged execution mode when an application management agent is not present, and to run in a managed execution mode when the application management agent is present.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the software component into the managed application comprises:

parsing, by the computing device, code of the software component to identify one or more calls corresponding to an operating system (OS) application program interface (API) call; and

replacing, by the computing device, the one or more calls corresponding to the OS API calls with a reference to a stub for a proxy of the OS API call.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:

modify a software component into a managed mobile application;

generate metadata associated with the managed mobile application; and

provide the managed mobile application and the metadata to one or more application stores.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the software component comprises a native mobile application, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed mobile application comprises:

receiving the native mobile application;

determining a structure of the native mobile application;

inserting code into the native mobile application to allow the native mobile application to be controlled by an application management framework; and

rebuilding the native mobile application into the managed mobile application.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein generating the metadata associated with the managed mobile application comprises:

using a software tool to automatically derive information from the native mobile application;

providing a user interface to prompt a user to input additional information regarding the native mobile application; and

generating the metadata based on the automatically derived information and user input received via the user interface.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein modifying the software component into a managed mobile application comprises:

receiving user input identifying a managed mobile application type; and

retrieving a template application based on the user input.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the software component comprises a web application template, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed mobile application comprises:

retrieving the web application template;

receiving user input corresponding to one or more uniform resource locators (URLs);

receiving user input corresponding to a customized user interface for the managed mobile application; and

building the managed mobile application as a web application using the web application template, wherein the web application is configured to support a set of websites corresponding to the URLs, and configured to provide the customized user interface.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the software component comprises a hosted enterprise application template, and wherein modifying the software component into a managed mobile application comprises:

retrieving the hosted enterprise application template;

receiving user input corresponding to a customized user interface for the managed mobile application; and

building the managed mobile application as a customized hosted enterprise application using the hosted enterprise application template, wherein the customized hosted enterprise application is configured to provide the customized user interface.

17. A method, comprising:

accessing, by a computing device, a first enterprise application store;

retrieving, by the computing device, metadata associated with a managed application in a first communication from the first enterprise application store;

accessing, by the computing device, a second public application store; and

retrieving, by the computing device, the managed application in a second communication from the second public application store.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the metadata retrieved from the first enterprise application store comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to an address for downloading the managed application from the second public application store.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the managed application retrieved from the second public application store is configured to run in an unmanaged execution mode when an application management agent is not present on the computing device, and to run in a managed execution mode when the application management agent is present on the computing device.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a set of control policies associated with the managed application, wherein the set of control policies are received in a third communication different from the second communication;

storing the set of control policies on the computing device separately from the storage of the managed application; and

executing the managed application, wherein the managed application is configured to access the set of control policies and operate in accordance with the set of control policies.