Live Tiles Without Application-Code Execution

• US 20140359721A1
• Filed: 05/29/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Alphin, Thomas H. III, Srour, Benjamin Salim, Duncan, Richard J., Calandrino, John Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,450,952 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

This document describes techniques enabling live tiles without application-code execution. These techniques permit live content to be presented in tiles without executing code of applications associated with those tiles. By so doing, live tiles may be presented more safely, faster, or using fewer resources.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving metadata of an application, the metadata having an indicator;

retrieving, based on the indicator, content associated with the application; and

presenting, within a live tile associated with the application and within a live-tile user interface having multiple other live tiles associated with multiple other applications, the content within the live tile,

the acts of receiving metadata of the application, retrieving the content associated with the application, and presenting the content within the live tile performed without executing application code of the application.

2. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the acts of receiving metadata of the application, retrieving the content associated with the application, and presenting the content within the live tile are performed prior to installing the application on a computing device on which the acts are performed.

3. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the metadata includes non-executable properties associated with the application.

4. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the metadata includes a frequency, the retrieving is performed repetitively at the frequency, and the presenting updates the live tile repetitively at the frequency.

5. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein retrieving the content comprises establishing, based on the indicator, a data push from a content source associated with the application, and receiving, at a device at which the method is performed, the content in the data pushed from the content source.

6. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the indicator is a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

7. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the content is new to the application since the live tile associated with the application was last presented.

8. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the metadata is written at least in part in a markup language and retrieving the content includes parsing the markup language to determine the indicator.

9. One or more computer-readable storage devices comprising computer-readable instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a computing device with which a user has not been known to have previously interacted, an identifier associated with the user;

determining, based on the identifier, multiple applications associated with the user;

retrieving content associated with one or more uninstalled applications of the multiple applications, the one or more uninstalled applications not installed on the computing device; and

presenting, within live tiles associated with the one or more uninstalled applications, the content retrieved.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein presenting the content retrieved is performed without executing, on the computing device, application code of one or more of the uninstalled applications.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein the computing device with which the user has not been known to have previously interacted is a public network terminal.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein the content is new to the uninstalled applications since a most-recent presentation, to the user, of the live tiles associated with the uninstalled applications.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein receiving the identifier associated with the user receives a name and password for the user and wherein determining the multiple applications is responsive to authenticating the user.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein determining the multiple applications comprises:

passing the identifier to a remote authenticator;

receiving authentication of the user; and

passing the authentication to one or more content sources from which the content is received.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein retrieving the content associated with the one or more uninstalled applications retrieves the content from multiple different remote content sources, the multiple different remote content sources each associated with one or more of the uninstalled applications.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 9, wherein presenting the content retrieved presents the content within the live tiles and within a user interface associated with the user, a layout of the live tiles in the user interface determined based on the user.

17. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising;

determining, based on an identifier associated with a user, live tiles of a live-tile user interface and a layout of the live-tiles in the live-tile user interface, the live tiles associated with multiple applications, respectively;

retrieving, without local execution of application code associated with the multiple applications, content associated with the multiple applications; and

presenting, within the live tiles and in the layout of the live-tile user interface, the retrieved content associated with the multiple applications.

18. A system as described in claim 17, wherein one or more of the multiple applications have not been installed on the system.

19. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the content is new to one or more of the multiple applications.

20. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise performing a second act of retrieving and a second act of presenting, the second act of retrieving performed at a frequency associated with one or more of the multiple applications, and the second act of presenting updating the live tiles for which new content is retrieved during the second act of retrieving.