Method and system for storing configuration data into a common registry

• US 5,758,154 A
• Filed: 06/05/1996
• Issued: 05/26/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Qureshi, Imran I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kriess, Kevin A.
• Application Number:
  US08/658,270
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• Field of Search: 395/651, 395/652, 395/653, 395/712, 395/680, 395/682
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A shared registration DLL and configuration data files that are used by setup programs and their corresponding application programs to register configuration information in a registry and to un-register configuration information from a registry. The shared registration DLL simplifies writing and synchronizing configuration information registration routines in a setup program and in its corresponding application program. The shared registration DLL allows for specifying relative file system pathnames to the application and to application files, rather than requiring file system pathnames to be fully specified. The shared registration DLL allows for configuration information registered previously by an older version of an application to be stored in the registry when a newer version of the application is installed, and to be restored when the newer version is removed from the computer system. The shared registration DLL and configuration data files allow for incremental addition of configuration information to the registry when new components for a previously installed application are added to the computer system.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for registering configuration information for an application program, the computer system having a registry for storing configuration data, the application program having a setup program for storing setup configuration information in the registry during installation of the application program on the computer system, comprising:

under control of the setup program, invoking a registration routine passing an indication of a configuration file containing a description of the configuration information to be loaded into the registry for the application program;

under control of the application program, invoking the registration routine passing the indication of the configuration file; and

under control of the invoked registration routine,

opening the indicated configuration file,

retrieving the description of the configuration information to be loaded, and

storing configuration information in the registry based on the retrieved description of the configuration information

wherein the setup program and the application program store the configuration information in the registry in a consistent manner.

2. The method of claim 1 including:

modifying the description of the configuration information contained in the configuration wherein both the setup program and the application program store configuration information in the registry in a manner that is consistent with the modified description.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the registry stores configuration information as key values in a hierarchical manner based on a key and wherein the configuration file contains a value for each key to be stored in the registry.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing of configuration information in the registry further includes:

when the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program, retaining the previous configuration information in the registry so that previous configuration information is available during execution of the previous version of the application program.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing of configuration information in the registry further includes:

when the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program, retaining the previous configuration information in the registry when installing a new version of the application program so that the previous configuration information can be stored as the current configuration information when the new version of the application program is un-installed.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the description of the configuration information contains a placeholder for storing an indication of a file system directory in which executable code of the application program is stored and including:

under control of the invoked registration routine,

determining the directory in which the application program is stored; and

replacing the placeholder with an indication of the determined directory so that the stored configuration information reflects the directory in which contains the executable code of the application program.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the description of the configuration information contains a placeholder and including:

under control of the invoked registration routine,

determining information to replace the placeholder; and

replacing the placeholder with the determined information so that the configuration information can be dynamically modified during execution of the programs.

8. The method of claim 1 including:

under control of the application program,

retrieving stored configuration information from the registry, and

performing a behavior based on the retrieved configuration information.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the registration routine is application program independent.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the registration routine is invoked by multiple application programs.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration file is specified in an application-independent format.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration file contains a flag indicating that the configuration information should only be stored if the application program is a new version of the application program.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration file contains a flag indicating that a file system pathname should be changed to a different format.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the different format is an 8.3 format.

15. A computer system for registering configuration information, comprising:

a registry for storing keys and associated values;

a configuration file containing a description of configuration information to be stored in the registry;

a registration routine for retrieving the description from the configuration file and for storing the described configuration information in the registry;

a setup program for invoking the registration routine to store in the registry configuration information described in the configuration file; and

an application program for invoking the registration routine to store in the registry configuration information described in the configuration file and for retrieving configuration information from the registry and performing a behavior based on the retrieved configuration information

wherein the setup program and the application program register configuration information in a consistent manner.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the registry stores the keys are hierarchically organized.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the registration routine determines whether the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program and when the registry contains such information, retains the previous configuration information in the registry so that previous configuration information is available during execution of the previous version of the application program.

18. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the registration routine determines whether the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program and when the registry contains such information, retains the previous configuration information in the registry when installing a new version of the application program so that the previous configuration information can be stored as the current configuration information when the new version of the application program is un-installed.

19. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the description of the configuration information contains a placeholder and wherein the registration routine determines information to replace the placeholder and replaces the placeholder with the determined information so that the configuration information can be dynamically modified during execution of the programs.

20. A method in a computer system for registering and un-registering configuration information of an application program, the computer system having a registry for storing configuration information for the application program, the application program having a new version and an old version, configuration information for the old version of the application program being registered in the registry, comprising:

when registering configuration information for the new version of the application program,

saving configuration information for the old version of the application program; and

storing the configuration information for the new version of the application program in the registry; and

when un-registering configuration information for the new version of the application program,

removing configuration information for the new version of the application program from the registry; and

storing the saved configuration information for the old version of the application program in the registry so that after un-registering the configuration information for the new version of the application program, the old version of the application program can retrieve its configuration information from the registry.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the configuration data for the old version of the application program is saved in the registry.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the registry stores configuration information a currently registered version of the application program as a key entry having a key entry name and a key entry value and wherein the configuration information for the old version of the computer program is stored in a key entry with a key entry name that is a variation of the key entry name for the currently registered version of the application program.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the variation of the key entry name is created by adding a prefix.

24. A method in a computer system for customizing configuration information for an application program to be registered in a registry, comprising:

creating a configuration skeletal file containing configuration information with placeholders indicating where customized configuration information is to be inserted;

creating a configuration token file containing tokens corresponding to customized configuration information replace the placeholders of the configuration skeletal file;

creating a customized configuration file by replacing the placeholders of the configuration skeletal file with the tokens of the configuration token file;

opening the customized configuration file;

retrieving the configuration information from the opened configuration file; and

storing the configuration information in the registry.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the configuration token file contains configuration information localized to a country in which the application program will be executed.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the opening, retrieving, and storing are performed by a registration routine.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the registration routine is invoked by the application program.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the registration routine is invoked by a setup program for the application program.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the registration routine is invoked by both the application program and a setup program for the application program.

30. A method in a computer system for registering components of an application program after installation of the application program, the computer system having a registry for containing configuration information, the application program having a configuration file containing configuration information for the application program, comprising:

modifying the configuration file to contain configuration information describing the component to be installed; and

under control of the application program,

opening the modified configuration file,

retrieving from the opened configuration file configuration information describing the component; and

storing the retrieved configuration information in the registry

so that the component can be automatically installed when the application program is executed.

31. A computer-readable medium containing instruction for causing a computer system to register configuration information for an application program, the computer system having a registry for storing configuration data, the application program having a setup program for storing setup configuration information in the registry during installation of the application program on the computer system, by:

under control of the setup program, invoking a registration routine passing an indication of a configuration file containing a description of the configuration information to be loaded into the registry for the application program, the registration routine being invocable by a plurality of computer programs;

under control of the application program, invoking the registration routine passing the indication of the configuration file; and

under control of the invoked registration routine,

opening the indicated configuration file,

retrieving the description of the configuration information to be loaded, and

storing configuration information in the registry based on the retrieved description of the configuration information.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 including:

modifying the description of the configuration information contained in the configuration wherein both the setup program and the application program store configuration information in the registry in a manner that is consistent with the modified description.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the registry stores configuration information as key values in a hierarchical manner based on a key and wherein the configuration file contains a value for each key to be stored in the registry.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the storing of configuration information in the registry further includes:

when the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program, retaining the previous configuration information in the registry so that previous configuration information is available during execution of the previous version of the application program.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the storing of configuration information in the registry further includes:

when the registry contains previous configuration information from a previous version of the application program, retaining the previous configuration information in the registry when installing a new version of the application program so that the previous configuration information can be stored as the current configuration information when the new version of the application program is un-installed.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the description of the configuration information contains a placeholder for storing an indication of a file system directory in which executable code of the application program is stored and including:

under control of the invoked registration routine,

determining the directory in which the application program is stored; and

replacing the placeholder with an indication of the determined directory so that the stored configuration information reflects the directory in which contains the executable code of the application program.

37. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to register and un-register configuration information of an application program, the computer system having a registry for storing configuration information for the application program, the application program having a new version and an old version, configuration information for the old version of the application program being registered in the registry, by:

when registering configuration information for the new version of the application program,

saving configuration information for the old version of the application program; and

storing the configuration information for the new version of the application program in the registry; and

when un-registering configuration information for the new version of the application program,

removing configuration information for the new version of the application program from the registry; and

storing the saved configuration information for the old version of the application program in the registry so that after un-registering the configuration information for the new version of the application program, the old version of the application program can retrieve its configuration information from the registry.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the configuration data for the old version of the application program is saved in the registry.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the registry stores configuration information a currently registered version of the application program as a key entry having a key entry name and a key entry value and wherein the configuration information for the old version of the computer program is stored in a key entry with a key entry name that is a variation of the key entry name for the currently registered version of the application program.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39 wherein the variation of the key entry name is created by adding a prefix.