Method and system for establishing collection of hostable applications

• US 6,594,819 B1
• Filed: 01/25/1999
• Issued: 07/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ciarlante, John J., Wang, Koah-Hsing, Montalvo-Huhn, Orlando C., Rodgers, Alan, Brand, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US09/237,157
• Time in Patent Office: 1,632 Days
• Field of Search: 717/1, 717/11, 717/3, 707/203, 707/513, 707/516, 707/530, 707/8, 703/23, 705/3, 710/14
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method for establishing a collection of application software programs capable of being hosted by a user. Application kits for software applications are received, each application kit including executable application files and additional application related data. For each software application contained in an application kit, one or more offerings are created, each offering including at least some of the additional application related data in the application kit and pricing terms for hosting of the application, and a server upon which the software application may be hosted is identified. The offerings are published on a computer accessible to the user to thereby allow the user to select an offering and host the software application relating thereto on the identified server. A plurality of offerings may be created for any software application. The offerings may be organized into a plurality of catalogs of related software applications.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a collection of application software programs capable of being hosted by a user, the method comprising:

receiving on a computer system a plurality of application kits for a plurality of software applications, each application kit including executable application files and additional application related data;

creating one or more offerings for each software application contained in an application kit, each offering including at least some of the additional application related data in the application kit and pricing terms for hosting of the application;

for each software application contained in an application kit, identifying a server upon which the software application may be hosted; and

publishing the offerings on a computer accessible to the user to thereby allow the user to select an offering and host the software application relating thereto on the identified server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating one or more offerings for a software application comprises including in the offering the server upon which the software application may be hosted.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising, for a given offering, copying the executable application files in the application kit to the server identified in the offering.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising creating a plurality of offerings for at least one software application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of creating a plurality of offerings comprises creating a first offering including first pricing terms and creating a second offering including second pricing terms different from the first pricing terms.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional application related data comprises marketing information related to the software application, and wherein the step of creating one or more offerings comprises creating one or more offerings including the marketing information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of publishing the offerings comprises inserting the offerings into a template.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the application kits in a database stored in the computer system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of receiving a plurality of application kits comprises receiving application kits from a plurality of software vendors.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising assigning a unique vendor identifier to each vendor and storing the application kits in the database in association with the respective vendor identifiers.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising organizing the offerings into a plurality of catalogs of related software applications, and wherein the step of publishing the offerings comprises publishing the offerings in the catalogs.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising organizing the offerings into a plurality of classes of offerings intended for particular users and limiting access to each class to the particular users intended therefor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of organizing the offerings into the plurality of classes comprises organizing the offerings into classes in accordance with the pricing terms of the offerings.

14. A computer usable medium storing program code which when executed causes a computer system to perform a method for establishing a collection of application software programs capable of being hosted by a user, the method comprising:

receiving on the computer system a plurality of application kits for a plurality of software applications, each application kit including executable application files and additional application related data;

creating one or more offerings for each software application contained in an application kit, each offering including at least some of the additional application related data in the application kit and pricing terms for hosting of the application;

for each software application contained in an application kit, identifying a server upon which the software application may be hosted; and

publishing the offerings on a computer system accessible to the user to thereby allow the user to select an offering and host the software application relating thereto on the identified server.

15. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises copying the executable application files in the application kit to the identified server.

16. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises creating a plurality of offerings for at least one software application.

17. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 16, wherein the step performed by the computer of creating a plurality of offerings comprises creating a first offering including first pricing terms and creating a second offering including second pricing terms different from the first pricing terms.

18. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises organizing the offerings into a plurality of catalogs of related software applications, and wherein the step performed by the computer of publishing the offerings comprises publishing the offerings in the catalogs.

19. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises organizing the offerings into a plurality of classes of offerings intended for particular users and limiting access to each class to the particular users intended therefor.

20. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 19, wherein the step performed by the computer of organizing the offerings into the plurality of classes comprises organizing the offerings into classes in accordance with the pricing terms of the offerings.

22. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the step performed by the computer of creating one or more offerings for a software application comprises including in the offering the server upon which the software application may be hosted.

23. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 22, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises, for a given offering, copying the executable application files in the application kit to the server identified in the offering.

24. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the additional application related data comprises marketing information related to the software application, and wherein the step performed by the computer of creating one or more offerings comprises creating one or more offerings including the marketing information.

25. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the step performed by the computer of publishing the offerings comprises inserting the offerings into a template.

26. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 14, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises storing the application kits in a database stored in the computer system.

27. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 26, wherein the step performed by the computer of receiving a plurality of application kits comprises receiving application kits from a plurality of software vendors.

28. The computer usable medium storing program code of claim 27, wherein the method performed by the computer comprises assigning a unique vendor identifier to each vendor and storing the application kits in the database in association with the respective vendor identifiers.

21. A system for establishing a collection of application software programs capable of being hosted by a user, the system comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of application kits for a plurality of software applications, each application kit including executable application files and additional application related data;

means for creating one or more offerings for each software application contained in an application kit, each offering including at least some of the additional application related data in the application kit and pricing terms for hosting of the application;

means for identifying a server upon which each software application contained in an application kit may be hosted; and

means for publishing the offerings on a computer accessible to the user to thereby allow the user to select an offering and host the software application relating thereto on the identified server.