System and method for passive detection and context sensitive notification of upgrade availability for computer information

• US 7,016,944 B1
• Filed: 09/30/1999
• Issued: 03/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Loofbourrow, Wayne, Meyer, Gordon R., Howard, Albert R. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue, Larry D.
• Application Number:
  US09/409,065
• Time in Patent Office: 2,364 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/218, 709/221, 345/810, 714/38, 717/168, 717/171, 717/172, 717/173
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method that monitors upgrade availability for computer information on a user'"'"'s computer and allows the user to determine which of the available upgrades will be downloaded to the user'"'"'s computer and installed. The upgrade availability for computer information on the user'"'"'s computer is monitored in the background, without user-intervention when the user connects to a network, such as the Internet. If any such upgrades are available, a flag is set to notify the user of such upgrades. The user is notified of any available upgrades when computer information is accessed for which an upgrade is available, and given a choice of whether or not to download the available upgrade(s). The downloaded upgrade(s) may then be installed by an installation means. In this manner, the present invention allows for the user to download only those upgrades desired by the user.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring and notifying a user of updated computer information on a remote server available for the user to upgrade computer information on the user'"'"'s computer, comprising:

a monitoring component on the user'"'"'s computer that automatically determines, in response to a predefined event, if one or more upgrades exist for computer information currently on said user'"'"'s computer, and sets a notification flag at said user'"'"'s computer in association with each item of information on the user'"'"'s computer for which an upgrade exists;

a notification component that automatically notifies said user, in response to subsequent access by the user of an item of computer information for which a notification flag has been set, of the availability of the upgrade for the accessed computer information and of any other upgrades indicated by any other notification flags set by said monitoring component; and

a downloading component that allows a user to selectively download said upgrades from said remote server.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an installation component operable to install said upgrades downloaded from said remote server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said installation component utilizes the installation capabilities of an outside executable computer program for installing said upgrades.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said installation component accompanies the downloaded upgrade information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring component operates as a background process.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring component determines at least one of:

a file size, file version number, file date, or estimated download time, concerning available upgrades.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification component provides the user with an option to ignore available upgrades permanently.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said option is a user-determined option.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a monitoring wait period indication component for indicating a waiting period, after said monitoring component determines the availability of upgrades, to expire before said monitoring component is employed again.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said monitoring wait period indication component is controlled by a user-determined option.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a notification wait period component for setting a waiting period, after a user has declined downloading an upgrade for which a notification flag has been set, and of which the user has been notified, before further notifying a user of the availability of said upgrade for which the notification flag has been set.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said notification wait period component is controlled by a user-determined option.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an override component operable to override the normal functions of the monitoring or notification components.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said override component allows the user to check for available upgrades immediately, ignore available upgrades or download all updates without notification.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification component notifies the user of at least one of:

file size, file version number, file date, or estimated download time.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said downloading component is further operable to allow downloads of multiple files.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said downloading component is further operable to display real-time downloading options.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein said computer information is information associated with a help system.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein said information upgrades further comprise predetermined location information, used to determine the location of future upgrades.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is a component of an operating system.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein said predefined event is connection of the user'"'"'s computer to a network that provides access to said remote computer.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein said predefined event is starting a computer program.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein said downloading options are selected from the group consisting of:

download statistics, download time, and file identification information.

27. A system for monitoring and notifying a user of updated computer information on a remote server available for the user to upgrade computer information on the user'"'"'s computer, comprising:

a monitoring means that operates as a background process on the user'"'"'s computer to automatically determine if one or more upgrades exist for computer information currently on said user'"'"'s computer in response to a predefined event, and set a notification flag at said user'"'"'s computer in association with each item of information on the user'"'"'s computer for which an upgrade exists;

a notification means that automatically notifies said user, in response to subsequent access by the user of computer information for which a notification flag has been set, of the availability of the upgrade for the accessed computer information and any other upgrades indicated by any other notification flags set by said monitoring component; and

a downloading means for downloading said upgrades from said remote server.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

an installation means operable to install said upgrades downloaded from said remote server.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said installation means utilizes the installation capabilities of an outside executable computer program for installing said upgrades.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein said installation means installs upgrades using internal system functionality.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the monitoring means determines at least one of:

a file size, file version number, file date, or estimated download time, concerning available upgrades.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein said notification component provides the user with an option to ignore available upgrades permanently.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein said option is a user-determined option.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

35. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a monitoring wait period indication means for indicating a waiting period, after said monitoring means determines the availability of upgrades, to expire before said monitoring means is employed again.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein said monitoring wait period indication means is controlled by a user-determined option.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

38. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a notification wait period means for setting a waiting period, after a user has declined downloading an upgrade for which a notification flag has been set, and of which the user has been notified, before further notifying a user of the availability of said upgrade for which the notification flag has been set.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein said notification wait period means is controlled by a user-determined option.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein said user-determined option is controlled by a menu option from a pull-down menu.

41. The system of claim 40, further comprising:

an override means, operable to override the normal functions of the monitoring or notification means.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein said override means allows the user to check for available upgrades immediately, ignore available upgrades or download all updates without notification.

43. The system of claim 27, wherein said notification means notifies the user of at least one of:

file size, file version number, file date, or estimated download time.

44. The system of claim 27, wherein said downloading means is further operable to allow downloads of multiple files.

45. The system of claim 27, wherein said downloading means is further operable to display real-time downloading options.

46. The system of claim 27, wherein said downloading options are selected from the group consisting of:

download statistics, download time, and file identification information.

47. The system of claim 27, wherein said computer information is information associated with a help system.

48. The system of claim 27, wherein said information upgrades further comprise predetermined location information, used to determine the location of future upgrades.

49. The system of claim 27, wherein the system is a component of an operating system.

50. The system of claim 27, wherein said predefined event is connection of the user'"'"'s computer to a network that provides access to said remote computer.

51. The system of claim 27, wherein said predefined event is starting a computer program.

52. A method for notification and download of computer information upgrades to a user'"'"'s computer from a computer network, comprising the steps of:

automatically checking a predetermined location for availability of computer information upgrades in response to a predefined event;

determining if any available computer information upgrades exist;

setting a flag at the user'"'"'s computer indicating each item of computer information on the user'"'"'s computer for which upgrades exist;

automatically notifying a user, in response to user access of computer information for which a flag has been set, of available computer information upgrades for the accessed computer information and for any other computer information upgrades which have a flag set; and

selectively downloading said available computer information upgrade.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein said step of automatically checking takes place as a background process.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein said step of checking determines one of:

file size, file version number, file date, or estimated download time of an available upgrade.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein said step of checking occurs at pre-set time intervals.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein said pre-set time intervals are determined by a user.

57. The method of claim 52, wherein said predefined event comprises starting a computer program.

58. The method of claim 52, wherein said predefined event comprises connection to said computer network.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein said computer network comprises the Internet.

60. The method of claim 52, wherein said information upgrades further comprise predetermined location information, used to determine the location of future upgrades.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the predetermined location that is checked is updated responsive to said predetermined location information downloaded by said step of selectively downloading.

62. The method of claim 52, wherein said computer network comprises the Internet.

63. The method of claim 52, wherein said step of selectively downloading takes place in response to a user command.

64. The method of claim 52, where said computer information is information associated with a help system.

65. A computer-readable medium containing a program that performs the following steps on a local computer:

automatically checking for availability, on a remote computer connected via a computer network, of computer information upgrades to information on the local computer;

determining if any available computer information upgrades exist on said remote computer;

setting a flag indicating the availability of computer information upgrades;

automatically notifying a user, in response to access by a user of computer information for which an upgrade has been determined to be available, of available computer information upgrades for the accessed computer information and for any other computer information upgrades which have a flag set; and

downloading said available computer information upgrades in response to user selection of said upgrades.

66. The computer-readable medium of claim 65, wherein the computer information is information associated with a help system.

67. The computer-readable medium of claim 65, wherein said information upgrades further comprise predetermined location information, used to determine the location of future upgrades.

68. A method for providing a computer user with notification of the availability of an upgrade for a software component on the user'"'"'s computer, comprising the steps of:

retrieving from said software component the identification of a resource on a network at which an upgrade is made available;

checking said resource to determine whether an upgrade is available;

setting a flag at the user'"'"'s computer to indicate that an upgrade is available for the software component; and

upon detecting access of the software component by a user, determining whether said flag is set and, if so, displaying a notification that an upgrade is available for the software component,

wherein a plurality of software components are resident on the user'"'"'s computer, and wherein;

said checking step is performed for each of said plurality of software components;

a flag is set for each software component for which an upgrade is available; and

a notification is displayed that identifies each software component for which a flag is set when any one of said software components, for which a flag is set, is accessed by a user.