Information location service

• US 7,120,675 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2000
• Issued: 10/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Meacham, Simon M., Kess, Barbara L., Shupak, Richard M., Styles, Pat
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin T
• Application Number:
  US09/670,073
• Time in Patent Office: 2,205 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 707/10, 717/103, 717/122, 717/163, 717/167, 717/173
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

This present invention extends the mechanism for locating solution access information and then obtaining and implementing the correct solution for updating software programs. The user can communicate with one system on the network, tell it what the user is interested in, and then the system replies on a file by file basis where to locate the desired information. Thus, the user no longer has to register, e.g. in the environment variables, the individual paths for where a multitude of different applications find their additional related information on the network. According to the teachings of the present invention, a user will have to make basically zero changes to the system, and instead will automatically discover the name location of a server that is going to provide the user with the information associated with any user executable file.

In particular, one embodiment of the present invention includes a computer implemented method. The method includes querying a first server for a location of a second server containing information associated with a local file. The method further includes querying the second server for the information associated with the local file. The second server then provides the information associated with the executable. Other systems and methods are included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions comprising:

assigning a value to a unique identifier that is used to identify a version of software associated with an executable, wherein;

the value is associated with a feature of update information that is used to update the corresponding version of the software, and

the feature comprises at least one of;

the location of the update information, a method for locating the update information, a time stamp associated with the update information, the size of the update information, a signature associated with the update information, and the age of the update information;

extracting metadata from the executable, wherein the metadata includes the unique identifier;

generating a request to obtain location information of the update information using the unique identifier, wherein the request is generated by packaging the extracted metadata;

querying a first server for the location information using the request, wherein;

the location information includes a redirect to a location of a second server that comprises the update information,

the redirect includes the unique identifier, and

the location information identifies the second server type;

linking the first server to the second server;

querying the second server for the update information using the redirect, wherein the redirect is associated with a protocol supported by the second server type identified in the location information;

receiving the update information from the second server; and

updating the version of the software identified by the unique identifier based on the update information.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises providing a path to a look up HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) symbol location server.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises querying a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server and requesting Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to query the second server for the update information.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises querying a Domain Name System (DNS) server for a service (SRV) record identifying the second server to be queried.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises querying a directory service for the location information.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises querying an Application Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP) server for the location information.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying a first server further comprises querying a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server for the location information.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises metadata for debug files.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises metadata for source files.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying the second server for symbols associated with the executable.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying the second server for regression analysis data associated with the executable.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying the second server for performance analysis data associated with the executable.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying the second server for source code associated with the executable.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein receiving the update information further comprises receiving files comprising the update information.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein generating the request further comprises packaging the extracted metadata to locate an updated version of the executable.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein generating the request further comprises packaging the extracted metadata for locating a debug file associated with the executable.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein generating the request further comprises packaging the extracted metadata to locate a specific build version of the executable.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein querying the second server further comprises providing a qualifier.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing a response to a requesting client from the first server, wherein the response comprises the redirect.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions comprising:

assigning a value to a unique identifier that is used to identify a version of software associated with an executable, wherein;

the value is associated with a feature of update information that is used to update the corresponding version of the software, and

the feature comprises at least one of;

the location of the update information, a method for locating the update information, a time stamp associated with the update information, the size of the update information, a signature associated with the update information, and the age of the update information;

extracting metadata from the executable, wherein the metadata includes the unique identifier;

generating a request to obtain from a first server location information associated with a second server, wherein;

the request is generated by packaging the extracted metadata,

the second server comprises the update information,

the location information includes a redirect to a location of the second server,

the redirect includes the unique identifier, and

the location information identifies the second server type;

creating a path to the second server;

querying the second server using the redirect, wherein the redirect is associated with a protocol supported by the second server type identified in the location information;

receiving the update information from the second server through the path; and

updating the version of the software identified by the unique identifier based on the update information.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein receiving the update information further comprises receiving a reference location associated with the second server to access a file associated with the executable on the second server.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying a server selected from a group consisting of a DHCP server, a DNS server, an ACAP server, and a LDAP server.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying a set of servers in parallel.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein querying the second server further comprises querying a set of servers in a serial order.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein querying the second server further comprises packaging information extracted from the executable into a request and sending the request to the second server.

26. A computerized system comprising:

a first server comprising location information for update information that is used to update a corresponding version of software associated with a local file, wherein;

the version of the software is identified by a unique identifier that has an assigned value associated with a feature of the update information,

the feature comprises at least one of;

the location of the update information, a method for locating the update information, a time stamp associated with the update information, the size of the update information, a signature associated with the update information, and the age of the update information,

the first server extracts metadata from the local file

the metadata includes the unique identifier,

the first server generates a request by packaging the extracted metadata, and

the location information identifies the type of server that comprises the update information;

a second server comprising the update information, wherein;

the first server is linked to the second server through a redirect that is included in the location information,

the first server queries the second server through the redirect for the update information, wherein the redirect is associated with a protocol supported by the second server type identified in the location information, and

the first server receives the update information from the second server; and

a computer comprising the local file, wherein the first server provides the update information to the computer such that the version of the software identified by the unique identifier is updated based on the update information.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the update information comprises debug information.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the update information comprises solution access information.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the computer reads the update information from the second server.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the first server comprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the HTTP server comprises a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server having Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) for querying the second server.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the HTTP server comprises a Domain Name System (DNS) server having a service (SRV) record for identifying the second server.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the HTTP server comprises a directory service for providing the location information for the update information to the computer.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein the first server comprises an Application Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP) server.

35. The system of claim 26, wherein the first server comprises a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.

36. The system of claim 26, wherein the computer is networked to the first and the second servers over the Internet.

37. The System of claim 26, wherein the computer is configured to query a hierarchy of first servers in serial order.

38. The system of claim 26, wherein the computer is configured to query a hierarchy of first servers in parallel.

39. The system of claim 26, wherein the update information comprises solution access information.

40. The system of claim 26, wherein the computer is configured to query the second server, in an HTTP request format, for the update information using a qualifier associated with the local file.

41. The system of claim 26, wherein the metadata comprises metadata for a debug file associated with the local file.

42. The system of claim 26, wherein the metadata comprises metadata associated with regression analysis data for the local file.

43. A method for updating software associated with a local file, comprising:

assigning a value to a unique identifier that is used to identify a version of software associated with the local file, wherein;

the value is associated with a feature of update information that is used to update the corresponding version of the software, and

the feature comprises at least one of;

the location of the update information, a method for locating the update information, a time stamp associated with the update information, the size of the update information, a signature associated with the update information, and the age of the update information;

extracting metadata from the local file, wherein the metadata includes the unique identifier;

packaging the extracted metadata into a request to obtain the update information, wherein the metadata is associated with the unique identifier;

sending the request to a locator server;

receiving location information from the locator server, wherein;

the location information includes a redirect to a location of a second server that comprises the update information,

the redirect includes the unique identifier, and

the location information identifies the second server type;

packaging a query for retrieving the update information based on the redirect, wherein the query corresponds to a protocol supported by the second server type identified in the location information; and

updating the version of the software identified by the unique identifier based on the update information.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein packaging the query further comprises qualifying the query to select a specific file version from the update information.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein qualifying the query further comprises qualifying the query to select an updated file version associated with the local file.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein qualifying the query further comprises qualifying the query to select a specific debug file associated with the local file.

47. A server architecture comprising;

a first server comprising location information for update information that is used to update a corresponding version of software associated with an executable file, wherein;

the version of the software is identified by a unique identifier that has an assigned value associated with a feature of the update information,

the feature comprises at least one of;

the location of the update information, a method for locating the update information, a time stamp associated with the update information, the size of the update information, a signature associated with the update information, and the age of the update information,

the first server extracts metadata from the local file

the metadata includes the unique identifier,

the first server generates a request by packaging the extracted metadata, and

the location information identifies the type of server that comprises the update information;

a second server linked to the first server based on the request, wherein the second server comprises the update information associated with the executable file;

means for interpreting the metadata associated with the unique identifier received by the first server from a remote client;

means for generating a query for retrieving the update information using a redirect identified in the location information, wherein;

the redirect includes the unique identifier, and

the redirect is associated with a protocol supported by the second server type identified in the location information;

means for redirecting the remote client to the second server using the redirect, wherein the second server is adapted to interpret the query from the remote client; and

means for updating the version of the software identified by the unique identifier based on the update information.