Computer system with file association and application retrieval

• US 7,203,737 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2002
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Jason, Starbuck, Bryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang; Jungwon
• Application Number:
  US10/147,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20030084096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,790 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/315, 709/219, 715/513, 715/526, 715/516, 717/174, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A computer system and method are presented that provide a user with information about a needed application to open or access a particular type of file. In the method, when the user of the computer attempts to access a particular file, the method determines whether the computing device has available an application program that is needed to access a file of the particular file type. If the computing device does not have an application program available that can be used to access the file, a browser program is launched on the computing device. The browser program is utilized to locate a link to at least one application program that can access the selected file. The application program resides on a second computing device in the networked computing environment.

Claims

1. A method for use in a networked computing environment for associating a file having a given file type with at least one application program, the network computing environment including a first and second computing device, the method comprising:

in response to a user selection of a file, determining whether the first computing device has available an application program needed to access a file of the file type, and if not;

launching a browser program on the first computing device;

utilizing the browser program, locating a link to at least one application program residing on the second computing device adapted to access the selected file of the file type by requesting an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file located on the second computing device, the XSL file being necessary to download the at least one application program onto the first computing device; and

presenting to the first computing device a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) reference attribute pointing to the XSL file.

2. A method in a computing environment for requesting information about a needed application program on a first computing device, the needed application program being one which is adapted to access a selected file, the file being of a particular type that can be opened by the needed application program, the method comprising:

storing on the first computing device, a tabular list of application programs residing on the first computing device and corresponding file types which are accessible by said application programs;

searching said tabular list, when a user attempts to access the selected file, to find the needed application program; and

if the needed application program is not found on the first computing device;

launching a browser to access a second computing device;

utilizing the browser program, locating a link to at least one application program residing on the second computing device adapted to access the selected file of the file type by requesting an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file located on the second computing device, the XSL file being necessary to download the at least one application program onto the first computing device;

sending from the first computing device, an indicia of a spoken language and a file extension to the second computing device, wherein said file extension serves to identify the file type of the selected file; and

presenting to the first computing device a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) reference attribute pointing to the XSL file.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving on the first computing device from the second computing device, one or more references to identifications and locations of at least one needed application program that can open the selected file; and

requesting from said second computing device, information for display on said first computing device to enable the user to select from a display listing, the at least one needed application program.

4. A method in a computing environment for providing, to a client computing device, information about one or more application programs adapted to open a file of interest to the client computing device, the method comprising:

storing, on a server computing device, a set of application programs and the corresponding file types that said application programs are adapted to access;

receiving from the client computing device, a file type indicia corresponding to the file of interest;

determining if there is a corresponding application program available to said server that is adapted to access files corresponding to the received file type by determining whether an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file is located on the second computing device, the XSL file being necessary to download the at least one application program onto the first computing device, and if so;

sending, to the client computing device, a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) reference attribute pointing to the XSL file.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, further comprising sending one or more references to identifications and locations of at least one needed application program that can open the selected file.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said one or more references include user display items and data elements and wherein said sent information separates user display items from data elements by utilizing XML and XSL to specify said information.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said one or more references to include an XSL file containing information needed to create a user interface with HTML to be displayed on said client computing device.

8. A method in a computing environment for providing a file association web service, comprising:

tracking file type extensions and application programs corresponding to the file type extensions in a data store;

locating and providing a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) reference attribute pointing to an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file necessary to download at least one of the application programs that are not currently existent in said data store;

updating said data store with the names and locations of the application programs and the located HTML reference attribute pointing to the XSL file; and

utilizing the data store to locate at least one of the application programs that a computing device can download for executing a file of the file type extension.

9. A memory on a computing device for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a data processing system, comprising:

a data structure to associate a file with an application program, the data structure stored in said memory, said data structure including information resident in a data store used by said application program and including;

a plurality of attribute data objects stored in said memory, each of said attribute data objects, comprising;

a file association item;

a file type identification item;

a file extension item;

a file description item; and

an identification object of one or more application programs, each of said identification objects comprising;

an application name; and

a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) attribute pointing to an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file necessary to download an application program.

10. A system for use in a networked computing environment for associating a file having a given file type with an application program, comprising:

a client computing device that stores a tabular list of application programs and corresponding file types which are accessible by the client computing device;

searches the tabular list, when a user attempts to access the file, to find the associated application programs adapted to access the file;

determines whether the tabular list contains the application program necessary to access the file; and

if the client computing device does not contain the application program necessary to access the file, requests from a second computing device an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) file, which is necessary to download at least one of the associated application programs adapted to access the file, for display on the client computing device to enable the user to download at least one needed application program from a display listing to access the file;

a server computing device that receives from the client computing device a file type indicia corresponding to the file, stores a set of application programs and the corresponding file types that the set of application programs are adapted to access, determines if there is a corresponding application program available to the server computing device that is adapted to access files corresponding to the received file type, and sends to the client computing device information and a reference to a location corresponding to the determined application program adapted to access files of the received file type;

a web service that tracks file type extensions and application programs corresponding to the file type extensions in a data store, locates and provides links to application programs that are not currently existent in the data store, and updates the data store with the names and locations of application programs with the located links; and

a memory on a computing device comprising a data structure that includes information resident in a data store used by an application program.

11. The system of 10, wherein a plurality of attribute data objects are stored in the memory, each of the attribute data objects, comprising:

a file association item;

a file type identification item;

a file extension item;

a file description item; and

an identification object of one or more application programs, each of the identification objects comprising;

an application name; and

an identifier of an application location.

12. The system of 10, wherein the web service stores data structures in a memory.

13. The system of 10, wherein the client computing device requests the application program by sending an indicia of a spoken language and a file extension to the server computing device.

14. The system of 10, wherein the web service is stored on a computing device.

15. The system of 10, wherein the reference to a location corresponding to the determined application program is an HREF to an XSL on the server computing device, wherein said XSL file contains information needed to create a user interface with HTML to be displayed on the client computing device.

16. The system of 10, wherein the server computing device receives requests for the application program from more than one client computing devices.