Configuring software components(merge) with transformation component using configurable and non-configurable data elements

• US 7,219,332 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2001
• Issued: 05/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gouge, Christopher S., Day, Michael James, Masson, James S., Van Zwol, Theodore C.
• Primary Examiner(s): INGBERG, TODD D
• Application Number:
  US09/770,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20020104069A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,300 Days
• Field of Search: 717/165, 717120-122, 717168-178, 717/162, 715/523, 707/5, 707/6
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for creating and describing a configurable data set, configuring the data set and merging a resulting configured data set into a target data set. One or more configurable data elements are stored in a configurable data set that forms part of a configurable merge module. The configurable merge module also includes metadata concerning the configurable data. The metadata describes the data elements and how they can be configured and how to implement changes to the configurable data. Each configurable data element can be presented to the configurable merge module consumer through a user interface. The configurable merge module consumer can thus make configuration choices. Also provided is a transformation engine for customizing the configurable data based on configurable merge module consumer choices and a merge engine for inserting configured data into a target data set.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system that facilitates software installation comprising:

a transformation component that receives one or more configurable data elements, and one or more non-configurable data elements describing the one or more configurable data elements; and

a merge component that employs one or more transformation instructions that configures the one or more configurable data elements to facilitate the installation of the one or more configurable data elements into at least one target data set.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more configurable data elements are stored in a data structure associated with the configurable module.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the data structure is a metadata item description table.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the data structure includes at least one of a name of a configurable data element, and a semantic meaning for the configurable data element.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more non-configurable data elements are stored in a data structure associated with the configurable module.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more non-configurable data elements are stored in a metadata item description table.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more transformation instructions are stored in a data structure associated with the configurable module.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more transformation instructions are stored in a transformation instruction table.

9. A data interpretation system executing on at least one computer, comprising:

a data interpretation component that;

receives one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements from a configurable module, wherein the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements include configuration information related to installing the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements into a software program;

applies one or more transformation instructions from the configurable module to configurable data elements to configure the configurable data elements, and

installs the configurable data elements into a target data set based at least in part upon the configuration information.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a user interface to enable a user to query the configurable module to determine which of the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements are configurable.

11. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a merging component that receives one or more updated configurable data elements from the data interpretation component and that provides the one or more updated configurable data elements to a target data set.

12. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

an authoring schema that describes a configurable module.

13. A method that is executed on one or more computer for installing a configurable data set into a target data set, comprising:

obtaining one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements from a configurable module;

including metadata that describes the configuration options of the configurable data set;

obtaining one or more transformation instructions from the configurable module; and

applying the one or more transformation instructions to a copy of the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements from the configurable module to configure the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements for installation into the target data set.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a target data set; and

inserting the updated data elements into the target data set.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

presenting one or more configuration options to a user;

accepting one or more configuration selections from the user; and

selectively configuring the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements based on the user'"'"'s configuration selections.

16. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 13.

17. A computer implemented method for creating a configurable data module, comprising:

creating a configurable data set having one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements;

creating one or more data structures containing information associated with one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements; and

displaying the information to a software program to facilitate installing the configurable data set into the software program.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein creating a configurable data set includes:

identifying one or more attributes of the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements; and

establishing one or more default values for the attributes of the one or more configurable and non-configurable data elements.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein creating the one or more data structures further comprises:

identifying one or more locations within a data set that are configurable;

identifying one or more configuration options;

creating one or more instructions concerning how to configure the one or more locations; and

storing the instructions in the one or more data structures.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more data structures are stored in the configurable data module.

21. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 17.

22. A system that is executed on one or more computer for installing a configurable data set into a target data set, comprising:

a configurable module having configurable data elements representing a configurable data set and non-configurable data elements representing a portion of the configurable data set;

a user interface for selecting which configurable data element to modify; and

a data interpretation system for receiving the configurable and non-configurable data elements from the configurable module and applying the transformation instructions applicable to the user selections associated with the configurable data elements to enable installing the configurable data set into the target data set.

23. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a first data field containing one or more configurable data elements, wherein one or more default values for the one or more configurable data elements are available;

a second data field containing one or more non-configurable data elements describing the one or more configurable data elements; and

a third data field containing one or more transformation instructions that facilitate configuring the one or more configurable data elements to load the configurable data elements into a software program.