Handheld device configurator

• US 7,363,025 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2002
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PDA Verticals Corp.
• Original Assignee: PDA Verticals Corp.
• Inventors: Roberts, Chad, Stenseth, Owen C., Roberts, Troy W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): ORTIZ DITREN, BELIX M
• Application Number:
  US10/092,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20020165850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,238 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 707/10, 707/3, 707100-203, 455/412
• US Class Current: 455/412.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

A mechanism for configuring handheld devices is disclosed. The mechanism includes a website engine, a database, a build-to-order configuration engine, and a loader. Among other things, the built-to-order engine communicates with developers, coordinates software licenses, arranges software downloads and prevents conflicts. The loader provides actual downloads for loading the handheld device based on user input received through the website engine which conveys the user input to the database and built-to-order configuration engines. These software modules can be on the same computer, or can be divided among several computers.

Claims

1. A system for configuring handheld devices, comprising:

a website engine, for receiving user input;

a build-to-order configuration engine for communicating with developers, coordinating software licensing, arranging software downloads and preventing conflicts;

a database engine, for managing executable code and data responsive to said configuration engine, and

a loading station for performing the actual downloads;

wherein said loading station loads said handheld device based on user input received through said website engine and conveyed to said database and build-to-order configuration engines.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said configuration engine communicates automatically with said developers using a registration module.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said registration module communicates with said developers using either pooled, generated, or dynamically requested communications.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said registration module supports the random-key method of software registration.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said registration module supports the device-ID method of software registration.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said loading station further comprises a transfer component, which transfers data back and forth over a physical medium through a port, and an operating system driver layer, which handles the actual moving of the bits through said port over said physical medium.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said transfer component is abstracted such that it sees differing connection types as the same, because said operating system driver layer is responsible for the actual moving of the bits.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein software drivers of said connection types can be added to or removed from said loading station.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein software drivers of said connection types are extended from sample software modules obtained from product developers.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said build-to-order configuration engine contains links of which handheld applications cannot coexist with each other or are incompatible with specific handheld hardware.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said build-to-order configuration engine receives data from the handheld device itself through the communication port of said loading station.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said build-to-order database further comprises a database catalog which contains information about a plurality of handheld software products, including what Operating System (O/S) version that product may require, the memory consumption of that product, what other software applications the product may be dependant upon, or any other products/applications that it conflicts with.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said build-to-order database further comprises a database catalog which contains information about a plurality of handheld software products, including what Operating System (O/S) version that product may require, the memory consumption of that product, what other software applications the product may be dependant upon, or any other products/applications that it conflicts with.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said database engine comprises a database catalog which contains handheld software pricing and supplier information, lead time, descriptions, sales volume levels, product shots (images).

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said database engine further comprises a dependency checker portion for comparing parameters related to each piece of software.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said build-to-order configuration engine further comprises a plurality of registration code mechanisms each supported by a specialized registration module.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said build-to-order configuration engine further comprises a plurality of registration code mechanisms which can complete the registration process even when all software is preloaded on the handheld device.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein a customer sends an existing handheld device to a location having a build-to-order configuration engine, a database engine, and a loading station, wherein said customer accomplishes all download registrations without using said website engine.

19. A method of loading software onto a handheld device, comprising:

querying a build-to-order configuration engine to ensure sufficient memory is available to accommodate said software, that the desired software has no conflicts with any other software desired by said user, and that the handheld device O/S (Operating System) can accommodate said software;

querying said handheld device to ensure sufficient memory is available, and reporting an error back to said user if necessary;

if necessary, prompting a user to order additional memory such as on a memory card; and

locating said software program on said memory card where possible.