Application programming interface for identifying, downloading and installing applicable software updates

• US 7,987,459 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2005
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chow, Chung Yiu, Showman, Kenneth A., Vincent, Joshuah, Kumar, Korukonda Naveen
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nahar; Qamrun
• Application Number:
  US11/082,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212865A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,323 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-178
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions

Abstract

An application programming interface (API) provides a set of functions for application developers to build software programs that automatically detect, download, and install desired software updates.

Claims

1. A software architecture for a distributed computing system, the architecture for searching for, downloading, and installing software updates, the architecture being encoded upon one or more computer-readable media, and the architecture comprising:

a program configured to access software updates existing in the distributed computing system, the program comprising;

an UpdateSearcher object receiving a set of search criteria from a requestor;

the UpdateSearcher object building a SearchResult object which comprises updates matching the search criteria;

the UpdateSearcher object returning the SearchResult object to the requestor, wherein the SearchResult object provides an object of a CategoryCollection class and an object of an UpdateExceptionCollection class, the CategoryCollection object providing access to a plurality of objects of a Category class and the UpdateExceptionCollection object providing a context of an exception when an update error occurs; and

an application programming interface (API) to present functions used by an application to access the software updates, the API comprising;

an Update Session namespace adapted to provide a session to access the software updates, an Automatic Updates namespace adapted to automatically begin an a software update process, an Update Service namespace adapted to provide information about at least one service that provides the software updates, an Update Searcher namespace adapted to search for the software updates, an Update Downloader namespace adapted to download the software updates to the requestor, and an Update Installer namespace adapted to install the software updates.

2. The software architecture in claim 1, wherein the distributed computing system comprises one or more client devices and one or more server devices that handle a request from at least one of the one or more client devices for accessing the software updates.

3. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein the Update Searcher namespace comprises an UpdateHistoryEntry Collection class and an UpdateHistoryEntry class, and wherein an object of the UpdateHistoryEntry class provides information about an update which has previously been installed or which has previously been uninstalled on a client device.

4. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein the Update Searcher namespace comprises an UpdateSearcher class and wherein the UpdateSearcher class enables searching for updates both synchronously and asynchronously.

5. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein the set of criteria comprises:

a history of a software update;

an ID of the software update;

a category of the software update, and

an exception generated for the software update.

6. The software architecture of claim 1 further comprising:

the SearchResult object providing a collection of updates found through a search;

the SearchResult object providing an UpdateCollection object providing access to a plurality of Update objects; and

each of the plurality of Update objects providing information concerning an individual update.

7. The software architecture of claim 6 wherein the information concerning an individual update comprises an identity of the update, a description of the individual update, uninstall options for the individual update, a download priority of the individual update, a size of the individual update, and an expiration date for the individual update.

8. An application programming interface embodied on one or more computer-readable media, comprising a group of services related to searching, downloading, and installing software updates, the API comprising:

an Update Session namespace adapted to provide a session to access the software updates, an Automatic Updates namespace adapted to automatically begin an a software update process, an Update Service namespace adapted to provide information about at least one service that provides the software updates, an Update Searcher namespace adapted to search for the software updates, an Update Downloader namespace adapted to download the software updates to a requestor, and an Update Installer namespace adapted to install the software updates;

wherein the Update Searcher namespace comprises a SearchResult class, and wherein an object of the SearchResult class provides an object of a CategoryCollection class and an object of an UpdateExceptionCollection class, the CategoryCollection object providing access to a plurality of objects of a Category class and the UpdateExceptionCollection object providing a context of an exception when an update error occurs.

9. The application programming interface of claim 8, wherein the group of services includes:

a first group of services related to searching software updates that meet one or more criteria;

a second group of services related to downloading one or more of the software updates; and

a third group of services related to installing one or more of the downloaded software updates.

10. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the first group of services related to searching software updates that meet one or more criteria provides services for an item selected from the group consisting of:

a history of a particular software update;

an ID of the particular software update;

a category of the particular software update, and

an exception generated for the particular software update.

11. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the third group of services related to installing one or more of the downloaded software updates further includes services related to un-installing one or more of the downloaded software updates that have been previously installed.

12. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the group of services related to searching, downloading, and installing software updates further includes a group of services related to accessing software updates on the Internet.

13. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the application programming interface further includes a fourth group of services related to automatic installation of software updates.

14. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the application programming interface further includes a fifth group of services related to providing data about a client device that requests one or more software updates.

15. The application programming interface of claim 9, wherein the application programming interface further includes a sixth group of services related to providing information about one or more services through which a software program accesses available software updates.