Organization of application state and configuration settings
First Claim
1. A computer system comprising:
- a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon at least a first software entity; and
an operating system that creates a first context for managing a plurality of software entities that includes the first software entity and a second software entity, the first context configured for storing state settings, the state settings comprising information pertaining to a dependency of the first software entity on the second software entity;
the first context comprising;
a first installation service that manages installation of a first software item;
a first configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the first software item; and
a first activation service that creates an execution environment for the first software item based on the configuration settings associated with the first software item;
the operating system creates a second context based on the first context, the second context comprising;
a second installation service that manages installation of the second software item;
a second configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the second software item; and
a second activation service that creates an execution environment for the second software item based on the configuration settings associated with the second software item, the operating system being used to link the first context and the second context together such that the first context is a parent of the second context.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The operating system manages software entities by creating a construct called a context that organizes and manages software-related state and configuration settings of applications. A context may comprise an installation service, a configuration service and an activation service. Contexts can be linked or arranged hierarchically to form parent-child relationships. Hierarchies may be used to affect accessibility of software items, to satisfy dependencies, to control the visibility/invisibility of software items, to provide access to configuration settings and to override software availability, dependencies and configuration settings. An override may be applied to set policy when more than one context has a configuration setting, dependency or access to a software entity.
24 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A computer system comprising:
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a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon at least a first software entity; and an operating system that creates a first context for managing a plurality of software entities that includes the first software entity and a second software entity, the first context configured for storing state settings, the state settings comprising information pertaining to a dependency of the first software entity on the second software entity; the first context comprising; a first installation service that manages installation of a first software item; a first configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the first software item; and a first activation service that creates an execution environment for the first software item based on the configuration settings associated with the first software item; the operating system creates a second context based on the first context, the second context comprising; a second installation service that manages installation of the second software item; a second configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the second software item; and a second activation service that creates an execution environment for the second software item based on the configuration settings associated with the second software item, the operating system being used to link the first context and the second context together such that the first context is a parent of the second context. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer-readable storage medium having program code stored thereon that, when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:
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use an operating system to create a first context for managing a plurality of software entities; use the operating system to create a second context based on the first context, wherein the first context comprises; a first installation service that manages installation of a first software item; a first configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the first software item; and a first activation service that creates an execution environment for the first software item based on the configuration settings associated with the first software item; and wherein the second context comprises; a second installation service that manages installation of the second software item; a second configuration service that manages configuration settings associated with the second software item; and a second activation service that creates an execution environment for the second software item based on the configuration settings associated with the second software item; and use the operating system to link the first context and the second context together such that the first context is a parent of the second context, wherein the first software item comprises a single resource comprising a piece of program code and metadata associated with the program code stored in the parent context by the first installation service and wherein the first software item is accessible to the child context and wherein configuration settings stored by the first configuration service in the parent context are accessible to the child context. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification