Techniques for providing services and establishing processing environments

• US 8,069,443 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2004
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Ackerman, Mark D., Carter, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZHE, MENG YAO
• Application Number:
  US10/880,224
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031845A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,709 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

Techniques are provided for the delivery of client services and for the establishment of client processing environments. A client receives services within a processing environment which is defined by a processing container. The processing container includes one or more processing groups, and each processing group has a particular context that supports one or more applications or services which are processing within that context. The processing groups communicate with one another via connector interfaces included within the processing container. Services and processing containers can be dynamically added or removed from the processing container.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a processing environment, comprising:

configuring a processing container for processing devices that are distributed over multiple networks, the processing container defines unique processing contexts occurring within the processing devices and each processing context representing a processing group;

configuring processing groups within the processing container, each processing group having a unique context;

loading applications within each processing group'"'"'s context;

establishing a processing environment having the applications processing within their respective processing group'"'"'s context and within the container; and

interfacing two or more of the processing groups using connector interfaces included within the processor container, and each connector interface processes for its respective processing group types of input used by each application within that processing group and types of output produced by each application within that processing group thereby permitting interfacing between the two or more processing groups, each connector interface is a protocol that defines common events, parameters, and output of that connector interface'"'"'s processing group thereby permitting the processing groups to interface with one another and translate data from one application in one processing group to different data used by a different application in a different processing group; and

, the processing groups perform their own authentication, each application performs additional authentication, and the processing container performs other authentication where the authentication technique used by the processing container is a particular one of the processing groups, the processing group for the authentication technique is an Operating System (OS) authentication processing group that performs on-box authentication and off-box authentication, the on-box authentication necessitates no pass through of the OS and the off-box authentication necessitates pass through of the OS to external boxes for authentication.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, dynamically adding one or more new processing groups having one or more new contexts within the processing container, wherein one or more new applications are dynamically loaded within the one or more new contexts.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, dynamically removing one or more of the processing groups from the container.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, authenticating at least one of the processing container, the processing groups, and the applications before configuring and loading them on the processing devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the processing groups further includes configuring at least one composite processing group that includes multiple ones of the processing groups.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein configuring the processing groups further includes identifying each of the groups as a separate set of related services.

7. A method for providing a service to client, comprising:

receiving a request to add a service from a client;

identifying a connector interface for the service, that interfaces the service to other connector interfaces within a processing container, the other connector interfaces are associated with other services available within the processing container, and the processing container processes on devices over multiple networks, the processing container defines unique processing contexts occurring within the devices, and the connector interface processes for the service types of input used by the service and types of output produced by the service thereby permitting interfacing between the service and the other connector interfaces, the connector interface and the other connector interfaces are Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that permits the input and output to be generically communicated within the processing container and across the unique processing contexts; and

the service and the other services use their own authentication and the processing container uses still other authentication where the authentication technique used is included within the processing container and the processing container includes an Operating System (OS) authentication processing group that performs on-box authentication and off-box authentication for the authentication technique, the on-box authentication necessitates no pass through of the OS and the off-box authentication necessitates pass through of the OS to external boxes for authentication;

loading the service and its connector interface into the processing container; and

providing the service to the client.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising, authenticating the service after receiving the request, and wherein the service is loaded if the service is authenticated.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving further includes identifying the service as a composite service having two or more embedded services.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving further includes identifying the service as a component within a processing group of the processing container.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein providing the service further includes processing the service on a processing device that is local to the client.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein providing the service further includes processing the service over a network from one or more processing devices that are remote to the client.

13. The method of claim 7 further comprising, acquiring a definition for the connector interface from configuration data associated with the processing container.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising, representing the configuration data in a formal language.

15. A processing system implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and is processed over a network, comprising:

a processing container implemented as a processing environment for devices that spans multiple networks, the processing container defines unique processing contexts occurring within the devices and each processing context representing a processing group;

processing groups, each processing group having services that process on computer devices; and

connector interfaces, each connector interface provides for interaction between the processing groups, and each processing group represents a different processing context within the processing container, and each connector interface processes for its respective processing group types of input used by each application within that processing group and types of output produced by each application within that processing group thereby permitting interfacing between the processing groups, each connector interface is a protocol that defines common events, parameters, and output of that connector interface'"'"'s processing group thereby permitting the processing groups to interface with one another and translate data from one application in one processing group to different data used by a different application in a different processing group; and

each processing group uses its own authentication, each application also uses its own independent authentication, and the processing container use still other authentication where the authentication technique used is a particular processing group within the processing container, and the processing group for the authentication technique is an Operating System (OS) authentication processing group that performs on-box authentication and off-box authentication, the on-box authentication necessitates no pass through of the OS and the off-box authentication necessitates pass through of the OS to external boxes for authentication.

16. The processing system of claim 15 further comprising, configuration data that defines the processing container, the processing groups, and the connector interfaces.

17. The processing system of claim 16, wherein a least a portion of the processing system exists on a client or server processing device.

18. The processing system of claim 15, wherein each processing group represents a context for a subset of the services.

19. The processing system of claim 18, wherein a number of the processing groups are composite processing groups having two or more of the processing groups.

20. The processing system of claim 18, wherein a number of the processing groups are inactive and not available from within the processing container until dynamically activated.

21. The processing system of claim 15, wherein the processing container performs authentication on at least one of the processing groups and the one or more services.

22. The processing system of claim 15, wherein the processing groups perform authentication on the one or more services.

23. The processing system of claim 15, wherein the processing container activates and deactivates a number of the processing groups.

24. The processing system of claim 15, wherein the processing groups activate or deactivate a number of their services.