System and method for dynamic version management of applications

• US 8,191,080 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2010
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Goring, Bryan R., Shenfield, Michael, Bibr, Viera
• Primary Examiner(s): Anya, Charles E
• Application Number:
  US12/846,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20100313193A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: 715/749, 717/168, 717/178, 719/316
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

Current applications, in particular for resource constrained terminals, may only require access to an updated version of an application, but updates of current applications must typically be downloaded in their entirety. There is provided systems and methods of modifying an application program for provisioning in a runtime environment of a terminal, the application including a plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules having respective executable methods, where the modules are linked by a set of execution pathways. One method comprises obtaining a migration instruction set for coordinating the modification of the application and executing the migration instruction set for modifying a first execution pathway of the execution pathways to create a modified application. The updated version of the application is represented by a stored addressing map for coordinating hosting of the modified application in the runtime environment.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for dynamically upgrading and versioning an application program in a terminal, the application program including a plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, each uniquely addressable logical module having associated executable methods, the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules linked by a set of execution pathways, the method comprising:

executing a migration instruction set to download the plurality of uniquely addressable modules, the migration instruction set identifying the uniquely addressable logical modules of the application program to be replaced;

executing the migration instruction set to modify a first execution pathway of the set of execution pathways to create a modified application, wherein the first execution pathway represents a redirectable shared method call of a first uniquely addressable logical module of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical;

constructing an addressing map mapping a relationship between the redirected shared method call and a corresponding private address of the first uniquely addressable logical module, wherein the addressing map is configured to modify the first uniquely addressable logical module without modifying an adjacent uniquely addressable logical module and wherein the private address is an internal reference of the first uniquely addressable logical module; and

storing the addressing map, the addressing map for coordinating hosting the modified application program in the terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules include at least one data module for providing data definitions and at least one code module for providing the executable methods.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the code module has a collection of instructions to provide a reusable function representing the executable method.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the data module represents an aggregate expressed in a structured definition language.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the structured definition language is Extensible Markup Language (XML).

6. The method according to claim 2 further comprising configuring the terminal as a client of a schema defined service accessible through a network, the service providing modification requirements of the application program to the terminal.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the service is a web service.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the terminal is selected from the group comprising wireless devices and wired devices.

9. The method according to claim 2 further comprising modifying the application program to create a new version of the application program, the new version having modifications selected from the group comprising deleted ones of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, new ones of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, modified ones of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, and the redirected shared method call.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the executable methods include a new module and an associated execution method.

11. The method according to claim 9 further comprising modifying the code modules and associated execution pathways of the application program to produce the new version without changing the shared method call addressing referenced by the data modules.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the migration instruction set is a migration script.

13. The method according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the code modules has at least two of the private addresses, each of the private addresses representing a respective identifiable function within the code module.

14. The method according to claim 13 further comprising storing a plurality of relationships between a plurality of corresponding redirected shared method call and private address pairs for representing multiple versions of the application program, the plurality of relationships stored in the addressing map.

15. The method according to claim 2, wherein modification of the application program is initiated by the terminal or a network server.

16. A terminal configured to dynamically upgrade and version an application program for provisioning in a native runtime environment, the application program including a plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules and each uniquely addressable logical module having associated executable methods, the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules linked by a set of execution pathways, the terminal comprising:

a processing framework configured to provide the native runtime environment;

a migration module configured to coordinate the modification of the application program using a migration instruction set, wherein the migration instruction set identifies and downloads the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules of the application program to be replaced, wherein the migration instruction set is configured by the processing framework to modify a first execution pathway of the execution pathways to create a modified application program, and wherein the first execution pathway represents a redirectable shared method call of a first uniquely addressable logical module of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules;

an addressing map module configured to construct an addressing map, the addressing map being configured by the processing framework to map a relationship between the redirected shared method call and a corresponding private address of the first uniquely addressable logical module, wherein the addressing map is configured to modify the first uniquely addressable logical module without modifying an adjacent uniquely addressable logical module and wherein the private address is an internal reference of the first uniquely addressable logical module of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules; and

a storage medium configured to store the addressing map for hosting the modified application program in the native runtime environment.

17. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules include at least one data module for providing data definitions and at least one code module for providing the executable methods.

18. The terminal according to claim 17, wherein the code module has a collection of instructions to provide a reusable function representing the executable method.

19. The terminal according to claim 17, wherein the data module represents an aggregate expressed in a structured definition language.

20. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein the modified application program is a new version of the application program, the new version configured for having modifications selected from the group comprising deleted ones of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, new ones of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules, modified ones of the logical modules, and the redirected shared method call.

21. The terminal according to claim 17, wherein the at least one code module is configured to have at least two of the private addresses, each of the private addresses representing a respective identifiable function within the at least one code module.

22. The terminal according to claim 21, wherein the addressing map is configured for storing a plurality of relationships between a plurality of corresponding redirected shared method call and private address pairs for representing multiple versions of the application program, the plurality of direct relationships stored in at least one of the addressing map.

23. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein modification of the application program is initiated by the terminal or a network server.

24. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium having a computer program product for dynamically upgrading and versioning an application program for provisioning in a native runtime environment, the application program including a plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules and each uniquely addressable logical module includes associated executable methods, the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules are linked by a set of execution pathways, the computer program product comprising:

a migration module configured to coordinate the modification of the application program using a migration instruction set, wherein the migration instruction set identifies and downloads the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules of the application program to be replaced, wherein the migration instruction set is configured to modify a first execution pathway of the execution pathways to create a modified application program, wherein the first execution pathway represents a redirectable shared method call of a first uniquely addressable logical module of the plurality of uniquely addressable logical modules; and

an addressing map module configured to construct an addressing map wherein the addressing map is configured to map a relationship between the redirected shared method call and a corresponding private address of the first uniquely addressable logical module, wherein the addressing map is configured to modify the first uniquely addressable logical module without modifying an adjacent uniquely addressable logical module and wherein the private address is an internal reference of the first uniquely addressable logical module.