Method and system for enforcing a license dependency rule for a software application

• US 8,739,298 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2009
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Biswas, Sanjeev Kumar, Jain, Akash, Gupta, Kanika Dalmia
• Primary Examiner(s): CERVETTI, DAVID GARCIA
• Application Number:
  US12/622,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20140033315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,650 Days
• Field of Search: 726/26, 726/27, 726/1
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level

Abstract

Methods and systems for enabling a software application that does not have independent licensing information are described. Consistent with some embodiments, a first software application is associated with a license dependency rule that indicates one or more other software applications that must be installed and activated in order for the first software application to be fully executed and used on the target computer system. A license manager module evaluates the license dependency rule, for example, by making remote license calls to verify the license status of the software applications identified in the license dependency rule.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

responsive to an auxiliary software application that lacks independent licensing information being invoked, determining, by a processor of a computer system, an operational status of the auxiliary software application in a local database, the operational status dependent upon evaluation of a license dependency rule associated with the auxiliary software application that requires at least one primary software application having independent licensing information be activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed by the computer system; and

responsive to determining that the operational status indicates that the auxiliary software application is enabled, allowing full execution of the auxiliary software application.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a background operation to evaluate the license dependency rule based on the auxiliary software application being enabled and full execution of the auxiliary software application being allowed; and

updating the operational status of the auxiliary software application in the local database to indicate that the auxiliary application is disabled based on the background operation to evaluate the license dependency rule resulting in the license dependency rule not being satisfied.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that any one software application selected from a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, is required to be activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that all software applications in a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, are required to be activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that a first software application and any second software application selected from a set of software applications are required to be activated in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system, the first and second software applications different from the auxiliary software application.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

responsive to the auxiliary software application that lacks independent licensing information being invoked, determining, by processor of a computer system, that an operational status of the auxiliary software application indicates the auxiliary software application is not enabled, the operational status dependent upon evaluation of a license dependency rule associated with the auxiliary software application that requires at least one primary software application having independent licensing information be activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed by the computer system;

responsive to determining that the operational status indicates the auxiliary software application is not enabled, reading the license dependency rule for the auxiliary software application from a database;

evaluating the license dependency rule; and

allowing the auxiliary software application to fully execute based on the evaluation of the license dependency rule indicating the license dependency rule is satisfied.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

when evaluating the license dependency rule, determining that a software application identified in the license dependency rule is installed on the computer system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that any one software application selected from a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, is required to be installed and activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein evaluating the license dependency rule includes performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verify that one software application selected from a set of software applications identified in the license dependency rule has a license status indicating that the software application is activated.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that all software applications in a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, are required to be installed and activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein evaluating the license dependency rule includes performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verify that all software applications in a set of software applications identified in the license dependency rule have a license status indicating that the software applications are activated.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that a first software application and any second software application selected from a set of software applications are required to be installed and activated in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system, the first and second software applications different from the auxiliary software application.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein evaluating the license dependency rule includes performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verify that a first software application and any second software application selected from a set of software applications as identified in the license dependency rule have a license status indicating that the software applications are activated.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein reading the license dependency rule for the auxiliary software application from a database at the computer system includes reading the license dependency rule from a product configuration database to which the license dependency rule was written when the auxiliary software application was installed on the computer system.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

when the evaluation of the license dependency rule indicates the license dependency rule is satisfied, updating a local license status database to indicate that the operational status of the auxiliary software application is enabled.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

updating the local license status database to identify the particular software applications whose license statuses satisfied the evaluation of the license dependency rule for the auxiliary software application.

17. A tangible computer-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

determining that an operational status of an auxiliary software application that lacks independent licensing information indicates the auxiliary software application is not enabled, the operational status of the auxiliary software application dependent upon evaluation of a license dependency rule associated with the auxiliary software application that requires at least one primary software application having independent licensing information be installed and activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed by the computer system;

responsive to determining that the operational status indicates the auxiliary software application is not enabled, reading the license dependency rule for the auxiliary software application from a database at the computer system;

evaluating the license dependency rule; and

allowing the auxiliary software application to fully execute when the evaluation of license dependency rule indicates the license dependency rule is satisfied.

18. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that any one software application selected from a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, is required to be installed and activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system, the method further comprising:

evaluating the license dependency rule by performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verity that one software application selected from the set of software applications identified in the license dependency rule has a license status indicating that the software application is activated.

19. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that all software applications in a set of software applications, excluding the auxiliary software application, are required to be installed and activated on the computer system in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system, the method further comprising:

evaluating the license dependency rule by performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verify that all software applications in a set of software applications identified the license dependency rule have a license status indicating that the software applications are activated.

20. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the license dependency rule indicates that a first software application and any second software application selected from a set of software applications are required to be installed and activated in order for the auxiliary software application to be fully executed on the computer system, the first and second software applications different from the auxiliary software application, the method further comprising:

evaluating the license dependency rule by performing one or more license calls to a remote license server to verify that a first software application and any second software application selected from a set of software applications as identified in the license dependency rule have a license status indicating that the software applications are activated.