Method and system for managing execution of virtual applications

• US 8,914,427 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Larimore, Stefan I., Obata, Kenji C., Zeller, Mark Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHONG H
• Application Number:
  US13/449,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20120203808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 707/741, 707/804, 707/822, 707/827, 717/174, 717/175, 717/176, 717/177, 717/178
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections

Abstract

A system and method for directing download and execution of an application. A runtime engine receives an identifier of a block of shared memory from a directing process. The shared memory stores a map indicating which portions of an application file have been stored in a local copy of the application file. The runtime engine also receives an instruction from the directing process to execute the local copy when the local copy stores less than the entire application file. As the application executes, the runtime engine identifies requests from the application to access portions of the local copy and uses the map to determine whether the requested portions have been stored in the local copy. If the requested portions are not stored in the local copy, the runtime engine prevents the executing application from accessing the local copy until the map indicates the requested portions have been stored therein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for use with a directing process, the method being performed by a runtime engine executing on at least one computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the runtime engine executing on the at least one computing device, an identifier of a block of shared memory from the directing process, a map being stored in the block of shared memory, the map indicating which portions of an application file have been stored in a local copy of the application file;

receiving, by the runtime engine, an instruction from the directing process to execute the local copy of the application file when less than the entire application file is stored in the local copy of the application file;

initiating, by the runtime engine, execution of the local copy of the application file by the at least one computing device when less than the entire application file is stored in the local copy of the application file to thereby initiate execution of an application;

as the local copy of the application executes, identifying, by the runtime engine, requests from the application to access portions of the local copy of the application file and using the map to determine whether the requested portions of the application file are stored in the local copy of the application file; and

if the requested portions of the application file are not stored in the local copy of the application file, preventing, by the runtime engine, the executing application from accessing the local copy of the application file until the map indicates the requested portions have been stored in the local copy of the application file.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application file is a virtualized application file and the application is a virtual application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the requested portions of the application file have not been stored in the local copy of the application file, sending a notification to the directing process indicating the requested portions of the application file have not been downloaded and stored in the local copy of the application file.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a notification from the directing process that the directing process has downloaded requested portions of the application file and stored them in the local copy of the application file.

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

establishing a session with the directing process, the identifier of a block of shared memory being a session identifier associated with the session.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portions of the application file are downloaded using a conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the conventional download protocol comprises Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, or Server Message Block Protocol.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein requests from the application to access portions of the application file are identified using an IStream interface.