Flexible architecture for notifying applications of state changes

• US 8,990,695 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2009
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Karachale, Jan, Fuller, Jason William, Levy, Robert, Koch, Zeke, Arac, Ardan, Cross, Brian, Amiga, Ori M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ORR, HENRY W
• Application Number:
  US12/624,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20100077310A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,947 Days
• Field of Search: 715/736
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

Described is a method and system a unified mechanism for storing device, application, and service state, as well as a rich notification brokerage architecture. Clients register with a notification broker to receive notifications for changes to state properties. When a registered state property changes, a notification broker determines which clients to notify of the state change and provides the client with a notification regarding the change. Clients may be notified whenever a state changes, when a state change meets a predetermined condition, or based on a schedule. An application may also be launched in response to a state change. An application programming interface (API) is provided that provides a unified way of accessing state change information across different components within the device.

Claims

1. A method for providing notifications to clients in response to state property changes, comprising:

at a notification broker that is located on a computing device, receiving an automatic notification request from a client application on the computing device to receive a notification in response to an event that originates on the computing device;

wherein the event is associated with a change in a state property of the computing device, wherein execution of the client application on the computing device is dependent upon a received notification;

wherein an Application Program Interface (API) is utilized by the client application to register the notification request, wherein the notification request made through the API specifies to receive a notification upon an occurrence of at least one of;

when a registered state property changes, when a change to the state property meets a conditional expression that is specified through the API, and upon a schedule determined by the client, wherein the API also comprises functions for;

registering different state properties across different components of the computing device to be monitored for changes by the notification broker;

querying each of the state properties to determine a value; and

setting the state properties;

ensuring that the state property is registered with the notification broker, wherein the notification broker includes state properties that are updated by different components within the computing device;

determining when the state property changes, wherein determining when the state property changes comprises using the API to specify a batching operation on changes to the state property that occur within a predetermined time period;

wherein a call to the API batching operation specifies a time period for which a value of the state property is to remain constant before notifying the client application of a change to the state property;

determining when the client should receive notification of the state property change; and

the notification broker on the computing device notifying the client of the state property change when determined.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification request specified through the API comprises indicating when the notification is a permanent notification request and when the notification is a transient notification request;

wherein the permanent notification request is stored by the notification broker in a data-store on the computing device that maintains the notification request across a reboot;

wherein the transient notification is not maintained across the reboot.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the API includes functionality for specifying an action of the computing device when a change occurs to a registered state property when the computing device is in a standby mode, wherein the action comprise:

ignoring the change, bringing the device out of the standby mode and raising the event when the computing device is taken out of the standby mode by a different event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the conditional expression is expressed through the API using the following conditions:

all, equal, not equal, greater than, greater or equal than, less than or equal, less than, contains, starts with, and ends with.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the API to specify when to launch the client application in response to at least one of:

a state property change and a scheduled event and when to notify a window of a client and notify a callback when a state property changes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying through the API a friendly string name that identifies one of the registered state properties;

wherein a friendly string name for a parent state property identifies state properties common to the parent state property and children state properties of the parent state property.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the notification request from the client to receive the notification in response to the change associated with the state property, further comprises using the API to associate a group of state properties with the notification request from the client when an identifier associated with the request identifies a category of state properties, wherein the state properties are arrange in a hierarchy within the notification system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing pre-loaded state properties that may be accessed by the clients without any client having to register the pre-loaded state properties with the notification broker;

wherein the pre-loaded state properties comprise a majority of the following states;

a display orientation state;

an undismissed reminders state;

an undismissed alarms state;

a battery state;

a memory state;

a storage card state;

a hardware state, a keyboard enabled state, a Wifi enabled state, a Bluetooth enabled state, a headphones state, a camera state;

a messaging state;

a tasks state;

a calendar state;

an Instant Messenger state;

a connectivity state;

a media player state;

a synchronization status state; and

a telephony state.

9. A system for state management and notifications, comprising:

a processing unit;

a data store on a mobile device that is arranged to store information relating to state properties, wherein at least some of the state properties are modified by different components;

an Application Program Interface (API) configured to perform operations relating to the state properties;

wherein the API includes functions comprising;

registering the state properties to be monitored for changes by a notification broker;

querying the state properties;

setting the state properties;

registering notification requests relating to the state properties;

launching an application; and

comparing the state properties to conditional expressions;

using the API to specify a batching operation on changes to the state property that occur within a predetermined time period;

wherein a call to the API batching operation specifies a time period for which a value of the state property is to remain constant before notifying a client application of a change to the state property;

client applications that are configured to execute using the processing unit and automatically register notification requests using the API and receive notifications in response to a change in a state property for which they have registered to receive a notification, wherein the notification requests indicate when the clients should receive notifications in response to changes associated with the state properties, and wherein execution of the client applications is dependent upon a received notification;

wherein the change in the state property is responsive to an event that originates on a device executing the client application;

a notification list stored within the data store that is arranged to store the clients that have been registered to receive notification requests;

the notification broker coupled to the data store, the notification list, and the clients, wherein the notification broker, includes functionality configured to perform the following actions, including to;

receive a notification request to add at least one client to the notification list;

add the at least one client to the notification list; and

determine when a registered state property changes, and when the state property changes, determine the clients to receive a notification, and notify the determined clients of the state property change.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining the clients to receive the notification, comprises:

applying a conditional expression specified through the API to the state property before notifying the client of the change to the state property.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the conditional expression specified through the API comprises the following conditions:

all, equal, not equal, greater than, greater or equal than, less than or equal, less than, contains, starts with, and ends with.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising either launching the client or notifying the client in response to a change to a registered state property.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising specifying through the API a friendly string name that identifies one of the registered state properties;

wherein a friendly string name for a parent state property identifies state properties common to the parent state property and children state properties of the parent state property.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein value of the state properties within the data store persists across device reboots and wherein the API includes functionality for specifying an action when a change occurs to a registered state property when a computing device executing the client application to be notified is in a standby mode, wherein the action comprise:

ignoring the change, bringing the computing device out of the standby mode and raising the event when the computing device is taken out of the standby mode by a different event.

15. A computer-readable storage device having computer executable instructions for performing operations on state properties, comprising:

receiving at a notification broker on a device an automatic request from a client application that is executed on the device to receive an identifier identifying at least one state property within a group of state properties of the device such that the execution of the client application on the device is in response to the state properties associated with the device on which the client application resides;

wherein state properties within the group of state properties are updated by different components on the device;

wherein the state properties change is response to an event that originates on the device;

wherein an Application Program Interface (API) is utilized by the client application to register the request and comprises functions for;

registering state properties to be monitored for changes by a notification broker;

querying the state properties; and

setting the state properties;

using the API to specify a batching operation on changes to the state property that occur within a predetermined time period;

wherein a call to the API batching operation specifies a time period for which a value of the state property is to remain constant before notifying the client application of a change to the state property;

receiving the identifier at the device that indicates the at least one state property within a group of state properties of the device;

determining an operation to perform on the device relating to a state property within the group of state properties; and

performing the operation on the device in response to the received identifier.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein performing the operation, comprises:

applying a conditional expression specified through the API to the state property and notifying the client of the state property when the condition is met;

wherein the conditional expression includes at least one of the following conditions;

all, equal, not equal, greater than, greater or equal than, less than or equal, less than, contains, starts with, and ends with.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein performing the operation further comprises launching a client application or notifying the client application in response to at least one of the following:

a change in the state property and a scheduled event.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the API further comprises functionality for the client application specifying a batching operation for changes to the state property that occur within a predetermined time period and specifying a wake up condition for the device when the device is in a standby mode and a change occurs to a registered state property.