Packaging content updates

• US 9,092,298 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Lerum, Cameron B., Wissink, Catherine A., Seubert, Roxanne M., Subramanian, Sushmita, Rao, Vivek R., Hezroni, Yaron
• Primary Examiner(s): DAO, THUY CHAN
• Application Number:
  US13/867,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20140019956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to obtaining user feedback and causing a package of content updates to be created and distributed based on the received feedback. In accordance with one embodiment, a method is provided for creating a package that contains one or more content updates that are configured for implementation on a remote device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, via a network interface, user input from a plurality of computing devices on which respective instances of a program execute, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining content updates of user-defined natural language content that is configured to replace the identified natural language content;

storing, in a data store, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining the content updates of user-defined natural language content;

determining which of the content updates stored in the data store correspond with the identified natural language content to update;

assembling one or more content updates that correspond with the identified natural language content into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network; and

transmitting, via the network interface, the package of content updates to another computing device on which another instance of the program executes effective to cause the program executing on the other computing device to implement the one or more content updates effective to replace the identified natural language content with the user-defined natural language content.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices indicates that the identified natural language content is inappropriate.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2, wherein determining which of the content updates correspond with the identified natural language content to update comprises querying the data store based on the user input that identifies the issue associated with the program.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the assembling of the one or more content updates is responsive to a command received from one of the plurality of devices on which an instance of the program executes.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing rules prescribing conditions under which to implement the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 5, wherein the rules prescribing conditions under which to implement the one or more content updates are formatted in extensible markup language (XML).

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing logic for implementing the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 7, wherein the logic for implementing the one or more content updates is formatted in extensible markup language (XML).

9. A device comprising:

a network interface configured to enable communication with computing devices via a network, the network interface implemented at least partially in hardware; and

a content package creator stored in a computer-readable storage memory and configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the network interface, user input from a plurality of the computing devices on which respective instances of a program execute, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining content updates of user-defined natural language content that is configured to replace the identified natural language content;

storing, in a data store, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining the content updates of user-defined natural language content;

determining which of the content updates stored in the data store correspond with the identified natural language content to update;

assembling, one or more of the content updates that correspond with the identified natural language content into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network, the package including logic effective to implement the one or more content updates on another of the computing devices that executes another instance of the program; and

transmitting, via the network interface, the package of content updates to the other computing device on which the other instance of the program executes effective to implement the one or more content updates to replace, on the other computing device, the identified natural language content with the user-defined natural language content.

10. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing logic for implementing the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

11. The device as recited in claim 10, wherein the logic for implementing the one or more content updates is formatted in extensible markup language (XML).

12. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein the content package creator is further configured to assemble the package of content updates without user interaction or transmit the package of content updates without user interaction.

13. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein the package of content updates is assembled such that the one or more content updates can be implemented without a software update that modifies functionality of the program.

14. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein the user input defining the one or more content updates for the program is obtained through a plurality of respective graphical user interface (GUI) objects executing on the plurality of the computing devices.

15. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein at least one of the content updates is implemented as resource-only dynamic link library (DLL).

16. A computer-readable storage memory comprising instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, implement a content package creator to perform operations comprising:

receiving, via a network interface, user input from a plurality of computing devices on which respective instances of a program execute, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining content updates of user-defined natural language content that is configured to replace the identified natural language content;

storing, in a data store, the user input identifying natural language content of the program to update and defining the content updates of user-defined natural language content;

determining which of the content updates stored in the data store correspond with the identified natural language content to update;

assembling one or more content updates that correspond with the identified natural language content into a package that is suitable for transmission over the network, the package including logic effective to implement the one or more content updates on another computing device that executes another instance of the program; and

transmitting, via the network interface, the package of content updates to the other computing device on which the other instance of the program executes effective to implement the one or more content updates to replace, on the other computing device, the identified natural language content with the user-defined natural language content.

17. The computer-readable storage memory as recited in claim 16, wherein the user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices identifies the issue associated with the program.

18. The computer-readable storage memory as recited in claim 16, wherein the package of content updates includes natural language content that, responsive to implementation on the other computing device, causes the program to load the natural language content in place of default content of the program.

19. The computer-readable storage memory as recited in claim 16, wherein assembling the one or more content updates into the package includes providing logic for implementing the one or more content updates on the other computing device.

20. The computer-readable storage memory as recited in claim 16, wherein assembling the package of content updates or transmitting the package of content updates is performed without user interaction.