Mobile core client architecture

• US 9,113,282 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2008
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Truecontext
• Original Assignee: TrueContext Mobile Solutions Corporation
• Inventors: Chene, Marc, Peyton, Liam, McGuire, Kevin, Drummond, Brant
• Primary Examiner(s): Survillo, Oleg
• Application Number:
  US12/522,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,776 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/220, 709/225, 715/222, 715/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/508 based on type of value added network service under agreement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

Multiple types of applications, electronic forms, electronic forms data instances, network services and, network services are automatically managed by methods and systems. The methods and systems allow organizations with a mobile workforce that relies on established business processes to execute timely and secure exchange of information while providing easy to use, fast, accurate and flexible information capture capability in the field. These organizations and/or third-party providers may optimize the design of mobile applications to better match existing corporate processes and forms in order to reflect existing business needs, preferred graphical user interfaces, processes and experiences on the mobile devices. Organizations and/or third-party providers may also build mobile applications that allow information to be automatically created and updated both online and offline and synchronized or routed to another mobile device, an application server, web service, software-as-a-service (SaaS), database or website.

Claims

1. A method for managing mobile applications, electronic forms, data instances, business processes, and network services from multiple software providers in a mobile device, comprising:

executing one or more mobile applications in the mobile device, each of the mobile applications configured with a different electronic form, electronic forms data instance, business process, and network service;

discovering context information associated with resources integrated in the mobile device;

receiving additional context information for each electronic form from a network service;

storing and managing, in the mobile device, the context information and the additional context information for each of the one or more mobile applications by a unified mobile resource contextualization engine residing in the mobile device;

providing an extensible Application Programming Interface (API) configured to provide the one or more mobile applications access to the stored context information and the additional context information;

authorizing at least one of the one or more mobile applications to access the stored context information and the additional context information;

allowing only the at least one authorized mobile application to access the stored context information and the additional context information via the extensible API;

each of the at least one authorized mobile applications automatically updating a respective electronic form and electronic forms data instance according to a respective business process and network service utilizing accessed context information and the additional context information; and

wherein each of the at least one authorized mobile applications accesses the stored context information and the additional context information during the updating of said respective electronic form and electronic forms data instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information includes one or more of the following for each electronic form and electronic forms data instance:

current status, synchronization schedule, associated mobile application, business process and associated network service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to automatically create a registry of electronic forms that are available to the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to automatically discover network services available to the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the resources are selected from the group comprising:

a camera, a GPS, a scanner, a magnetic card reader, and an RFID reader.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to allow the mobile device to automatically receive updates to at least one electronic form and any context information for the at least one electronic form.

7. A system for managing mobile applications, electronic forms, electronic forms data instances, business processes, and network services from multiple software providers in a mobile device, comprising:

at least one subsystem comprising a computer processor configured to;

execute one or more mobile applications in the mobile device, each of the one or more mobile applications configured with a different electronic form, electronic forms data instance, business process, and network service;

discover context information associated with resources integrated in the mobile device; and

receive additional context information for each electronic form from a network service;

an extensible Application Programming Interface (API) configured to provide the one or more mobile applications access to the stored context information and the additional context information;

authorizing at least one of the one or more mobile applications to access the stored context information and the additional context information;

a unified mobile resource contextualization engine residing in the mobile device that stores and manages the context information and the additional context information for each of the one or more mobile applications; and

at least one subsystem configured to allow only the at least one authorized mobile application to access the context information and the additional context information via the API, wherein each of the at least one authorized mobile applications is configured to automatically update a respective electronic form and electronic forms data instance according to a respective business process and while communicating with a respective network service utilizing the context information and the additional context information, said at least one authorized mobile application accessing the context information and the additional context information stored and managed in the mobile device during the updating of said respective electronic form and electronic forms data instance.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the context information includes one or more of the following for each electronic form and electronic forms data instance:

current status, synchronization schedule, associated mobile application, business process and associated network service.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to automatically create a registry of electronic forms that are available to the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to automatically discover network services available to the mobile device.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the resources are selected from the group comprising:

a camera, a GPS, a scanner, a magnetic card reader, and an RFID reader.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the unified mobile resource contextualization engine is configured to allow the mobile device to automatically receive updates to at least one electronic form and any context information for the at least one electronic form.