Disabling the self-referential appearance of a mobile application in an intent via a background registration

• US 9,195,519 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Tan, Simon, Maynard, David, Yao, Rico, Cung, Don
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Application Number:
  US13/794,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20140068632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 719/313
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Systems and methods for disabling the self-referential appearance of a mobile application in an Intent via a background thread are disclosed. On the Android platform, an application such as a mobile application for providing access to a cloud environment or cloud based service including cloud-based storage and/or collaborative services, can serve as both a source and a target for a given Intent. In one implementation, such a mobile application that can receive and send the same Intent, can include a background service that detects when the Intent is about to be issued, and unregisters the application to prevent the application from receiving the Intent. When a target application for handling the Intent is identified, the background service re-registers the application to receive the Intent.

Claims

1. A method for disabling the appearance of an application as a source and a target in an inter-application communication in a mobile device, comprising:

detecting, by an application, a user request to perform an operation that is supported by the application;

temporarily unregistering the application to avoid being identified as a target application supporting the operation; and

sending a message requesting delivery to any application on the mobile device that supports the operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application provides access to a cloud based service including cloud-based storage or collaboration services.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a plurality of applications that are registered with the operating system of the mobile device to indicate support for the operation, to a user, for selection of a target application.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

dynamically re-registering the application with the operating system to indicate support for the operation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the re-registering is scheduled to occur after the plurality of applications is provided to the user for selection of a target application.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the re-registering occurs after a scheduled time delay.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving, by the application, an incoming message to perform the operation, wherein the incoming message is for delivery to an application on the mobile device that is registered with the operating system indicating support for the operation.

8. A mobile device for preventing an application from acting as a source and a target in an inter-application communication, comprising:

a processor;

a memory having instructions stored thereon which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

detect an event that causes an application to act as a source and a target, wherein a source application sends a message requesting delivery to any application supporting an operation and a target application responds to the message;

in response to the event, temporarily disable a component of the application that allows the application to respond to the message; and

send the message requesting delivery to any application on the mobile device that provides an indication of support for the operation.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the application provides access to a cloud-based service including cloud-based storage or collaboration services.

10. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the component of the application that allows the application to respond to the message is disabled by unregistering the component with the operating system of the mobile device.

11. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to:

display a list of target applications that respond to the message, wherein the list excludes the application having the temporarily disabled component.

12. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to:

enable the temporarily disabled component of the application to allow the application to respond to a message requesting delivery to any application supporting the operation by dynamically registering with the operating system f the mobile device.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the dynamic registering is scheduled to occur after the list of target applications is displayed to a user.

14. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the dynamic registering occurs after a scheduled time delay.

15. A method for preventing an application from presenting itself as a source and a target in an inter-application communication, comprising:

detecting an event that causes an application to present itself as a source and a target, wherein a source application sends a message requesting delivery to any application supporting an operation and a target application responds to the message;

in response to the event, temporarily disabling a component of the application that allows the application to respond to the message; and

sending the message requesting delivery to any application on the mobile device that provides an indication of support for the operation.

16. A method for disabling the visibility of an application as a source and a target in an inter-application communication in a mobile device, comprising:

detecting a condition that causes the application to be identified as a target application responsive to a message;

toggling a registration status of the application by;

unregistering the application from the message to avoid being identified as a target application responsive to the message;

re-registering the application for the message after a scheduled delay to allow being identified as a target application responsive to the message.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

sending the message to any application registered for the message.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

displaying a list of applications responding to the message, wherein the message is sent after the application registered from the message and the application is re-registered for the message after displaying the list of applications.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the application provides access to a cloud-based service including cloud-based storage or collaboration services.

20. A system for disabling the visibility of an application as a source and a target in an inter-application communication in a mobile device, comprising:

a module for detecting a condition that causes the application to be visible as a target application responsive to a message;

a module for toggling a registration status of the application by;

unregistering the application from the message such that the application is not visible as a target application responsive to the message;

re-registering the application for the message after a scheduled delay to allow the application to be visible as a target application responsive to the message;

a module for sending the message to any application registered for the message and

a module for displaying a list of applications that are visible and responsive to the message, wherein the message is sent after the application is unregistered from the message and the application is re-registered for the message after displaying the list of applications.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors of a system, cause the system to disable the appearance of an application as a source and a target in an inter-application communication on a mobile device by:

detecting a user request to perform an operation that is supported by the application;

temporarily unregistering the application to avoid being identified as a target application supporting the operation; and

sending a message requesting delivery to any application on the mobile device that supports the operation.