Deployable, consistent, and extensible computing environment platform

• US 9,298,747 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2008
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Shukla, Dharma, Bendapudi, Perraju
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US12/052,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20090240698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,931 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data

Abstract

The diverse objects comprising a computing environment may be represented together as a deployable object hierarchy, which may facilitate the deployment, as well as the consistency, of a computing environment rendered by a plurality of devices. The processes within the computing environment often operate on the objects of the object hierarchy in a variety of ways, including simple operations (creation, reading, updating, and deleting) and more sophisticated operations (synchronizing, paginating, and caching), as well as with the object hierarchy in general. A platform may be devised to facilitate the various operations of the processes on the object hierarchy. The platform may be embodied, such as in an application runtime, and deployed to a variety of platforms to facilitate an equivalent execution of the processes on any type of device and consistent interactions with the object hierarchy.

Claims

1. A method of exposing a computing environment to a process according to an access protocol comprising at least one verb that is applicable to respective objects irrespective of respective object type of the respective objects, wherein the method involves a computer having a processor and an object manager set of object managers that respectively apply actions to objects of an object type, and comprises:

executing on the processor instructions that cause the computer to;

present the computing environment to the process as an object hierarchy of the objects respectively having the object type and managed by an object manager, the computing environment respectively managed by the object manager, wherein the object hierarchy comprise;

a file object representing a file system object of a file manager of the computing environment;

an application object representing an application executable within the computing environment and managed by an application manager;

a device object representing a device accessible to the computing environment and accessible through a device manager; and

a user profile object representing a user profile of a user of the computing environment and accessible through a user profile manager;

identify the respective objects to the process by a location with the object hierarchy; and

responsive to receiving a request from the process to invoke a selected verb of the access protocol on a selected object identified by a selected object location;

identify a selected object type of the object located at the selected object location within the object hierarchy;

identify, from the object manager set, a selected object manager that manages objects of the selected object type;

identify, for the selected object manager, a selected action that performs the selected verb of the access protocol to the objects of the selected object type; and

invoke the selected object manager to perform the selected action corresponding to the selected verb on the selected object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the respective object managers are associated with an object manager location within the object hierarchy; and

presenting the object manager set to the process comprises;

presenting the respective object managers through a representational state transfer interface that, upon receiving a request specifying the object manager location of the object manager, perform the selected action on the object of the object hierarchy identified by the location while refraining from retaining a state of the request specifying the object manager location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the location of the respective objects of the object hierarchy and the object manager location of the respective object managers comprising a uniform resource identifier;

the access protocol comprises hypertext transport protocol; and

the request specifying the object manager location comprising a hypertext transport protocol request specifying the uniform resource identifier of the object manager and the uniform resource identifier of an object associated with the object manager.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the object manager set includes an object access manager that, upon receiving a request to provide an object of the object hierarchy to the process, provides the object of the object hierarchy identified by the location to the process.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the providing the object of the object hierarchy further comprises:

providing a device-specific version of the object to the device executing the process.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the providing the device-specific version of the object further comprises:

identifying at least one capability of the device; and

generating the device-specific version of the object that is compatible with the at least one capability of the device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the device is accessible to the computer over a communication channel; and

the generating the device-specific version of the object further comprises;

formatting the object according to a data interchange format that is compatible with the communication channel.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the object manager set comprises:

at least one object hierarchy object manager that is applicable to the object hierarchy;

at least one object-generic service applicable to the respective objects of the object hierarchy irrespective of the object type of the object; and

at least one object-specific service applicable to the respective objects of the object hierarchy of the selected object type.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the device is accessible to the computer over a communication channel; and

the object manager set comprises a connection management service provider that manages a connection session between the device and the computer over the communication channel.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the object manager set comprises a batching service provider that, upon receiving a request from the device to invoke a first object manager of the object manager set with a first object of the object hierarchy and to invoke a second object manager of the object manager set with a second object of the object hierarchy:

invokes the first object manager with the first object of the object hierarchy; and

invokes the second object manager with the second object of the object hierarchy.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the object manager set comprises an object manager extender that, upon receiving from the process a new object manager that, upon receiving a request from the process specifying the object of the object hierarchy, performs a new action on the object of the object hierarchy, adds the new object manager to the object manager set.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the object hierarchy is exposed to the process according to an object hierarchy location selected from an object hierarchy location set comprising;

a local object hierarchy location for an object hierarchy exposed to the process executing on the computer;

a remote object hierarchy location for an object hierarchy exposed to the process executing on a respective device other than the computer; and

a web object hierarchy location for an object hierarchy exposed by a webserver executing on the computer; and

the presenting the object manager set further comprises;

presenting the object manager set to the process irrespective of the location of the object hierarchy.

13. A system that represents a computing environment of a computer according to an access protocol comprising at least one verb that is applicable to respective objects of the computing environment irrespective of respective object type of the respective objects, wherein the system comprises:

a computer processor executing a process; and

a memory storing;

an object manager set of object managers that respectively perform actions to objects of an object type that are accessible within the computing environment, wherein the object manager set comprises;

a file manager that manages files of the computing environment;

an application manager that manages application objects respectively representing an application executable within the computing environment;

a device object representing a device accessible to the computing environment and accessible through a device manager; and

a user profile object representing a user profile of a user of the computing environment and accessible through a user profile manager; and

instructions that, when executed on the computer processor, provide;

a computing environment presenter that presents the computing environment to the process as an object hierarchy of the objects respectively of the object type and managed by an object manager, the computing environment respectively managed by the object manager, wherein the respective objects of the computing environment are identified by a location of the respective objects with the object hierarchy; and

an action provider that, responsive to receiving a request from the process to invoke a selected verb of the access protocol on a selected object identified by a selected object location;

identifies a selected object type of the object located at the selected object location within the object hierarchy;

identifies, from the object manager set, a selected object manager that manages objects of the selected object type;

identifies, for the selected object manager, a selected action that performs the selected verb of the access protocol to the objects of the selected object type; and

invokes the selected object manager to perform the selected action corresponding to the selected verb on the selected object.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the respective objects are identified by an object accessibility selected from an object accessibility set comprising;

a local object accessibility for the object hierarchy that is exposed to the process executing on the computer;

a remote object accessibility for the object exposed to the process executing on a remote device; and

a web object accessibility for the object hierarchy exposed to the process through a web page provided by a webserver; and

the respective object managers perform the selected action on the selected object according to a respective object accessibility of the selected object.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the location of the respective objects of the object hierarchy further comprises a uniform resource identifier;

the access protocol further comprises hypertext transport protocol; and

the request further comprises a hypertext transport protocol request specifying the selected verb of the hypertext transport protocol and the uniform resource identifier of the selected object.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the performing the selected action further comprises:

responsive to invoking the selected manager to perform the selected action corresponding to the selected verb on the selected object, refraining from retaining a state of the request.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the respective object managers are associated with an object manager location within the object hierarchy; and

presenting the object manager set to the process comprises;

presenting the respective object managers through a representational state transfer interface that, upon receiving a request specifying the object manager location of the selected object manager and the location of the selected object, applying the service to the object of the object hierarchy identified by the location of the selected object without retaining a state of the request.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the object manager location of the respective object managers of the object manager set further comprises a uniform resource identifier;

the access protocol further comprises hypertext transport protocol; and

the request further comprises a hypertext transport protocol request specifying the uniform resource identifier of the selected object manager, the selected verb of the hypertext transport protocol, and the location of the selected object within the object hierarchy.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the respective objects are identified by an object accessibility selected from an object accessibility set comprising;

a local object accessibility for the object hierarchy that is exposed to the process executing on the computer;

a remote object accessibility for the object exposed to the process executing on a remote device; and

a web object accessibility for the object hierarchy exposed to the process through a web page provided by a webserver; and

the respective object managers apply the selected action to the selected object according to a respective object accessibility of the selected object.

20. A webserver hosting a computing environment, comprising:

a computer processor executing a process; and

a memory storing;

an object hierarchy comprising objects of the computing environment that are respectively identified by a uniform resource identifier and that are accessible through a hypertext transfer protocol verb irrespective of an object type of the respective objects;

an object manager set of object managers that respectively perform actions to the objects of the object type that are accessible within the computing environment, wherein the object manager set comprises;

a file manager that manages files of the computing environment;

an application manager that manages application objects respectively representing an application executable within the computing environment;

a device object representing a device accessible to the computing environment and accessible through a device manager; and

a user profile object representing a user profile of a user of the computing environment and accessible through a user profile manager; and

instructions that, when executed on the computer processor, provide;

an action provider that, responsive to receiving a request from the process to invoke a hypertext transfer protocol verb on a selected object identified by a selected uniform resource identifier;

identifies a selected object type of the selected object identified by the selected uniform resource identifier;

identifies, from the object managers, a selected object manager that manages objects of the selected object type;

identifies, for the selected object manager, a selected action that performs the selected hypertext transfer protocol verb to the objects of the selected object type; and

invokes the selected object manager to perform the selected action corresponding to the selected hypertext transfer protocol verb on the selected object.