Application distribution supplying a dedicated application to a terminal from an application deposited by the developer

• US 9,392,051 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2011
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Cabillic, Gilbert, Lesot, Jean-Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheema, Umar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mekonen, Tesfu
• Application Number:
  US13/992,120
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108600A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/64 Retargetable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44542 Retargetable
• 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: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method for providing an online distribution service with an application dedicated to a terminal type. The method includes: identifying a terminal type associated with a terminal connected to the online distribution service, supplying a terminal type identifier; obtaining at least one characteristic of the terminal according to the terminal type; compiling the dedicated application from a generic application according to the at least one terminal type characteristic; and transmitting the dedicated application to the connected terminal.

Claims

1. A method for making an application, dedicated to a type of terminal, available to an online distribution service, wherein the method comprises:

identifying a type of terminal, associated with a terminal connected to said online distribution service, delivering an identifier of type of terminal;

obtaining at least one characteristic of said terminal as a function of said type of terminal, said at least one characteristic including one or more of a version of supported APIs and a version of supported binary code or supported intermediary code;

compiling said application from a generic application as a function of said at least one characteristic of said type of terminal, said compiling comprising;

selecting, from a plurality of compilers, at least one compiler associated with said type of terminal;

selecting, based on said at least one characteristic of said terminal, at least one optimization to be applied to said application, said at least one optimization comprising an intermediate code optimization to make said optimization compatible with supported APIs and compressed to limit a size of said application;

compiling said application using said at least one selected compiler, said at least one selected optimization, and said generic application, wherein said generic application has a source programming language, and wherein the at least one optimization comprises converting the source programming language of said generic application into a binary programming language, intermediate programming language, or another source programming language to reach a terminal that is initially not supported by said online distribution service; and

transmitting said compiled application to said terminal,

wherein said obtaining a characteristic of a terminal and said compiling said application as a function of said at least one characteristic are carried out when a filing of said generic application is made in parallel with a standard operation of said online distribution service.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said obtaining at least one characteristic of said terminal comprises:

obtaining a compilation profile associated with said type of terminal; and

selecting, from said compilation profile, said at least one characteristic of said terminal.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said obtaining a compilation profile associated with said type of terminal comprises:

searching, within a profile data base, for a compilation profile associated with said identifier of type of terminal;

when said searching delivers an existing profile, supplying said compilation profile associated with said type of terminal; and

when said searching does not deliver a profile, supplying a default optimization profile.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said standard operation of said online distribution service comprises a state of waiting for said compiling of said application and directly transmitting said application to a user if said application had previously been compiled.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said obtaining a characteristic of a terminal and said compiling said application as a function of said at least one characteristic are carried out once a new terminal is supported by said online distribution service or once a new dedicated compilation is selected for a given terminal in order to make said application available to a user before said user requests said application from said online distribution service.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one optimization comprises a low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer, wherein said low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer compresses a size of said application.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one optimization comprises prioritizing instructions that when executed by said compiler, consume low energy.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said generic application is comprised of a Dalvik Executable file.

4. A device for making an application, dedicated to a type of terminal, available to an online distribution service, wherein the device comprises:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage device including a computer program product stored thereon; and

a data processor to execute program code instructions of the computer program product to perform the following functions;

identifying a type of terminal, associated with a terminal connected to said online distribution service, delivering an identifier of type of terminal;

obtaining at least one characteristic of said terminal as a function of said type of terminal, said at least one characteristic including one or more of a version of supported APIs and a version of supported binary code or supported intermediary code;

compiling said application from a generic application as a function of said at least one characteristic of said type of terminal, said compiling comprising;

selecting, from a plurality of compilers, at least one compiler associated with said type of terminal;

selecting, based on said at least one characteristic of said terminal, at least one optimization to be applied to said application, said at least one optimization comprising an intermediate code optimization to make said optimization compatible with supported APIs and compressed to limit a size of said application;

compiling said application using said at least one selected compiler, said at least one selected optimization, and said generic application, wherein said generic application has a source programming language, and wherein the at least one optimization comprises converting the source programming language of said generic application into a binary programming language, intermediate programming language, or another source programming language to reach a terminal that is initially not supported by said online distribution service; and

transmitting said compiled application to said terminal,

wherein said obtaining a characteristic of a terminal and said compiling said application as a function of said at least one characteristic are carried out when a filing of said generic application is made in parallel with a standard operation of said online distribution service.

11. The device for making an application of claim 4, wherein said at least one optimization comprises a low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer, wherein said low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer compresses a size of said application.

12. The device for making an application of claim 4, wherein said at least one optimization comprises prioritizing instructions that when executed by said compiler, consume low energy.

13. The device for making an application of claim 4, wherein said generic application is comprised of a Dalvik Executable file.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising a computer program product stored thereon and executable by a data processor, wherein the computer program product comprises program code instructions for executing a method of making an application, dedicated to a type of terminal, available to an online distribution service, when this program is executed by the data processor, wherein the method comprises:

identifying a type of terminal, associated with a terminal connected to said online distribution service, delivering an identifier of type of terminal;

obtaining at least one characteristic of said terminal as a function of said type of terminal, said at least one characteristic including one or more of a version of supported APIs and a version of supported binary code or supported intermediary code;

compiling said application from a generic application as a function of said at least one characteristic of said type of terminal, said compiling comprising;

selecting, from a plurality of compilers, at least one compiler associated with said type of terminal;

selecting, based on said at least one characteristic of said terminal, at least one optimization to be applied to said application, said at least one optimization comprising an intermediate code optimization to make said optimization compatible with supported APIs and compressed to limit a size of said application;

compiling said application using said at least one selected compiler, said at least one selected optimization, and said generic application, wherein said generic application has a source programming language, and wherein the at least one optimization comprises converting the source programming language of said generic application into a binary programming language, intermediate programming language, or another source programming language to reach a terminal that is initially not supported by said online distribution service; and

transmitting said compiled application to said terminal,

wherein said obtaining a characteristic of a terminal and said compiling said application as a function of said at least one characteristic are carried out when a filing of said generic application is made in parallel with a standard operation of said online distribution service.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein said processor comprises multiple memory levels with caches, and wherein said at least one optimization comprises optimizing access to said caches to lower latency during memory access operations.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein said at least one optimization comprises prioritizing instructions that when executed by said compiler, consume low energy.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein said generic application is comprised of a Dalvik Executable file.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein said at least one optimization comprises a low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer, wherein said low level virtual machine bytecode optimizer compresses a size of said application.