Message processing engine

• US 9,489,190 B1
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ebert, Robert Franklin, Roy, Tapas Kanti, Bhattacharya, Arindam, Wang, Fei, Spivak, Maxim
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam, Tuan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zheng
• Application Number:
  US14/030,078
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45508 Runtime interpretation or emulation, e g. emulator loops, bytecode interpretation

Abstract

Techniques are described for updating applications installed on devices. The applications may include native applications having a web view component to handle interpreted language instructions. The applications may also include web applications executable within a browser. A message may be sent to a computing device, the message including update information specifying one or more updates to the state or the features of an application. The update information may be described using interpreted language instructions. To handle the updates to an application in instances when the application is inactive, a stand-alone interpreter engine may be employed instead of the web view component or instead of the interpreter engine included in a browser. Use of the stand-alone interpreter engine may mitigate possible performance effects or intrusive user interface elements from launching the web view component or the browser-based interpreter engine to perform update operations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a message identifying an application that is executable on the computing device, the message including update information to update at least one of a runtime state or a feature of the application, the update information described using an interpreted programming language, the application including a web view component that is embedded in the application to interpret the interpreted programming language;

determining an execution status of the application on the computing device;

if the execution status indicates that the application is active, such that the web view component of the application is executing, employing the web view component to update the application based on the update information; and

if the execution status indicates that the application is inactive, such that the application is asleep or not executing, employing an interpreter engine to update the application based on the update information, the interpreter engine being executable separately from the application and operative to interpret the interpreted programming language, the interpreter engine being executable within a smaller portion of memory on the computing device than the web view component, the interpreter engine consuming less processing capacity of the computing device than the web view component, and the interpreter engine including a smaller feature set than the web view component, the employing of the interpreter engine being to mitigate performance degradation incurred on the computing device by employing the web view component to update the application.

2. The method of claim 1, the web view component being at least one of a WebView class or a UIWebView class compiled into the application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the interpreter engine is not currently executing on the computing device; and

executing the interpreter engine to update the application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to execute the application;

determining that the interpreter engine is being employed to update the application;

denying the request to execute the application, to prevent the application and the web view component from executing while the interpreter engine is updating the application; and

providing to the application an indication that the updating is complete, the indication enabling subsequent execution of the application.

5. A system, comprising:

at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions, including;

an application;

a first interpreter engine that is executable with the application and that is operative to interpret an interpreted programming language; and

a second interpreter engine that is executable separately from the application and that is operative to interpret the interpreted programming language, the second interpreter engine being executable within a smaller portion of the at least one memory than the first interpreter engine; and

at least one processor in communication with the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive a message that identifies the application, the message including update information to update at least one of a state or a feature of the application, the update information described at least partly using the interpreted programming language;

determine an execution status of the application indicates that the application is inactive, such that the application is asleep or not executing;

employ the second interpreter engine to update the application based on the update information;

receive a request to execute the application;

determine that the second interpreter engine is being employed to update the application; and

deny the request to execute the application.

6. The system of claim 5, the at least one processor further configured to:

determine that the application is active; and

employ the first interpreter engine to update the application based on the update information included in the message.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the first interpreter engine is a web view component embedded in the application.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the at least one memory further stores a browser module;

the first interpreter engine is a component of the browser module; and

the application is a web application configured to execute within the browser module.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the message is described at least partly using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

10. The system of claim 5 the at least one processor further configured to:

after completion of the updating of the application using the second interpreter engine, provide to the first interpreter engine an indication of the completion of the updating, the indication enabling subsequent execution of the first interpreter engine.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the state of the application includes data stored in at least one of an object or a variable associated with the application.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the feature of the application includes at least one of a function of the application, a user interface element of the application, a design feature of the application, code of the application, or a version of the application.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the interpreted programming language is a scripting language.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, instruct the at least one processor to perform actions comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a message identifying an application that is executable on the computing device, the message including update information to update the application, the update information described at least partly using an interpreted programming language, the computing device including;

a first interpreter engine that is executable with the application and that is operative to interpret the interpreted programming language; and

a second interpreter engine that is executable separately from the application and that is operative to interpret the interpreted programming language, the second interpreter engine having fewer features than the first interpreter engine;

determining an execution status of the application on the computing device, the execution status indicating that the application is inactive;

employing the second interpreter engine to update the application based on the update information;

receiving a request to execute the application;

determining that the second interpreter engine is being employed to update the application; and

denying the request to execute the application.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, the execution status indicating that the application is inactive including one or more of:

the execution status indicating that the application is executing and asleep;

or

the execution status indicating that the application is not executing.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein:

the update information is configured to update a state of the application; and

the state of the application includes data stored in at least one of an object or a variable associated with the application.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the first interpreter engine is a web view component compiled into the application.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein:

the first interpreter engine is a component of a browser module that is executable on the computing device; and

the application is a web application configured to execute within the browser module.