Application activation framework

• US 9,519,511 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Oliver, Daniel J., Betz, Benjamin A., Guzak, Christopher J., Ivanovic, Relja, Krishnan-Chittur, Ramaswamy, Paddock, Brandon H.
• Primary Examiner(s): DAO, TUAN C.
• Application Number:
  US14/717,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20150286499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system

Abstract

Techniques for application activation are described herein. An operating system (OS) can be configured to incorporate various extension points that are serviceable through contracts defining individual invocations of extensible functionality. The extensible functionality is integrated as part of the OS and controlled by the OS in a centralized manner. However, the specific implementations of the extensible functionally are offloaded to applications using the contracts. For example, the OS can include or otherwise make use of a centralized application activation component that employs an object-oriented approach to invoke applications to perform particular contracts. The application activation component can pass information describing a particular contract to activate a designated application and enable the application to service the contract in the manner specified by the OS. In this way, the manner in which contracts are handled by application code can be managed and coordinated through a centralized application activation component.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to facilitate an integration of one or more applications with an operating system, and further to cause the computer system to perform at least the following;

identify one or more extensible functionalities of an operating system, wherein each of the one or more extensible functionalities is an integrated functionality of the operating system and is controllable at least by the operating system;

notify the operating system that at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system is serviceable by an application, wherein the notification is communicated to the operating system through one or more entry points of the application;

activate the application to service the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system, wherein the application services the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system according to a contract received from the operating system, the contract being received by the application through at least one of the one or more entry points;

obtain a contract object through at least one of the one or more entry points of the application, wherein the contract object identifies the contract and specifies how the application is to fulfill the contract;

perform processing specified by the contract object to fulfill the contract; and

communicate results of the processing to the operating system.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the notification is performed upon installation of the application.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the notification is performed upon a first execution of the application.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the activation occurs through a runtime platform associated with the application.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the activation occurs through direct communication between the operating system and at least one of the one or more entry points of the application.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the contract object includes window creation parameters to control creation of a window for the application to service the contract, the window creation parameters including at least the following:

parameters to designate timing for creation of the window, a placement of the window, and visual aspects of the window.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the contract object includes one or more of the following:

activation settings configured to control initialization of the application, a contract identifier to identify the contract, or contract details to control the service, by the application, of the at least one of the one or more extension points of the operating system.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the results comprise an indication of whether the contract was completed successfully.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the results further comprise at least one of the following:

data generated from performing the processing, files generated from performing the processing, or links generated from performing the processing.

10. A method, implemented at a computer system that includes one or more processors, for facilitating an integration of one or more applications with an operating system, the method comprising:

identifying one or more extensible functionalities of an operating system, wherein each of the one or more extensible functionalities is an integrated functionality of the operating system and is controllable at least by the operating system;

notifying an operating system that at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system is serviceable by an application, wherein the notification is communicated to the operating system through one or more entry points of the application;

activating the application to service the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system, wherein the application services the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system according to a contract received from the operating system, the contract being received by the application through at least one of the one or more entry points;

obtaining a contract object through at least one of the one or more entry points of the application, wherein the contract object identifies the contract and specifies how the application is to fulfill the contract;

performing processing specified by the contract object to fulfill the contract;

responsive to a determination that the contract was not successfully fulfilled, communicating to the operating system that the contract was not successfully fulfilled and initiating a retry of the processing specified by the contract; and

responsive to the retry of the processing specified by the contract being successful, communicating results of the processing to the operating system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the contract object includes window creation parameters to control creation of a window for the application to service the contract, the window creation parameters including one or more of the following:

parameters to designate timing for creation of the window, a placement of the window, or visual aspects of the window.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the contract object includes one or more of the following:

activation settings configured to control initialization of the application, a contract identifier to identify the contract, or contract details to control the service, by the application, of the at least one of the one or more extension points of the operating system.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the contract object is configured according to a platform agnostic, language independent communication protocol that is compatible with multiple runtime platforms of the computing device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the results comprise an indication of whether the contract was completed successfully.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the results further comprise one or more of the following:

data generated from performing the processing, files generated from performing the processing, or links generated from performing the processing.

16. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computing device to implement an application activation component to provide a common pathway for application activation across different applications and runtime platforms of the computing device, and further to cause the computing device to perform at least the following;

identify one or more extensible functionalities of an operating system of the computing device, wherein each of the one or more extensible functionalities is an integrated functionality of the operating system and is controllable at least by the operating system;

implement an object-oriented protocol to activate one or more applications to service the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system;

obtain a request to service at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system; and

activate an application to service the request, wherein the activation includes the following;

selecting the application from among multiple applications that are each registered with the operating system to service the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system; and

communicating an object to an entry point of the application, wherein the entry point is designated for the at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system, and wherein the object is defined in accordance with the object-oriented protocol and configured to cause the entry point to initiate processing by the application to service the requested at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein:

the application is configured to execute within a corresponding runtime platform;

the runtime platform is configured to handle initialization of the application; and

the application is configured to handle the service of the requested at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system using respective information communicated as part of the object.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the object includes activation settings to control the initialization of the application by the runtime platform and additional information describing details for the service of the requested at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system that is passed through to the application by the entry point.

19. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the contract object includes one or more window creation parameters to control window creation by the application to the service of the requested at least one of the one or more extensible functionalities of the operating system.

20. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the application activation component is provided as an integrated component of the operating system of the computing device.