Application management within deployable object hierarchy

• US 9,753,712 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2008
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• 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: Amiga, Ori, Macintyre, John, Shukla, Dharma, Zhang, Junfeng
• Primary Examiner(s): APONTE, FRANCISCO JAVIER
• Application Number:
  US12/052,550
• Publication Number:
  US 20090241104A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,456 Days
• Field of Search: 717101-178, 709203, 726 4, 713182, 719315-330, 718106, 370389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

The management of applications in a computing environment often involves a significant number of computing operations, such as acquiring the application, deploying data objects in various locations, and configuring the application with respect to the deployed device. Conventional computing environments may provide inadequate support throughout a typical application life cycle, especially for a computing environment distributed across many devices. Instead, the computing environment may be represented in a deployable object hierarchy that may be distributed to various devices. An application management service may therefore be provided to install representations of the application in the object hierarchy, and to support many other aspects of the application life cycle, such as application discovery, sharing, updating, and removal. The devices may therefore provide the applications of the computing environment to the user in a consistent manner with reduced manual management among the devices comprising the computing mesh.

Claims

1. A method of managing a deployment of applications in an object hierarchy representing a computing environment upon at least one device, the method comprising:

for the devices presenting the computing environment, creating in the object hierarchy a representation of the device;

upon receiving a request to deploy an application to a device;

if the object hierarchy does not include the application;

acquiring at least two application versions of the application from an application store;

inserting the application including the at least two application versions and at least two application configurations into the object hierarchy;

creating in the object hierarchy an association between the application, the representation of the device, a selected application version from the at least two application versions, and a selected application configuration from the at least two application configurations, the selected application version and the selected application configuration to be used by the device for the application; and

synchronizing with the at least one device at least one object of the object hierarchy including the application, the selected application version, the selected application configuration, and the association of the application with the representation of the device and the selected application configuration.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon receiving an application query from a user;

selecting applications satisfying the application query, and

presenting selected applications to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

upon receiving a request to share the application with a user, sharing the application with the user.

4. The method of claim 1:

respective devices comprising a device capability set;

respective application configurations for the application associated with at least one application capability; and

the method further comprising;

selecting for the device the selected application configuration of the application having application capabilities satisfied by the device capability set of the device.

5. The method of claim 1:

respective devices comprising a device capability set;

respective application versions for the application associated with at least one application capability; and

the method further comprising;

selecting for the device the selected application version of the application having application capabilities satisfied by the device capability set of the device.

6. A system, implemented on a computer having a memory and a processor and having access to an application store, for managing the deployment of at least one application managed by an application store to an object hierarchy representing a computing environment upon at least one device, the system comprising:

an application acquisition component configured to;

upon receiving a request to install an application in the computing environment;

if the object hierarchy does not include the application;

acquire at least two application versions of the application from the application store, and

insert the application including the at least two application versions and at least two application configurations into the object hierarchy;

an application mapping component configured to;

for the devices presenting the computing environment, create in the object hierarchy a representation of the device; and

upon receiving a request to install an application on at least one device, create in the object hierarchy an association of the device with the application, a selected application version from the at least two application versions, and a selected application configuration from the at least two application configurations, the selected application version and the selected application configuration to be used by the device for the application; and

an application deployment component configured to synchronize with the at least one device the object hierarchy including the application, the selected application version, the selected application configuration, and the association of the application with the representation of the device and the selected application configuration,

respective components comprising instructions stored in the memory of the computer and executable on the processor of the computer.

7. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an object hierarchy store configured to store the object hierarchy, and

an object hierarchy transmission component configured to synchronize with the at least one device at least one object of the object hierarchy including the application and at least one association of the application with a representation of a device.

8. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application discovery component configured to;

receive from a user an application query,

select applications satisfying the application query, and

present selected applications to the user.

9. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to:

present an application license to a user through the device, and

upon receiving an acceptance of the application license from the user, record the acceptance of the application license.

10. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to broker an acquisition transaction with a user of the at least one device.

11. The system of claim 6, the application acquisition component configured to generate a user account representing a user of the application.

12. The system of claim 6, the deploying comprising:

selecting the selected application configuration for the application when invoked by a user of the device.

13. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application launching component configured to launch the application on the at least one device.

14. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application sharing component configured to;

receive a request to share the application with a user, and

upon receiving the request to share the application, sharing the application with the user.

15. The system of claim 14, the application sharing component configured to share with the user one object of the object hierarchy comprising at least one of:

the application, an application session, an application configuration, and at least one data object generated by the application.

16. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application updating component configured to update the application.

17. The system of claim 16, the application updating component configured to update at least one application resource in the object hierarchy.

18. The system of claim 6, comprising:

an application revocation component configured to revoke the application.

19. The method of claim 17:

the application resource comprising at least two application resource versions respectively associated with an application version of the application; and

the application updating component configured to update the application resource in the object hierarchy by;

upon receiving the at least two application resource versions, store the at least two application resource versions in the object hierarchy; and

for the respective at least one devices, synchronize with the device a selected application resource version among the at least two application resource versions that is associated with the application resource version of the application that is associated with the device.

20. A computer-readable memory device storing instructions that, when executed on a processor of a device, deploy applications into an object hierarchy representing a computing environment, by:

for the devices presenting the computing environment, creating in the object hierarchy a representation of the device;

upon receiving a request to deploy an application to a device;

if the object hierarchy does not include the application;

acquiring at least two application versions of the application from an application store;

inserting the application including the at least two application versions and at least two application configurations into the object hierarchy;

creating in the object hierarchy an association between the application, the representation of the device, a selected application version from the at least two application versions, and a selected application configuration from the at least two application configurations, the selected application version and the selected application configuration to be used by the device for the application; and

synchronizing with the at least one device at least one object of the object hierarchy including the application, the selected application version, the selected application configuration, and the association of the application with the representation of the device and the selected application configuration.