Power efficient brokered communication supporting notification blocking

• US 9,760,413 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2016
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Woley, Kevin Michael, Srour, Benjamin Salim, Anand, Gaurav S., Kuchta, Nathan J., Stewart, Benjamin D. L., Skarbovsky, Evgeny, Regan, Donovan P., Joy, George, Louie, Darren
• Primary Examiner(s): RONI, SYED A
• Application Number:
  US15/082,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20160210178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 533 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A notification service receives messages including various data from application services, and provides notifications including that data to the appropriate computing devices. Each computing device includes a notification system that receives notifications from the notification service and provides those notifications to the appropriate applications on the computing device. If an application is not allowed to run on a computing device, the notification system on the computing device provides an indication to the notification service to block notifications for the application on the computing device. The notification service ceases providing notifications to a computing device targeting applications for which notifications are blocked on the computing device until an indication is received from the computing device to unblock notifications for the application.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a notification service, the method comprising:

maintaining, while there is a persistent communication connection between a computing device and the notification service, information that identifies statuses for multiple applications on the computing device based at least in part on previously received indications from the computing device of ones of the multiple applications for which notifications are blocked, at least one of the previously received indications comprising an indication to block notifications for one application of the multiple applications;

maintaining the persistent communication connection between the computing device and the notification server subsequent to the previously received indications having been received;

providing to the computing device over the persistent communication connection, a notification targeting the one application in response to determining that notifications for the one application on the computing device are not blocked; and

maintaining a store of information indicating whether notifications for the one application on the computing device are blocked; and

allowing the information in the store to be rebuilt if deleted from the store.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from an application service, a message targeting the one application on the computing device;

determining, based at least in part on a status for the one application, whether notifications for the one application on the computing device are blocked; and

ignoring the message in response to determining that notifications for the one application on the computing device are blocked.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, another one of the previously received indications comprising an indication, received from the computing device, that all of the multiple applications that are not permitted to run as background applications are to be blocked.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, another one of the previously received indications indicating that notifications for the one application on the computing device are to be blocked due to the one application not being allowed to run on the computing device.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, another one of the previously received indications indicating that notifications for the one application on the computing device are to be unblocked due to the one application running on the computing device or being permitted to run as a background application on the computing device.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, the providing further comprising providing to the computing device, over the persistent communication connection, multiple notifications targeting the multiple applications, the multiple notifications including different data received from different ones of multiple application services communicated to the notification service, the notification service being configured to receive messages from the multiple application services and generate the multiple notifications using a push model or a polling model, the providing to the computing device the multiple notifications targeting the multiple applications comprising passing the different data in the messages to the computing device without altering the data.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from an application service, a message targeting an additional application on the computing device;

determining, based at least in part on a previously received indication from the computing device of whether notifications for the additional application are not blocked, whether notifications for the additional application on the computing device are not blocked; and

providing, to the computing device, an additional notification targeting the additional application and including data from the message only in response to determining that notifications for the additional application on the computing device are not blocked.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the indication to block notifications for the one application includes a command portion indicating to block notifications and a target identifier portion identifying the one application.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more processors of a first computing device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a notification service implemented on a second computing device separate from the first computing device, a notification targeting one application of multiple applications on the first computing device, the notification service maintaining, while there is a persistent communication connection between the first computing device and the notification service, information that identifies statuses for the multiple applications on the first computing device based at least in part on previously received indications from the first computing device of ones of the multiple applications for which notifications are blocked and ones of the multiple applications for which notifications are unblocked;

determine whether the one application is allowed to run on the first computing device;

send over the persistent communication connection, in response to determining that the one application is not allowed to run on the first computing device, a blocked indication to the notification service indicating that notifications targeting the one application on the first computing device are not to be sent to the first computing device, the blocked indication including a command portion indicating to block notifications and a target identifier portion identifying the one application; and

maintain the persistent communication connection between the first computing device and the notification service subsequent to the blocked indication being sent to the notification service.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to:

determine, after returning the blocked indication to the notification service, that notifications for the one application are to be sent to the first computing device; and

send an unblocked indication to the notification service indicating that notifications targeting the one application are to be sent to the first computing device.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 10, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to determine, in response to the one application running on the first computing device, that notifications for the one application are to be sent to the first computing device.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to determine that the one application is allowed to run if the one application is currently running.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to determine that the one application is allowed to run if the one application is not currently running but is permitted to run as a background application on the first computing device.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to determine that the one application is not allowed to run if the one application is not running and is not permitted to run as a background application on the first computing device.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to receive the notification over the persistent communication connection as multiple additional notifications targeting multiple additional ones of the multiple applications.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to send, in response to determining that all of the multiple applications that are not permitted to run as background applications on the first computing device are to be blocked, an indication to block all of the multiple applications that are not permitted to run as background applications on the first computing device.

17. A first computing device, comprising at least a memory configured to store executable instructions for a brokered communication notification system and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions for the brokered communication notification system that is configured to:

receive, from a notification service implemented on a second computing device, a notification targeting one application of multiple applications on the first computing device, the notification service maintaining, while there is a persistent communication connection between the first computing device and the notification service, information that identifies statuses for the multiple applications on the first computing device, based at least in part on previously received indications from the first computing device of ones of the multiple applications for which notifications are blocked and ones of the multiple applications for which notifications are unblocked, the previously received indications received over the persistent communication connection, one of the previously received indications comprising an indication, received from the first computing device, to block notifications for the one application, the one previously received indication having been received in response to the one application not running on the computing device and the one application not being permitted to run as a background application on the computing device;

determine, at the first computing device, whether the one application is allowed to run on the first computing device, the one application being allowed to run on the first computing device if the one application is running or is permitted to run as a background application on the first computing device, and the one application not being allowed to run on the first computing device if the one application is not running and is not permitted to run as a background application on the first computing device;

send over the persistent communication connection, in response to determining that the one application is not allowed to run on the first computing device, a blocked indication to the notification service indicating that notifications targeting the one application are not to be sent to the first computing device, the blocked indication including a command portion indicating to block notifications and a target identifier portion identifying the one application; and

maintain the persistent communication connection between the first computing device and the notification service subsequent to the blocked indication being sent to the notification service.

18. A first computing device as recited in claim 17, the brokered communication notification system is further configured to determine, in response to the one application running on the first computing device, that notifications for the one application are to be sent to the first computing device.

19. A first computing device as recited in claim 17, the brokered communication notification system is further configured to:

run the one application in response to determining that the one application is allowed to run on the first computing device; and

provide, in response to determining that the one application is allowed to run on the first computing device, the notification to the one application.

20. A first computing device as recited in claim 17, the brokered communication notification system is further configured to:

send over the persistent communication connection, in response to determining that the one application is allowed to run on the first computing device, an unblocked indication to the notification service indicating that notifications targeting the one application are to be sent to the first computing device.