Bundle package generation

• US 9,766,870 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2013
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Phillip, Sheehan, John Michael, Leet, Simon, Wang, Letao, Sheth, Sarjana, Salameh, Jason, Fortune, Jr., Erik
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US13/906,154
• Publication Number:
  US 20140359604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 717177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for generating a bundle package, digitally signing the bundle package, selectively disturbing the bundle package, and/or indexing one or more resource packages retrieved from the bundle package. That is, a bundle package (e.g., an application or game bundle package) comprises one or more app packages comprising application code configured to execute on various computing environments (e.g., operating systems, processors, etc.). The bundle package may comprise one or more resource packages comprising supplemental data used to provide optional user experience functionality for the application (e.g., French language support, high resolution textures, a gaming pad support, etc.). In this way, a client device may selectively download portions of the bundle package that may be relevant, which may mitigate download bandwidth, storage space, or resources otherwise used to obtain unnecessary portions of the bundle package (e.g., a tablet device may merely download low resolution textures).

Claims

1. A method for generating a bundle package for an application, the method being performed by one or more processors of a computer system, the method comprising:

prior to receiving a bundle acquisition request to download the bundle package for the application;

identifying assets of the application, the application'"'"'s assets each including an assigned asset label, wherein asset label assignments are at least partially based on an identified relationship between

     1) the application'"'"'s assets and

     2) characteristics of previously known client devices, whereby the application'"'"'s assets are retrievable by performing a search on the asset labels using client device characteristic information;

identifying one or more app packages for inclusion within the bundle package;

identifying one or more resource packages for inclusion within the bundle package, the one or more resource packages being associated with the application'"'"'s assets such that the one or more resource packages are retrievable by performing a different search on the asset labels, wherein the one or more resource packages are identified independently of the bundle acquisition request, and wherein each of the one or more resource packages comprises a resource package index that describes a content of a corresponding one resource package; and

generating the bundle package to comprise the one or more app packages and the one or more resource packages, the bundle package comprising a first app package and a first resource package, the first app package comprising first application code configured to execute on a first computing environment, the first resource package comprising first supplemental data used to provide first optional user experience functionality for the application, the first resource package further comprising a first resource package index that describes the first supplemental data.

2. The method of claim 1, the bundle package comprising a second app package that comprises second application code configured to execute on a second computing environment.

3. The method of claim 1, the bundle package comprising a second resource package that comprises second supplemental data used to provide second optional user experience functionality for the application, the second resource package further comprising a second resource package index that describes the second supplemental data.

4. The method of claim 1, the one or more resource packages comprising optional language user experience functionality for the application.

5. The method of claim 1, the one or more resource packages comprising optional display quality user experience functionality for the application.

6. The method of claim 1, the first resource package comprising at least one of first resolution data, first screen scale data, or first multimedia application programming interface (API) version data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

exposing portions of the bundle package for selective download through an app marketplace, the one or more resource packages exposed as optional downloads for the application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of the bundle package comprises:

generating a bundle manifest for inclusion within the bundle package, the bundle manifest comprising one or more app descriptions for the one or more app packages and one or more resource descriptions for the one or more resource packages.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the one or more resource packages comprises:

parsing the first app package to identify a first set of optional data within the first app package;

extracting the first set of optional data from the first app package; and

generating the first resource package based upon the first set of optional data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more app packages are provided by an application developer, and wherein the method further comprises:

exposing a resource package outsourcing interface to the application developer;

receiving a resource package creation request from the application developer;

exposing the resource package creation request to a plurality of resource package developers through the resource package outsourcing interface;

receiving one or more resource package creation bids through the resource package outsourcing interface; and

responsive to receiving a selection of a first resource package creation bid from the application developer, facilitating a first resource package creation transaction between the application developer and a first resource package developer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the identification of the one or more resource packages comprises:

receiving the first resource package from the first resource package developer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the bundle acquisition request from a client device, the bundle acquisition request specifying the first app package; and

selectively providing the first app package, but not the first resource package, from the bundle package to the client device for installation of the application.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the bundle package comprises a second resource package, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the bundle acquisition request from a client device, the bundle acquisition request specifying the first app package and the second resource package; and

selectively providing the first app package and the second resource package, but not the first resource package, from the bundle package to the client device for installation of the application.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the bundle acquisition request from a client device, the bundle acquisition request specifying the first app package and a subset of resource packages comprised within the bundle package, the subset of resource packages specifying at least some but fewer than all of the one or more resource packages within the bundle package; and

selectively providing the first app package and the subset of resource packages from the bundle package to the client device for installation of the application.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a bundle update for the bundle package, the bundle update comprising a new resource package for inclusion within the bundle package;

updating the bundle package to comprise the new resource package; and

updating a bundle manifest, within the bundle package, to specify that the new resource package is available for optional retrieval.

16. The method of claim 15, the bundle package certified by an app marketplace certification process, and the method further comprising:

responsive to the updating the bundle package, certifying the new resource package, but not re-certifying the bundle package.

17. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions being executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to generate a downloadable bundle package for an application by causing the computer system to

prior to receiving a bundle acquisition request to download the bundle package for the application;

identify assets of the application, the application'"'"'s assets each including an assigned asset label, wherein asset label assignments are at least partially based on an identified relationship between

     1) the application'"'"'s assets and

     2) characteristics of previously known client devices, whereby the application'"'"'s assets are retrievable by performing a search on the asset labels using client device characteristic information,

identify one or more app packages for inclusion within the bundle package;

identify one or more resource packages for inclusion within the bundle package, the one or more resource packages being associated with the application'"'"'s assets such that the one or more resource packages are retrievable by performing a different search on the asset labels, wherein the one or more resource packages are identified independently of the bundle acquisition request, and wherein each of the one or more resource packages comprises a resource package index that describes a content of a corresponding one resource package; and

generate the bundle package to comprise the one or more app packages and the one or more resource packages, the bundle package comprising a first app package and a first resource package, the first app package comprising first application code configured to execute on a first computing environment, the first resource package comprising first supplemental data used to provide first optional user experience functionality for the application, the first resource package further comprising a first resource package index that describes the first supplemental data.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein execution of the computer-executable instructions further causes the computer system to:

receive the bundle acquisition request from a client device, the bundle acquisition request specifying the first app package and a subset of resource packages that are included with the bundle package, the subset of resource packages including at least some, but fewer than all, of the one or more resource packages within the bundle package; and

selectively provide the first app package and the subset of resource packages from the bundle package to the client device for installation of the application.

21. The computer system of claim 17, wherein each resource package index is mergeable with another resource package index to create a merged resource package index.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the bundle package further includes a second resource package with a corresponding second resource package index, and wherein a merge between the first resource package index and the second resource package index occurs while the first resource package and the second resource package are being deployed to a client device.

23. The computer system of claim 17, wherein execution of the computer-executable instructions further causes the computer system to:

independently place a digital signature on the bundle package;

independently place the digital signature on the one or more app packages; and

independently place the digital signature on the one or more resource packages,

whereby the independently digitally signed one or more app packages and the independently digitally signed one or more resources packages are included within the independently digitally signed bundle package.

19. One or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions being executable by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to generate a downloadable bundle package for an application by at least causing the computer system to:

identify assets of the application, the application'"'"'s assets each including an assigned asset label, wherein asset label assignments are at least partially based on an identified relationship between

     1) the application'"'"'s assets and

     2) characteristics of previously known client devices, whereby the application'"'"'s assets are retrievable by performing a search on the asset labels using client device characteristic information,

receive a bundle acquisition request from a client device, the bundle acquisition request specifying a bundle package, a first app package, and one or more referenced resource packages in the same bundle acquisition request, wherein each of the one or more referenced resource packages comprises a resource package index that describes a content of a corresponding one resource package, and wherein the one or more referenced resource packages are associated with the application'"'"'s assets such that the one or more references resources packages are retrievable by performing a different search on the asset labels;

identify the bundle package based upon the bundle acquisition request, the bundle package comprising the first app package, the one or more referenced resource packages, and one or more non-referenced resource packages that are not specified by the bundle acquisition request; and

selectively provide the first app package and the one or more referenced resource packages, but not the one or more non-referenced resource packages, to the client device for installation of an application represented by the bundle package.

20. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 19, wherein the bundle package includes the following:

a first referenced resource package of the one or more referenced resource packages corresponding to at least one of first language user experience data, first resolution data, first screen scale data, or first multimedia application programming interface (API) version data; and

a first non-referenced resource package of the one or more non-referenced resource packages corresponding to at least one of second language user experience data, second resolution data, second screen scale data, or second multimedia API version data.