Satisfying application dependencies

• US 9,977,665 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2016
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Babey, Matthew Christopher, Jewart, Eric, Reierson, Kristofer Hellick, Anderson, Angela Mele
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US15/148,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20160328224A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 709220, 709226, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

The dependencies of an application are identified by intercepting application programming interface calls made by an application. A determination is then made at the runtime of the application as to whether the dependencies of the application are present. If the dependencies are not present, a client device upon which the application is executing is configured such that the dependencies are present and are made available only to the authorized application. If the dependencies are present and the application is authorized to interact with the dependencies, the application is permitted to execute.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request to deploy or execute an application at a client device;

determining whether each of one or more dependencies requisite for deploying or executing the application is present at the client device;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying or executing the application is not present, configuring the client device such that the dependencies are present and deploying or executing the application at the client device;

based on deploying or executing the application at the client device, intercepting an application programming interface (API) call from the application, the API call requesting access to a resource;

selecting a copy of the resource associated with the API call;

protecting a new location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource; and

redirecting the API call to the resource stored at the new location.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising prior to deploying or executing the application:

installing the application on a monitoring station;

monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the application to identify the dependencies; and

storing data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising prior to deploying or executing the virtualized application:

executing the virtualized application on the monitoring station;

monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

storing data identifying the dependencies in the dependency analysis database.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the application comprises:

intercepting API calls made by the application during execution; and

inspecting parameters contained in the API calls to identify the dependencies.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application, storing data indicating that the one or more dependencies that is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application will need to be present at a runtime of the application.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application comprises querying a registry provided by the operating system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application comprises querying an internal mapping table that matches API calls to dependencies.

8. A computer-readable hardware storage device having computer executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a request to deploy or execute a virtualized application at a client device;

based on a determination that each of one or more dependencies required to deploy or execute the virtualized application is not present, configure the client device such that the dependencies are present and, in response to configuring the client device, deploy or execute the virtualized application at the client device;

upon deploying or executing the virtualized application at the client device, protecting a new location with an access control list (ACL) associated with a resource intercept intercepted from an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application.

9. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 8, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

redirecting the API call to the resource stored at the new location.

10. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 8, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

install the virtualized application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

package data identifying the dependencies in an application package configured to be streamed to the client device.

11. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 10, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

execute the virtualized application installed on the monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

package data identifying the dependencies in the application package configured to be streamed to the client device.

12. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 11, wherein monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies comprises:

intercepting API calls made by the virtualized application during execution; and

inspecting parameters contained in the API calls to identify the dependencies.

13. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 12, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application, store data indicating that the one or more dependencies that are added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application will need to be present at a runtime of the virtualized application.

14. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 13, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application comprises querying a registry provided by the operating system.

15. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 13, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation, execution, or deployment of the application comprises querying a table that maps API calls to dependencies.

16. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable hardware storage medium in communication with the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

install and execute a virtualized application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation and execution of the virtualized application, including intercepting application programming interface (API) calls, to identify from the intercepted API calls one or more dependencies of the virtualized application that are requisite for deploying or executing the virtualized application;

store data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database;

receive a request to deploy or execute a virtualized application at a client device;

in response to the request, determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is present at the client device including querying the data within the dependency analysis database to determine the one or more dependencies that need to be present at a runtime of the application;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies are not present at the client device, configure the client device such that each of the one or more dependencies is present; and

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying or executing the virtualized application is present, deploy or execute the virtualized application at the client device.

17. The system of claim 16, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

upon deploying or executing the virtualized application at the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource on the client device;

selecting a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected;

protecting a new location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource; and

redirecting the API call to the resource stored at the new location.

18. A computer-readable hardware storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

install and execute a virtualized application on a monitoring station at a client device;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation and execution of the virtualized application to identify one or more dependencies of the virtualized application that are requisite for deploying or executing the virtualized application, wherein monitoring of the changes includes intercepting and inspected application programming interface (API) calls made by the application during execution;

store data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database;

determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation and execution of the application including performing either or both of (i) querying a registry provided by an operating system or (ii) querying an internal mapping table that matches API calls to dependencies;

receive a request to deploy or execute a virtualized application at the client device;

in response to the request, determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is present at the client device using the data;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies are not present at the client device, configure the client device such that each of the one or more dependencies is present.

19. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 18, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

upon deploying or executing the virtualized application at the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource on the client device;

selecting a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected;

protecting a new location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource; and

redirecting the API call to the resource at the new location.

20. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 18, wherein the one or more dependencies comprise configuration settings, hardware components, network connections, access privileges, a presence of a specific file in a specific location, and application resources.

21. The computer-readable hardware storage device of claim 18, wherein the one or more dependencies comprise a location of a user in relation to a predetermined location.