Pre-building containers

• US 10,380,081 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2017
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Brady, Kyle Thomas, Gordon, John C., Schultz, Benjamin M., Hajy, Ali, Olugbade, Morakinyo Korede, Pulapaka, Hari R., Bozzay, Paul McAlpin, Smith, Frederick Justus, Iyigun, Mehmet
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Application Number:
  US15/476,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20180285171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• Field of Search: 719318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4887 involving deadlines, e.g. rate based, periodic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

A container for one or more scheduled meeting is pre-built for the meeting prior to the meeting occurring. The container can be built in a variety of manners, including using both static and dynamic techniques. Dynamic techniques for building a container allows a pre-build system to include more pertinent data in the container whereas static techniques reduce computing workload and allow for pre-building containers for unscheduled meetings. A combination of static and dynamic building techniques can be applied using a layer repository. Alternately, a static base layer can be used and customized for scheduled meetings.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more computer hosts, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a meeting in a meeting scheduling system executing on the one or more hosts, the meeting scheduled by the meeting scheduling system to occur at a future time associated with the meeting, the indication comprising a document associated with the meeting and comprising content related to the meeting;

automatically creating a container for the meeting, the container comprising an isolated usage session comprising a process container or virtualized machine, the creating including configuring the container to contain both a program and the document, the program configured to operate on the document, the document provided for incorporation into the container in association with the indication of the meeting, wherein the process container is configured to be executed by a host operating system and is implemented with namespace isolation to provide the program therein with a composed view of shared and isolated parts of the host operating system, and wherein the virtual machine is configured to be executed by the host operating system and comprises virtual devices and a guest operating system configured to execute the program therein;

adding the container to a container store; and

providing the container from the container store to a host responsive to receiving an indication to begin the meeting, the host comprising a virtualization component configured to execute the container and virtualize access of the program, when executing in the container, to resources of the host.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the indication of the meeting is associated with metadata;

parsing the metadata; and

customizing the container based on the parsed metadata.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising customizing the container based on metadata associated with indicia of one or more people associated with the meeting, the customizing comprising applying display settings to the container or activating accessibility settings for the container.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising customizing the container based on the document, the customizing comprising including acquiring a license for the program.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising customizing the container based on the host, the customizing comprising applying to the container a theme determined by the host, applying display settings to the container, or including an application in the container.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the meeting comprises a meeting invitation sent via a calendaring program.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a change associated with the meeting; and

updating the container in the container store based on the indication of the change.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of at least one additional meeting;

building an additional container for the at least one additional meeting; and

adding the additional container to the container store.

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

receive an indication of usage sessions scheduled, and future times respectively associated with the usage sessions;

build a container for each of the respective usage sessions, each container comprising a process container or a virtualized container and containing data relevant to the corresponding usage session, the data including a document associated with the corresponding usage session and an application configured to operate on the document;

add each of the containers to a container store;

retrieve a container for a specific meeting scheduled by a meeting scheduling system; and

provide the container for the specific meeting to a host system comprising a host operating system on the basis of the host system participating in the specific meeting, the host system executing the container for the specific meeting by providing namespace isolation for the container to access a file system of the host operating system and by virtualizing access to memory and a processor of the host system.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9 wherein the containers built for each of the usage sessions are the same.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein some of the containers are customized for a same usage session.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the custom built container is customized based on user data including accessibility settings, frequently used applications, or one or more learned preferences.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the custom built container is customized based on characteristics of the host system, including characteristics determined by one or more sensors of the host system, a location of the host system in relation to one or more additional host systems, or one or more frequent settings.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the custom built container is customized based on data associated with the specific usage sessions, the data including one or more documents associated with the usage session or one or more user profiles associated with the usage session.

15. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon multiple instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive an indication of a meeting scheduled for a future time by a meeting scheduling system, the indication corresponding to a document associated with the meeting and comprising content related to the meeting;

parse metadata associated with the meeting;

build a container for the meeting by, based on the parsed metadata, including in the container the document and a program configured to operate on the document, the container comprising an isolated usage session configured for the corresponding meeting, the container comprising a process container within which the program can execute;

add the container for the meeting to a container store; and

provide, to a host system, the container for the meeting, the host system comprising a host operating system, the host system executing the container for the meeting by providing namespace isolation for the container to access a file system of the host operating system and by virtualizing access to memory and a processor of the host system, wherein the program operates on the document in the container while executing within the container.

16. A computing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to build the container by selecting for addition thereto one or more layers from a layer repository, wherein the selecting is based on the parsed metadata.

17. A computing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to build one or more static layers into the container.

18. A computing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to build the container to include one or more dynamic layers.

19. A computing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

receive an update for the meeting;

parse the update to determine new metadata associated with the meeting; and

update the container for the meeting in the container store.

20. A computing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the metadata is obtained from user profiles associated with the meeting, data associated with the host system, and/or data contained in the indication.