ONLINE AND OFFLINE APPLICATIONS

• US 20090248695A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Augustine, Matthew S., Ozzie, Jack E., Moromisato, George P., Ozzie, Raymond E., Narayanan, Raman, Liu, Ming, Shukla, Dharma K., Amiga, Ori M., Ghanaie-Sichanie, Arash
• Granted Patent: US 9,003,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

Systems and methods for implementing online and offline applications are described. Such systems and methods may in some cases provide the same programming interface, regardless of whether the application is online or offline. Such systems and methods may also or instead in some cases provide additional or other possible capabilities, including installation without elevated privileges, simplified data synchronization, sharing of applications and application data, access to data from other applications, and richer client functionality than may be provided by an application such as a web browser.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a local device, an application user interface associated with an application;

interacting with the application user interface;

as a result of the interacting, determining contents of a web request;

determining an address to which the web request will be sent, wherein the address includes an address host portion and an address additional data portion, wherein the address identifies a web server that is either a local web server that is on the local device or a remote web server that is on a remote device, and wherein the address host portion of the address is different depending on whether the web server is the local web server or the remote web server; and

issuing the web request to the local web server or the remote web server using the address, wherein the contents of the web request do not change and at least a portion of the address additional data portion does not change when the web request is sent to the local web server or the remote web server, and wherein the web request can be issued to the local web server and received by the local web server when either the local device is not capable of connecting to the remote device or when it is indicated that the local device should not connect to the remote device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the application user interface and at least a portion of a set of computer-executable instructions that define at least a portion of the application'"'"'s behavior exist on the local device, and wherein the web server is located on the local device and provides the application user interface, and further comprising:

receiving the web request at the web server on the local device;

updating a data store on the local device with a change to application data associated with the application in response to the receiving of the web request; and

synchronizing the change to application data with a data store on a second remote device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the web server resides on the local device and wherein installing the web server does not require elevated privileges on the local device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a data store as a result of receiving the web request, wherein the data store is located on the local device when the web server is located on the local device and wherein the data store is located on a second remote device when the web server is located on the remote device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the web server is located on the remote device, the application comprises at least one HTML page and at least one JavaScript function included in or referenced by the HTML page, and the application is displayed by a web browser on the local device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the web server is associated with an operating environment that includes the web server and a data store, and wherein the operating environment is capable of persisting data received by the web server using the data store.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining the application user interface;

defining application behavior with computer-executable instructions, wherein at least a portion of the application behavior causes the issuing of the web request to the web server;

defining a manifest that references one or more computer-readable representations of the application user interface and of the computer-executable instructions that define the application behavior, and that provides configuration settings associated with the application; and

making the application available for use.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

indicating a desire to use the application;

providing identification information that identifies a user;

viewing information describing the application; and

confirming the desire to use the application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

provisioning the application for use when a user has indicated a desire to use the application, by associating the application with the user and creating at least a portion of application data associated with the user and with the application.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transferring at least a portion of the application user interface and a set of computer-executable instructions that define at least a portion of the application'"'"'s behavior from a second remote device to the local device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein an application manifest defines the portion of the application user interface and the set of computer-executable instructions.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein a synchronization mechanism is used to transfer application data between the local device and a third device and the transferring of the portion of the application user interface and the set of computer-executable instructions is accomplished using the same synchronization mechanism.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the application is used by a first user that indicates a desire to share the application with a second user, further comprising:

accepting, by the second user, a request to share the application;

making a change, by the second user, to application data; and

synchronizing the change to application data with a device associated with the first user or with another device such that the change is eventually synchronized to at least one device associated with the first user, wherein the change is accessible to the first user when the first user interacts with the application.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the application user interface is displayed by an application viewer application that provides additional functionality to the application that is not typically available to a web application hosted by a web browser.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the additional functionality further comprises at least one of:

drag and drop of images;

drag and drop of files;

rich clipboard interaction functionality;

native access to other data located on the local device; and

functionality that would otherwise require a browser extension if the application was displayed using the web browser.

16. A method, comprising:

accepting at one or more of a first set of server computing devices in a first data center, an application package that comprises an application and that is defined by an application manifest that identifies application user interface instructions, application computer-executable instructions, and a definition of application data that is associated with an instance of the application;

storing the application package using one or more of a second set of server computing devices in a second data center; and

at least one of;

providing the application package to a requester associated with a device, wherein the requester uses the application package as part of obtaining access to the application using a local operating environment that includes a local web server; and

hosting the application by responding to a second requester that desires to use the application without a second local operating environment by providing separately and without providing the entire application package, one or more of;

the application user interface instructions, the application computer-executable instructions, and data associated with the instance of the application and defined by the definition of application data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

accepting a second application package that comprises an update to at least one of the application manifest, the application user interface instructions, the application computer-executable instructions, and the definition of application data, and wherein the providing and the hosting are performed using the update so that the requester is provided with the second application package which is then used to update the application on the device and the second requester is provided with one or more of the application user interface instructions that reflect the update, the application computer-executable instructions that reflect the update, and data associated with the instance of the application that reflects the update.

18. A method, comprising:

providing an identification credential to a data store, wherein the identification credential identifies application data associated with at least one user of an application and with an instance of the application, wherein the application is defined by an application package that includes application user interface instructions, application computer-executable instructions, and a definition of the application data, and wherein the application package enables the at least one user of the application to use the application in an online mode where at least parts of the application are provided by a remote device and enables the at least one user of the application to use the application in an offline mode where at least parts of the application are provided by a local web server; and

at least one of;

retrieving a portion of the application data associated with the at least one user;

adding new application data to the data store, such that the new application data is associated with the user; and

changing existing application data that is associated with the user in the data store.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the identification credential is associated with the application and is part of a security implementation that provides a first entity that is associated with the application permissions to perform one or more of the retrieving, adding, or changing operations while a second entity that is not associated with the application is not provided with the application permissions to perform one or more of the retrieving, adding, or changing operations.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of:

storing at least a portion of the application data in a storage location that is not controlled by the application; and

displaying at least a portion of the application data in a context outside of that provided by the application.