CREATING, MANAGING, AND PROVISIONING PACKAGES OF ONLINE APPLICATIONS

• US 20090292545A1
• Filed: 05/20/2008
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dalia, Apurva F., Moram, Venugopala Rao, Lode, Rodrigo Junqueira, Saam, Christopher J., Bhattacharyya, Joydeep, Gariepy, Christopher, Mohammed, Yunus, Huang, Lizhong, Karanth, Sandeep P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/304
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes

Abstract

Methods and computer-readable media are provided herein for implementing custom application programming interfaces (API) for creating, managing, and provisioning packages of online applications. An offer management service API is implemented that provides methods for creating and modifying offers for packages of online applications. An offer provisioning API is implemented that provides methods enabling the provisioning of online applications for subscribers to offers. An application provider API is published and utilized to provision and maintain individual instances of online applications provided by application providers.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

expose an offer management application programming interface (API) for creating and managing offers for packages of online applications;

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an offer be created, the call specifying properties of the offer including one or more online applications to be packaged in the offer;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, create the offer in an offer store; and

return an identifier for the offer.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an offer for a package of online applications be modified, the call specifying the identifier of the offer and other properties of the offer, including one or more online applications to be packaged in the offer; and

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, locate the offer in the offer store for the identifier of the offer and update the properties of the offer in the offer store.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 2, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

in response to updating the properties of the offer in the offer store, cause a re-provisioning of each of the one or more online applications of the offer for any subscribers to the offer.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 1, having further computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an offer for a package of online applications be removed from the offer store, the call specifying the identifier of the offer; and

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, locate the offer in the offer store for the identifier of the offer and delete the offer from the offer store.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 1, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API, the call specifying properties of an online application available for packaging within offers;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, create a record of the online application with the properties in the offer store; and

return an identifier for the online application.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 5, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting the properties for an online application be modified, the call specifying the identifier of the online application; and

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, locate the record of the online application in the offer store for the identifier of the online application and update the properties of the online application in the offer store.

7. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

expose an API for provisioning one or more online applications packaged in an offer for a subscriber;

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an account be provisioned for the subscriber, the call specifying the offer and properties of the subscriber;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, create an account associated with the subscriber in a subscription store;

retrieve the one or more online applications packaged in the offer;

cause each of the one or more applications packaged in the offer to be provisioned for the account associated with the subscriber; and

return an identifier for the account.

8. The computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein a subset of the one or more online applications are configured to be provisioned upon a first use by the subscriber.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 7, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting one of the one or more online applications provisioned for an account be re-provisioned, the call specifying the account, the online application, and properties for re-provisioning the online application; and

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, cause the online application to be re-provisioned for the account.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 7, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an account be disabled, the call specifying the account;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, retrieve from the subscription store the online applications provisioned for the account;

for each of the online applications provisioned for the account, cause the online application to be disabled;

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting the account be re-enabled, the call specifying the account;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, retrieve from the subscription store the online applications provisioned for the account; and

for each of the online applications provisioned for the account, cause the online application to be enabled.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 7, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an account be de-provisioned, the call specifying the account;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, retrieve from the subscription store the online applications provisioned for the account;

for each of the online applications provisioned for the account, cause the online application to be de-provisioned; and

remove the account from the subscription store.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 7, having additional computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call to a method exposed by the API requesting an account be converted to a new account type, the call specifying the account and the properties of the new account type;

in response to receiving the call to the method exposed by the API, retrieve from the subscription store the online applications provisioned for the account;

for each of the online applications provisioned for the account, cause the online application to be de-provisioned;

update the account in the subscription store to reflect the new account type;

retrieve one or more online applications packaged in an offer associated with the new account type; and

for each of the one or more online applications, cause the online application to be provisioned for the account.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein accessibility to a method of the API and accessibility to an account in the subscription store is limited based upon an identity of a caller to the API.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein exposing the API further comprises making methods of the API available to callers over an Internet and wherein the method is callable by a personal computer application.

15. A method for provisioning and maintaining instances of online applications provided by an application provider utilizing an application provider API, the method comprising:

publishing a specification of the application provider API for implementation by the application provider;

calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to determine if an instance of an online application can be provisioned by the application provider, the call specifying the online application and properties of the instance of the online application to be provisioned; and

if the online application can be provisioned, calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to provision an instance of the online application, the call further specifying an identifier for the instance of the online application to be provisioned.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the call further specifies a base property value and one or more relative property values for at least one of the properties of the instance of the online application to be provisioned.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to determine if an instance of the online application can be re-provisioned with new property values, the call specifying the identifier for the instance of the online application and the new property values with which to re-provision the online application; and

if the instance of the online application can be re-provisioned, calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to re-provision the instance of the online application with the new property values.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to determine if an instance of the online application can be converted to a new online application type, the call specifying the identifier for the instance of the online application; and

if the instance of the online application can be converted to the new online application type, calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to covert the instance of the online application to the new online application type.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to de-provision an instance of the online application, the call specifying the identifier for the instance of the online application.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

calling a method of the API implemented by the application provider to retrieve user interface details for an instance of an online application, the call specifying the identifier for the instance of the online application, the user interface details used to display a user interface allowing a user to modify the properties of the online application.