SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COMPUTING APPLICATIONS

• US 20130239089A1
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: White, Craig, Saceanu, Cristian, Eksten, Brick, Palmer, Scott, Belme, Frank, Li, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 9,043,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1077 Recurrent authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5066 Algorithms for mapping a plurality of inter-dependent sub-tasks onto a plurality of physical CPUs mappping at compile time, see G06F8/451
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263

Abstract

Systems and methods for dynamic development and deployment of computing applications including a development framework, a visual design subsystem, and a deployment subsystem, where at runtime the deployment subsystem is operable to dynamically deploy a computing application realized by a blueprint by sending a request at runtime for graphs and components instantiated by the blueprint.

Claims

1. A system for dynamic development of computing applications comprising a development framework, one or more processors, and a memory coupled to the one or more processor and configured to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to configure the development framework to define components and graphs, wherein each component defines a computing processing mechanism for processing data containers of computing data at application runtime, wherein each graph identifies components, connections between the components, and properties for the components, wherein a graph is an instantiation of a corresponding blueprint at application runtime, wherein the development framework enables components to be embedded within other components.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a graph delivers functionality defined by the components identified by the graph, and wherein a blueprint connects the functionality to a running environment.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the blueprint provides business logic for the corresponding graph.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a visual design subsystem for realizing computing applications, wherein the visual design subsystem is operable to arrange components into functional blocks, define specific orders of operation for the functional blocks, and define connections between the functional blocks to instantiate the computing applications.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each component is associated with one or more versions, wherein at least one of a graph and a blueprint comprises a reference to a solution set of components, wherein the solution set identifies a version for each component.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one component is associated with one or more versions and wherein the development framework enables loading of an appropriate version of the at least one component at application runtime.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a first component is in a first language and a second component is in a second different language, wherein the first and second components comprise data and are operable to access the memory and data structures, and wherein the system further comprises a translation module operable to translate multiple languages into a common language by translating the first and second component data and how the first and second component are operable to access the memory and the data structures.

8. A method for dynamic development of computing applications:

providing a development framework, one or more processors, and a memory coupled to the one or more processors and configured to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to configure the development framework to define components and graphs, wherein each component defines a computing processing mechanism for processing data containers of computing data at application runtime, wherein each graph identifies components, connections between the components, and properties for the components, wherein a graph is instantiated by a corresponding blueprint at application runtime;

wherein the development framework enables components to be embedded within other components;

developing components and graphs for a blueprint; and

storing the components and the graphs for the blueprint in the repository for loading at application runtime.

9. A system for dynamic deployment of computing applications comprising:

a deployment subsystem for deploying computing applications at runtime, one or more processors, and a memory coupled to the one or more processor and configured to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to configure the deployment subsystem with one or more repositories, one or more cloud agents, and one or more cloud engines, wherein the computing applications are realized by blueprints, wherein each blueprint may be used to instantiate a graph at application runtime, wherein a graph identifies components, connections between the components, and properties for the components, wherein each component defines a computing processing mechanism for processing data containers of computing data at application runtime, wherein each graph identifies components, wherein the repository stores the graphs and the components for loading at application runtime, wherein the cloud agent controls at least one cloud engine, wherein the cloud engine provides a running environment for the computing application by using blueprints to instantiate graphs at application runtime;

wherein at runtime the deployment subsystem dynamically constructs and deploys a computing application by sending a request at runtime to the repository for the graphs instantiated by corresponding blueprints and components identified therein.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each component is associated with one or more versions, wherein at least one of a blueprint and a graph comprises a reference to a solution set of components, wherein the solution set identifies a version for each component.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a license server, wherein the license server dynamically manages licenses and associates licenses with components and graphs, wherein use of components and graphs at application runtime requires the appropriate license.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising a job manager, wherein the job manager dispatches blueprints and graphs to cloud agents based on available licenses managed by the license server.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising a security manager, wherein the security manager provides for secure connections and communications between system components.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a job manager configured to provide job and cloud engine dispatch, failover, tracking and reporting.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein each graph identifies components, connections between the components, and properties for the components, wherein components are connected by different types of pins.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein a data container defines a data type and a data object, wherein the data type is metadata describing the data container and the data object maintains raw data.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the repository manages versioning of components and graphs to keep track of updates made thereto, wherein the repository serves the components and graphs at application runtime using appropriate versions of the graphs and components.

18. The system of claim 9, wherein the cloud agent is provided to each user system to manage the local resources of the user system, wherein the cloud agents interact with cloud engines to instantiate graphs using blueprints.

19. The system of claim 9, further comprising a normalization module operable to receive input data files and convert and parse the input data files into data containers for processing by a graph.

20. The system of claim 9, further comprising a code signing module operable to digitally sign each component to associate a developer, license, or both with at least one component.

21. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a digital certificate associated with a component provider subsystem, wherein the component provider subsystem provides one or more components;

a digital certificate associated with a user computing subsystem, wherein the user computing subsystem is associated with a computing application, wherein the computing application involves a component provided by the component provider computing system;

a license server configured to digitally sign a component by linking the component to the digital certificate associated with the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate associated with the component provider subsystem to indicate that the user computing system and the component provider subsystem accept performance of the digitally signed component;

wherein at runtime prior to deploying each component the deployment subsystem queries the license server to determine whether the component is linked to the digital certificate associated with the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate associated with the component provider subsystem.

22. The system of claim 9, wherein the deployment subsystem is further configured to partition a graph into two or more subgraphs and handle interprocess communications between the two or more subgraphs.

23. A method for dynamic deployment of computing applications:

providing a deployment subsystem for deploying computing applications at runtime, one or more processors, and a memory coupled to the one or more processor and configured to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to configure the deployment subsystem to comprise one or more repositories, one or more cloud agents, one or more cloud engines, wherein the computing applications identify blueprints, wherein each blueprint may be used to instantiate a graph at application runtime, wherein a graph identifies components, connections between the components, and properties for the components, wherein each component defines a computing processing mechanism for processing data containers of computing data at application runtime, wherein each graph identifies components;

storing components and graphs in the repository for loading at application runtime;

providing, by the cloud engine, a running environment for the computing application by using blueprints to instantiate graphs at application runtime;

controlling, by the cloud agent, the cloud engine;

at application runtime, dynamically deploying a computing application realized by a blueprint by sending a request at runtime to the repository for the graphs and components identified in the blueprint.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

providing a digital certificate associated with a component provider subsystem, wherein the component provider subsystem provides one or more components;

providing a digital certificate associated with a user computing subsystem, wherein the user computing subsystem is associated with a computing application, wherein the computing application involves a component provided by the component provider computing system;

providing a license server configured to digitally sign a component by linking the component to the digital certificate associated with the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate associated with the component provider subsystem to indicate that the user computing system and the component provider subsystem accept performance of the digitally signed component;

receiving, at a license server, acceptance of the component provided by the component provider subsystem in the computing application associated with user computing system by receiving the digital certificate from the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate from the component provider computing system;

linking, at the license server, the component provided by the component provider subsystem in the computing application associated with user computing system to the digital certificate from the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate from the component provider computing system; and

at application runtime prior to deploying each component, querying the license server to determine whether the component is linked to the digital certificate associated with the user computing subsystem and the digital certificate associated with the component provider subsystem.