Cross-platform mobile application development

• US 8,612,933 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2011
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gill, Sunbir, Jones, Matthew A., Paleja, Ameesh
• Primary Examiner(s): KENDALL, CHUCK O
• Application Number:
  US13/168,869
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-120
• US Class Current: 717/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

A cross-platform software development kit and related services supports the use of platform-generic mobile applications across a variety of mobile platforms. These generic applications may consist of and be developed in a purely content-based format, without requiring any binary files to be distributed alongside a generic content application. Such applications may access platform-specific resources of a mobile device using generic device resource request tags. A platform-specific native shell running on a mobile device accesses a generic content application and identifies device resource request. In response, the platform-specific native shell performs platform-specific functionality associated with the requested device resource.

Claims

1. A system for providing a multi-platform mobile application operable on a plurality of mobile device platforms, the system comprising:

a cross-platform software development kit for use on a mobile application development station, said cross-platform software development kit comprising a generic device resource tag library, said generic device resource tag library comprising information identifying a plurality of content-based references to mobile device resources, said content-based references to mobile device resources not specific to any one of said mobile device platforms and said content-based references to mobile device resources associated with mobile device resources to which at least one of said mobile device platforms does not support content-based requests, wherein said plurality of mobile device platforms comprise distinct operating systems;

a network application system configured to receive, from a mobile application development station, a mobile device application comprising a content-based reference to a mobile device resource; and

a native shell service for a mobile device, said native shell service associated with a platform of the mobile device, wherein the native shell service is configured to operate on the platform of the mobile device in order to run mobile device applications comprising content-based references to one or more mobile device resources;

wherein said native shell service is configured to identify a content-based reference to a non-graphical mobile device resource within the content of a mobile application and, in response to identifying the content-based reference to the mobile device resource, perform an access method for the mobile device resource referenced in the content-based reference, wherein said content-based reference to the mobile device resource is identified in said generic device resource tag library and said access method for the mobile device resource is associated with the platform of the mobile device.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the mobile device resources referenced in the content-based reference of the mobile device application received by the network application system comprise functional access to one or more of the following:

a camera, a global positioning satellite receiver, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a communications radio, a user input receiver, a file system, and data storage.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a validation service capable of validating the received mobile device application to determine whether the mobile device application conforms to predefined standards, said system configured to not provide the received mobile device application to users if the validation service determines that the mobile device application does not conform to the predefined standards.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein validating the received mobile device application comprises:

identifying within content of the mobile device application, a content-based reference to a mobile device resource, said content-based reference to a mobile device resource included in said generic device resource tag library; and

verifying whether the mobile device application'"'"'s inclusion of the content-based reference to the mobile device resource conforms to predefined standards.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a functional library associated with the mobile device'"'"'s platform, and wherein said native shell is configured to communicate with the functional library in order to determine the access method that the native shell will perform based upon said content-based reference to the mobile device resource.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a pre-processing service configured to pre-process stored mobile device applications in order to generate platform-specific content applications based on the stored mobile device applications, said platform-specific content applications comprising operating-system-specific, non-content references to mobile device resources; and

an application store service configured to provide generic content applications and/or platform-specific content applications to mobile devices.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a generic platform emulation service configured to run mobile device applications on the mobile application development station.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising an integrated development environment plug-in service configured to interact with an integrated development environment service of the mobile application development station and reference the generic device resource tag library in order to assist the mobile application developer with creating the mobile device application.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a mobile store service configured to provide mobile device applications to mobile devices.

10. A method for using a cross-platform application on a mobile device, the method comprising:

storing the content of the cross-platform application, said content including a content-based reference to a mobile device resource, wherein said cross-platform application is designed to operate on a plurality of operating systems, at least some of which do not provide content-based access to the mobile device resource;

identifying the content-based reference within the content of the application, wherein said content-based reference identifies a non-graphical mobile device resource, wherein the platform of the mobile device does not support content-based access to the mobile device resource, and wherein the platform of the mobile device comprises the operating system running on the mobile device;

referencing a functional library associated with the platform of the mobile device, wherein said functional library specifies a relationship between the content-based reference to the mobile device resource and an access method for the mobile device resource, wherein said access method is associated with the platform of the mobile device; and

performing the access method in order to access the mobile device resource;

said access method performed by execution of software by the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the mobile device resource provides functional access to one or more of the following:

a camera, a global positioning satellite receiver, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a communications radio, a user input receiver, a file system, and data storage.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the access method for the mobile device resource comprises executing computer binary software capable of accessing the mobile device resource.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the access method for the mobile device resource comprises injecting into the application computer source code capable of accessing the mobile device resource.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the access method for the mobile device resource comprises running software in a computer script language capable of accessing the mobile device resource.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising creating a platform-specific version of the application from the cross-platform version of the application, said platform-specific version of the application including the access method for the mobile device resource.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the platform-specific version of the application is created on the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the platform-specific version of the application is created by a device other than the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein using the access method for the mobile device resource comprises running the application and, in response to encountering the content-based reference at runtime, performing the access method.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the using the access method for the mobile device resource comprises performing the access method on the mobile device in response to encountering the content-based reference, after having already begun running the application.

20. The method of claim 10 wherein the functional library is stored on the mobile device.

21. The method of claim 10 wherein the functional library is associated with a plurality of platforms.

22. The method of claim 10 wherein said the content-based reference is in the form of a markup-based language.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the content-based reference is in the form of HyperText Markup Language.

24. The method of claim 10 wherein said content-based reference is identified by a markup tag.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said markup tag is uniquely identifiable as relating to a content-based reference for a mobile device resource.

26. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying a second content-based reference within the content of the application, wherein said second content-based request is for a second mobile device resource;

accessing a functional library associated with a platform of the mobile device, wherein said functional library comprises data indicating that said second mobile device resource is not accessible on the platform of the mobile device; and

performing an alternative response to said second content-based reference, said alternative response not providing the application with access to said second mobile device resource.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for using a cross-platform application on a mobile device according to a method that comprises:

storing the content of the cross-platform application, said content including a content-based reference to a mobile device resource, wherein said cross-platform application is designed to operate on a plurality of operating systems, at least some of which do not provide content-based access to the mobile device resource;

identifying the content-based reference within the content of the application, wherein said content-based reference identifies a non-graphical mobile device resource, wherein the platform of the mobile device does not support content-based access to that mobile device resource, and wherein the platform of the mobile device comprises the operating system running on the mobile device;

referencing a functional library associated with the platform of the mobile device, wherein said functional library specifies a relationship between the content-based reference to the mobile device resource and an access method for the mobile device resource, wherein said access method is associated with the platform of the mobile device; and

performing the access method in order to access the mobile device resource;

said access method performed by execution of software by the mobile device.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing content associated with a cross-platform mobile device application, the content comprising:

content-based definitions of graphical elements of the mobile device application;

a markup-based content reference for a non-graphical resource of the a mobile device, wherein said markup-based content reference provides cross-platform access to the non-graphical resource such that the mobile device application can access the corresponding mobile device resource of a plurality of operating systems, despite said operating systems not providing content-based access to the mobile device resource, through use of a native shell for said operating systems; and

a markup-based reference to a mobile device resource;

wherein said first plurality of markup-based references are defined by a markup-based software standard and said markup-based reference to a mobile device resource is not defined by said markup-based software standard but is instead defined in a generic device resource tag library for use in developing cross-platform mobile applications.