Plugin for software deployment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10684839-B2
Application number	US-201615182808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2016
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

A plugin for a website browser can enable a user to deploy software onto a computing device quickly and easily. For example, the plugin can automatically detect that a user is visiting a website on which program code for a software application is shared or hosted. The website may be an open-source website, a program-code repository, or a program-code review platform. The plugin can automatically analyze the program code, an installation file provided with the program code, software and hardware characteristics of the specific computing device on which the software application is to be deployed, and other data to determine how to deploy the software application on the specific computing device. The plugin can then deploy the software application on the computing device in response to the user clicking a button, allowing for the software application to be easily deployed on the computing device with minimal user interaction or skill.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for a plugin usable with a website browser, the plugin being executable by a processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine that program code for a software application is downloadable from a website;
in response to determining that the program code for the software application is downloadable from the website, integrate a graphical user interface (GUI) object into content of the website by inserting a code segment into website code for the website, the GUI object being manipulatable for causing the software application to be deployed on a computing device;
analyze the content of the website to determine a series of steps configured to be executed in a particular order for deploying the software application on the computing device, the series of steps describing how to deploy the software application on the computing device after the program code for the software application is downloaded to the computing device;
detect a manipulation of the GUI object; and
in response to detecting the manipulation of the GUI object:
cause the program code for the software application to be downloaded to the computing device; and
subsequent to the program code for the software application being downloaded to the computing device, deploy the software application on the computing device by causing the computing device to execute the series of steps in the particular order.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the content of the website is a file that is downloadable from the website independently of a webpage of the website displayed in the website browser.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to determine the series of steps at least in part by analyzing the program code for the software application.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine a hardware characteristic and a software characteristic of the computing device; and
determine the series of steps for deploying the software application on the computing device based on the hardware characteristic and the software characteristic of the computing device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine that the program code for the software application is downloadable from the website based on the content of the website.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine that the program code for the software application is downloadable from the website based on a uniform resource locator (URL) address associated with the website, a title associated with the website, a keyword within the content of the website, or a hyperlink within the content of the website.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
receive a user-configurable parameter for customizing how the software application is to be deployed on the computing device; and
deploy the software application on the computing device using the program code for the software application, the series of steps, and the user-configurable parameter.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the website comprises a plurality of hyperlinks to a plurality of files for deploying the software application, and wherein the plugin is further executable by the processing device for deploying the software application on the computing device by:
causing the plurality of files to be downloaded to the computing device;
causing program code from at least one file of the plurality of files to be compiled into an executable file on the computing device; and
causing the executable file to be executed on the computing device.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plugin is configured to be integrated into the website browser, and wherein the series of steps describe how to configure the software application on the computing device subsequent to the program code for the software application being downloaded to the computing device.

10. A system comprising:
a processing device; and
a memory device comprising instructions for a plugin usable with a website browser, the plugin being executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine that program code for a software application is downloadable from a website;
in response to determining that the program code for the software application is downloadable from the website, integrate a graphical user interface (GUI) object into content of the website by inserting a code segment into website code for the website, the GUI object being manipulatable for causing the software application to be deployed on a computing device;
analyze the content of the website to determine a series of steps to be executed in a particular order for deploying the software application on the computing device, the series of steps describing how to deploy the software application on the computing device after the program code for the software application is downloaded to the computing device;
detect a manipulation of the GUI object; and
in response to detecting the manipulation of the GUI object:
cause the program code for the software application to be downloaded to the computing device; and
subsequent to the program code for the software application being downloaded to the computing device, deploy the software application on the computing device by causing the computing device to execute the series of steps in the particular order.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the plugin is configured to be integrated with the website browser for providing an additional functional capability to the website browser, and wherein analyzing the content of the website comprises:
analyzing an installation file or a configuration file provided with the program code and hosted on the website to determine the series of steps.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the plugin is further executable for causing the processing device to:
in response to navigating to the website using the website browser, analyze one or more characteristics of the website to determine that the program code for the software application is hosted on the website.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plugin is further executable for causing the processing device to determine that the program code for the software application is downloadable from the website based on a uniform resource locator (URL) address for the website, a title for the website, a keyword within the content of the website, the program code being within the content of the website, a hyperlink to a particular file being within the content of the website, or an attribute of the particular file.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the computing device is a remote computing device, and the plugin is further executable for causing the processing device to:
deploy the software application in a virtual machine or a container on the remote computing device by transmitting commands to the remote computing device over the Internet, the commands configured to cause the

Assignees

• Red Hat Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Shuster Boaz
• Ramraz Oded

Classifications

• G06F9/44526

  Plug-ins; Add-ons · CPC title

• G06F9/453

  Help systems · CPC title

• H04L67/303

  Terminal profiles · CPC title

• G06F9/45512

  Command shells · CPC title

• G06F8/60

  Software deployment · CPC title