Integrated user interface for consuming services across different distributed networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10827008-B2
Application number	US-201916725350-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2019
Priority date	Jun 19, 2014
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

User interface integration across multiple clouds is achieved by hosting UI extensions for different services in the same browser window. The UI extensions are initialized by a shell with any necessary security context for the corresponding cloud. The shell provides versioning so that the newest version of the UI is presented to users for all versions of a service. A connector in a local cloud provides translation between APIs across different clouds.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for allowing access to cloud services provided by multiple distinct cloud computing systems, the method comprising:
displaying, via a user interface on a computing device, a list of cloud services available to a user, the cloud services in the list being provided by multiple distinct cloud computing systems; and
upon receiving an input from the user selecting a cloud service from the displayed list of cloud services,
transmitting, from the computing device, an access request to one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems providing the selected cloud service;
receiving, from the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems, executable instructions identifying a view model associated with the selected cloud service;
executing, at the computing device, the received executable instructions from the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems to generate data representing an interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service as specified by the view model in the executable instructions; and
displaying, via the user interface on the computing device, the generated data representing the interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service as specified by the view model in the executable instructions.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing instructions in a webpage to identify (i) the list of cloud services available to the user based on the user's subscriptions to the cloud services and (ii) an interface object associated with the list of cloud services; and
providing data representing the interface object containing the list of cloud services as a part of the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a network address at which the selected cloud service provided by the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems is accessible; and
wherein transmitting the access request includes transmitting, via a computer network, the access request to the identified network address for accessing the selected cloud service provided by the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the received executable instructions also include content retrieving instructions; and
the method further includes:
executing the content retrieving instructions to retrieve content via a computer network; and
providing data representing the retrieved content on the interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service as specified by the view model.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing instructions associated with a webpage in a web browser to provide the user interface, the executed instructions providing a shell configured to facilitate execution of the received executable instructions;
the received executable instructions also specify a content source; and
the method further includes:
generating, at the shell, a request to retrieve content from the content source;
transmitting, via a computer network, the generated request to the content source;
receiving, from the content source, the requested content in response to the transmitted content request; and
providing the received content to the interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service to be outputted to the user.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:
generating, at the shell, the request to retrieve content from the content source includes generating, at the shell, an asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“AJAX”) call; and
transmitting the generated request includes transmitting, via a computer network, the generated AJAX call to the content source.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
associating the received content with the selected cloud service; and
subsequently, providing the received content to the interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service to be outputted to the user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the cloud service is a first cloud service;
the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems is a first cloud computing system of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems;
the interface object is a first interface object;
the method further includes:
receiving another input from the user selecting a second cloud service different than the first cloud service; and
in response to receiving the another input,
transmitting another access request to a second cloud computing system of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems for accessing the second cloud service;
receiving, from the second cloud computing system, additional executable instructions associated with the second cloud service, the additional executable instructions identifying another view model different than the view model associated with the first cloud service; and
executing the received additional executable instructions to generate data representing another interface object corresponding to the second cloud service as specified by the another view model without switching the user interface.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the cloud service is a first cloud service;
the one of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems is a first cloud computing system;
the interface object is a first interface object;
the user interface includes a webpage on a web browser; and
the method further includes:
receiving, via the webpage, another user input selecting a second cloud service different from the first cloud service;
in response to receiving the another user input,
transmitting another access request to a second cloud computing system of the multiple distinct cloud computing systems for accessing the second cloud service;
receiving, from the second cloud computing system, additional executable instructions associated with the second cloud service, the additional executable instructions identifying another view model different than the view model associated with the first cloud service; and
executing the received additional executable instructions to generate another interface object corresponding to the second cloud service as specified by the another view model without switching to a new webpage in the web browser.

10. A computing system for allowing access to cloud services provided by multiple distinct cloud computing systems via a user interface, the computing system comprising:
a processor;
a display operatively coupled to the processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor to cause the computing system to:
display, via a user interface on the display of the computing system, a list of cloud services available to a user;
in response to receiving a user input selecting a cloud service from the displayed list of cloud services,
transmit, from the computing system and via a computer network, an access request to a cloud computing system for accessing the selected cloud service provided by the cloud computing system;
retrieve, from the cloud computing system associated with the selected cloud service, executable instructions specifying a view model and provided by the cloud computing system in response to the transmitted access request; and
execute the retrieved executable instructions at the computing system to generate, according to the view model, data representing an interface object corresponding to the selected cloud service to be displayed via the user interface on the display of the computing system.

11. The computing system of claim 10 wherein the memory contains additional instructions executable by the processor to cause the computing system to:
execute instructions to provide a shell configured to allow execu

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Pogrebinsky Vladimir
• Tandon Manish
• Natarajan Shriram
• Zheng Jiewen
• Bartz Bradley

Classifications

• H04L67/53

  using third party service providers · CPC title

• H04L67/75

  Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display · CPC title

• H04L67/51 Primary

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• G06F9/5072 Primary

  Grid computing · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title