Application wrapping for application management framework

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10908896-B2
Application number	US-201514876832-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2012
Publication date	Feb 2, 2021
Grant date	Feb 2, 2021

Abstract

Methods and systems for developing, modifying, and distributing software applications for enterprise systems are described herein. A software component, such as a native mobile application or a template application, may be modified into a managed mobile application, and metadata associated with the managed mobile application may be generated. The managed application and associated metadata may be provided to one or more application stores, such as public application stores and/or enterprise application stores. Managed applications and/or associated metadata may be retrieved by computing devices from public application stores and/or enterprise application stores, and may be executed as managed applications in an enterprise system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
inserting, by a computing system, code into an application, wherein the application is available from a public application store, and wherein the code, when executed, causes the application to operate in accordance with one or more policies associated with an application-management framework; and
provisioning, by the computing system, an enterprise application store that is associated with the application-management framework, wherein the enterprise application store makes the application, with the code inserted, available for download as a managed application for the application-management framework.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the code, when executed, enables the application-management framework to control invocation of an application programming interface (API) call for a function of an operating system.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
prompting a user to input additional information regarding use of the function within the application-management framework; and
generating, based on the additional information, the code.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the function comprises at least one of the following:
cutting, copying, or pasting data to or from a clipboard of the operating system,
browsing based on a specified uniform resource locator (URL),
accessing geographical location information, camera data, or microphone data accessible to the operating system, or
composing an email or short messaging service (SMS) message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein provisioning the enterprise application store is performed by provisioning the enterprise application store with data identifying the application and the public application store.

6. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the system to:
insert code into an application, wherein the application is available from a public application store, and wherein the code, when executed, causes the application to operate in accordance with one or more policies associated with an application-management framework; and
provision an enterprise application store that is associated with the application-management framework, wherein the enterprise application store makes the application, with the code inserted, available for download as a managed application for the application-management framework.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the code, when executed, enables the application-management framework to control invocation of an application programming interface (API) call for a function of an operating system.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
prompt a user to input additional information regarding use of the function within the application-management framework; and
generate, based on the additional information, the code.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the function comprises at least one of the following:
cutting, copying, or pasting data to or from a clipboard of the operating system,
browsing based on a specified uniform resource locator (URL),
accessing geographical location information, camera data, or microphone data accessible to the operating system, or
composing an email or short messaging service (SMS) message.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provision the enterprise application store by provisioning the enterprise application store with data identifying the application and the public application store.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to:
insert code into an application, wherein the application is available from a public application store, and wherein the code, when executed, causes the application to operate in accordance with one or more policies associated with an application-management framework; and
provision an enterprise application store that is associated with the application-management framework, wherein the enterprise application store makes the application, with the code inserted, available for download as a managed application for the application-management framework.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11 , wherein the code, when executed, enables the application-management framework to control invocation of an application programming interface (API) call for a function of an operating system.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to:
prompt a user to input additional information regarding use of the function within the application-management framework; and
generate, based on the additional information, the code.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to provision the enterprise application store by provisioning the enterprise application store with data identifying the application and the public application store.

15. A method comprising:
generating, by a computing device, a managed application based on:
receiving a native mobile application;
determining, based on a structure of the native mobile application, one or more locations within the native mobile application;
inserting, based on the one or more locations within the native mobile application, code into the native mobile application, wherein the code, when executed, causes the native mobile application to operate in accordance with one or more policies associated with an enterprise; and
building, after the inserting, the native mobile application into the managed application;

generating, by the computing device, metadata associated with the managed application based on:
using a software tool to automatically derive first information from the native mobile application;
receiving, via a user interface, user input that indicates second information regarding the native mobile application; and
generating, based on the first information and the second information, the metadata; and

providing, by the computing device and to one or more application stores, the managed application and the metadata to enable the managed application for download to one or more mobile devices.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the code, when executed, enables an application-management framework to control invocation of an application programming interface (API) call for a function of an operating system, wherein the application-management framework is configured on the one or more mobile devices.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the function comprises at least one of the following:
cutting, copying, or pasting data to or from a clipboard of the operating system,
browsing based on a specified uniform resource locator (URL),
accessing geographical location information, camera data, or microphone data accessible to the operating system, or
composing an email or short messaging service (SMS) message.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more policies are enforced by an enterprise-management framework configured on the one or more mobile devices.

Assignees

• Citrix Systems Inc

Inventors

• Lang Zhongmin
• Barton Gary
• Walker James Robert
• Aravindakshan Vipin

Classifications

• G06F21/33

  using certificates · CPC title

• G06F21/53

  by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine · CPC title

• G06F21/57

  Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities · CPC title

• G06F9/45516

  Runtime code conversion or optimisation · CPC title

• G06F8/65

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title