Ubiquitous collaboration in managed applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9628329-B2
Application number	US-201414221958-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2014
Priority date	Mar 21, 2014
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for an ubiquitous collaboration feature in a managed application environment are described herein. The collaboration service and/or server may store session information and one or more configuration files for use in rendering the collaboration features in combination with managed applications executing on a user's computing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by a client agent executing on a client computing device, a launch of a first managed application on the client computing device, wherein at least one stored policy relating to a collaboration feature is associated with a context of the first managed application;
accessing, by the client agent, the at least one stored policy relating to the collaboration feature, wherein the at least one stored policy comprises a plurality of contexts that determine whether the at least one stored policy is satisfied;
detecting, by the client agent, a context of the first managed application;
comparing, by the client agent, the context of the first managed application with the at least one stored policy to determine whether the at least one stored policy is met; and
responsive to determining that the at least one stored policy is met:
activating, by the client agent, the collaboration feature for rendering in combination with a rendering of the first managed application; and
rendering, at the client computing device, the collaboration feature in combination with a rendering of a first managed application.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving session information, by the client agent, from a collaboration service associated with the client computing device; and
using the session information with the first managed application.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining, by the client agent, a launch of a second managed application on the client computing device, wherein the at least one stored policy relating to the collaboration feature is associated with a context of the second managed application;
detecting, by the client agent, a context of the second managed application;
comparing, by the client agent, the context of the second managed application with the at least one stored policy to determine that the at least one stored policy is met;
sending, by the client agent, the session information to the collaboration feature associated with the second managed application;
permitting, by the client agent, a rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with a rendering of the second managed application;
rendering, at the client computing device, the collaboration feature in combination with a rendering of a second managed application; and
updating, by the client agent, the session information of the collaboration feature across the first managed application and the second managed application.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the activating the collaboration feature for rendering in combination with a rendering of the first managed application comprises:
deactivating, by the client agent, one or more features of the collaboration feature.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
intercepting, by the second managed application through an API to interface with the collaboration feature, the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the second managed application.

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
maintaining, by the client agent, the session information via the collaboration service after execution of the first managed application and execution of the second managed application are terminated.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the session information comprises a list comprising at least one collaborator, and a history of a recent conversation with the at least one collaborator.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the using of the session information with the first managed application comprises:
restoring, by the client agent, a prior state of the collaboration feature; and
causing, by the client agent, display of the prior state of the collaboration feature via the first managed application.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting, by the client agent, of the context of the first managed application comprises detecting a change in location of the client computing device such that the at least one stored policy is met.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collaboration feature rendered in combination with the rendering of the first managed application is one of: a text chat application, a video chat application, an audio chat application, and a presence feature.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the first managed application, the first managed application is missing the collaboration feature.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
before the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the first managed application, providing the first managed application with an interface to control the rendering of the collaboration feature.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to the determining that the at least one stored policy is not met:
prohibiting, by the client agent, a rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with a rendering of the first managed application.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring, by the client agent, for a change in context in the first managed application; and
comparing, by the client agent, the changed context of the first managed application with the at least one stored policy to determine whether the at least one stored policy is met.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one store policy is an activity-based policy associated with the client computing device.

16. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the first managed application is a virtualized application communicating with a virtualization server using a remote presentation protocol; and
wherein the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the first managed application further comprises coordinating, by the client agent, with the virtualization server the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the first managed application.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the rendering of the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the first managed application further comprises:
accessing, by the client agent, a configuration file associated with the first managed application; and
rendering the collaboration feature in accordance with the configuration file.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the configuration file comprises color and style information, and the rendering the collaboration feature in combination with the rendering of the first managed application comprises rendering a graphical user interface using at least the color and style information.

19. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory for storing computer executable instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the system to:
determine a launch of a first managed application, wherein at least one stored policy relating to a collaboration feature is associated with a context of the first managed application;
access the at least one stored policy relating to the collaboration feature, wherein the at least one stored policy comprises a plurality of contexts that determine whether the at least one stored policy is satisfied;
detect a context of the first managed application;
compare the context of the first managed application with the at least one stored policy to determine whether the at least one stored policy is met; and
responsive to determining that the at least one stored policy is met:
activate the

Assignees

• Citrix Systems Inc

Inventors

• Singh Jaspreet
• Gomez Maria Isabel

Classifications

• G06F9/541 Primary

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L12/1813

  for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms (instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• G06Q10/101

  Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services · CPC title