Associating a URL or link between two applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9684501-B2
Application number	US-201514732612-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2015
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for associating, in a secure manner, a link between web sites (or other network resources) and installed applications. In one embodiment, a signed list of one or more URLs is downloaded and validated to establish an association, which is stored in a data structure, between a first application and a second application. In response to receiving a selection of a URL in the second application, comparing the selected URL to URLs in the data structure and displaying, in the first application, content of the selected URL in response to determining that at least a prefix portion of the selected URL matches one of the URL associated with the first application in the data structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A machine readable non-transitory medium storing instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:
receiving a request to install a first application;
downloading, in response to the request to install, the first application to a device and downloading, in response to the request to install, a list associated with the first application, the list specifying one or more URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) in at least one domain;
installing the first application and downloading a signed list of one or more URIs based on the downloaded list associated with the first application;
validating the signed list of URIs;
storing, in a data structure, an association between the URIs in the signed list and the first application;
receiving a selection of a URI in a second application;
comparing the selected URI to URIs in the data structure;
displaying, in the first application, content of the selected URI in response to determining that at least a prefix portion of the selected URI matches one of the URIs associated with the first application in the data structure.

2. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the signed list of one or more URIs is downloaded from a server in the domain and the signed list is cryptographically signed by the domain to authenticate the list of URIs in the signed list.

3. The medium as in claim 1 wherein a system software component validates the signed list before storing the URIs in an association with one or more applications including the first application.

4. The medium as in claim 3 wherein the list specifying one or more URIs in the at least one domain is included in an entitlements property list of the first application.

5. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the second application is a web browser or displays a web view or one or more active URIs and the first application is distributed by an entity that controls or operates the domain.

6. The medium as in claim 5 wherein the signed list of URIs is contained in a Javascript Object Notation (JSON) file and wherein the signed list of URIs is a signed list of URLs.

7. The medium as in claim 5 wherein the first application is distributed through an app store and is downloaded from the app store.

8. The medium as in claim 5 wherein the domain controls the paths in the domain that are associated with the first application by limiting the URIs in the signed list of URIs.

9. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the signed list is cryptographically signed by the domain to authenticate the list of URIs in the signed list, and the signed list has a specified and limited time to live.

10. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the second application is a web browser and wherein the content of the selected URI is displayed in the second application, rather than the first application, if the selected URI is in the domain.

11. The medium as in claim 1 wherein a user selectable preference setting allows a user to disable displaying, in the first application, content from a URI selected in the second application.

12. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the first application and the second application run as separate processes in separate memory spaces controlled by a kernel of an operating system such that the first application and the second application are scheduled separately by a scheduler of the kernel.

13. A machine implemented method comprising:
receiving a request to install a first application;
downloading, in response to the request to install, the first application to a device and downloading, in response to the request to install, a list associated with the first application, the list specifying one or more URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) in at least one domain;
installing the first application and downloading a signed list of one or more URIs based on the downloaded list associated with the first application;
validating the signed list of URIs;
storing, in a data structure, an association between the URIs in the signed list and the first application;
receiving a selection of a URI in a second application;
comparing the selected URI to URIs in the data structure;
displaying, in the first application, content of the selected URI in response to determining that at least a prefix portion of the selected URI matches one of the URIs associated with the first application in the data structure.

14. The method as in claim 13 wherein the signed list of one or more URIs is downloaded from a server in the domain and the signed list is cryptographically signed by the domain to authenticate the list of URIs in the signed list.

15. The method as in claim 13 wherein a system software component validates the signed list before storing the URIs in an association with one or more applications including the first application.

16. The method as in claim 15 wherein the list specifying one or more URIs in the at least one domain is included in an entitlements property list of the first application.

17. The method as in claim 13 wherein the second application is a web browser or displays a web view or one or more active URIs and the first application is distributed by an entity that controls or operates the domain.

18. The method as in claim 17 wherein the signed list of URIs is contained in a Javascript Object Notation (JSON) file and wherein the signed list of URIs is a signed list of URLs.

19. The method as in claim 17 wherein the first application is distributed through an app store and is downloaded from the app store.

20. The method as in claim 17 wherein the domain controls the paths in the domain that are associated with the first application by limiting the URIs in the signed list of URIs.

21. The method as in claim 13 wherein the signed list is cryptographically signed by the domain to authenticate the list of URIs in the signed list, and the signed list has a specified and limited time to live.

22. The method as in claim 13 wherein the second application is a web browser and wherein the content of the selected URI is displayed in the second application, rather than the first application, if the selected URI is in the domain.

23. The method as in claim 13 wherein a user selectable preference setting allows a user to disable displaying, in the first application, content from a URI selected in the second application.

24. The method as in claim 13 wherein the first application and the second application run as separate processes in separate memory spaces controlled by a kernel of an operating system such that the first application and the second application are scheduled separately by a scheduler of the kernel.

25. A machine readable non-transitory medium storing instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:
receiving a request to install a first application on the data processing system;
downloading, to the data processing system, the first application and downloading, to the data processing system, a list associated with the first application, the list specifying one or more URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) in at least one domain;
installing the first application on the data processing system;
validating the list of URIs;
storing, in a data structure on the data processing system, an association between the URIs in the list and the First application, the data structur

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Falkenburg Steven J
• Linn Christopher S
• Stachowiak Maciej
• Grynspan Jonathan
• Whalley Andrew R
• Bradley Robert
• Weinig Samuel M

Classifications

• G06F8/61 Primary

  Installation · CPC title

• H04L67/06

  specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP] · CPC title

• G06F16/955 Primary

  using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] · CPC title

• G06F17/30876

  Physics · mapped topic