Data sharing between multiple applications running on a mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9910977-B2
Application number	US-201514600073-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2015
Priority date	Feb 8, 2014
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A method and a computer system for data sharing between multiple applications running on a mobile device are provided. The method comprising: receiving from a second application among the multiple applications an access request to first data in a first application among the multiple applications; in response to the access request, enabling the second application to access the first data via a sharing zone between the first application and the second application; and wherein the sharing zone is built by obtaining an access right over the first data, obtaining an access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data, and building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the access right. By means of the method and the computer system of the present invention, data can be shared between various applications running on a mobile device without changing developed applications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for data sharing between multiple applications running on a mobile device, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors on the mobile device, from a second application among the multiple applications on the mobile device, an access request for first data in a first application among the multiple applications on the mobile device;
enabling, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the second application to access the first data via a sharing zone on the mobile device and between the first application and the second application, in response to the access request, wherein the sharing zone on the mobile device comprises addresses of the first data and the addresses are accessed by the second application, wherein the sharing zone has an access right at an operating system hierarchy of the mobile device; and
wherein the sharing zone is built by obtaining the access right over the first data, obtaining an access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data, and building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the access right.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the access right comprises:
storing, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, in the sharing zone an address mapping pointing to the first data of the first application.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein enabling the second application to access the first data via the sharing zone between the first application and the second application in response to the access request comprises:
in response to the access request conforming to the access policy, directing, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the access request to the first data based on an address mapping.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access policy comprises at least: data type and the access right with respect to the data type.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the access right over the first data comprises:
obtaining, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the access right at an operating system hierarchy of the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data resides in an external storage of the mobile device, and obtaining the access right over the first data comprises: obtaining, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the access right based on access to the external storage.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data comprises at least one of:
obtaining, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the access policy from rules defined by a user of the mobile device; and
obtaining, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the access policy from agreements between providers of the first application and the second application.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is implemented independently of the first application and the second application.

9. A computer system for data sharing between multiple applications running on a mobile device, the computer system comprising:
one or more processors, one or more computer readable tangible storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more computer readable tangible storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors;
a receiving module configured to receive, by the one or more processors, from a second application among the multiple applications on the mobile device, an access request to first data in a first application among the multiple applications on the mobile device;
an access module configured to enable, by the one or more processors, the second application to access the first data via a sharing zone on the mobile device and between the first application and the second application in response to the access request, wherein the sharing zone on the mobile device comprises addresses of the first data and the addresses are accessed by the second application, wherein the sharing zone has an access right at an operating system hierarchy of the mobile device; and
wherein the sharing zone is built by obtaining the access right over the first data, obtaining an access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data, and building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the access right.

10. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the access right comprises:
storing, by the one or more processors, in the sharing zone an address mapping pointing to the first data of the first application.

11. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the access module comprises:
a directing module configured to, in response to the access request conforming to the access policy, direct, by the one or more processors, the access request to the first data based on an address mapping.

12. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the access policy comprises at least: data type and the access right with respect to the data type.

13. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein obtaining the access right over the first data comprises:
obtaining, by the one or more processors, the access right at an operating system hierarchy of the mobile device.

14. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the first data resides in an external storage of the mobile device, and obtaining the access right over the first data comprises: obtaining, by the one or more processors, the access right based on access to the external storage.

15. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein obtaining the access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data comprises at least one of:
obtaining, by the one or more processors, the access policy from rules defined by a user of the mobile device; and
obtaining, by the one or more processors, the access policy from agreements between providers of the first application and the second application.

16. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the computer system is implemented independently of the first application and the second application.

17. A computer program product for data sharing between multiple applications running on a mobile device, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable to:
receive, by one or more processors on the mobile device, from a second application among the multiple applications on the mobile device, an access request to first data in a first application among the multiple applications on the mobile device;
enable, by the one or more processors on the mobile device, the second application to access the first data via a sharing zone on the mobile device and between the first application and the second application in response to the access request, wherein the sharing zone on the mobile device comprises addresses of the first data and the addresses are accessed by the second application, wherein the sharing zone has an access right at an operating system hierarchy of the mobile device; and
wherein the sharing zone is built by obtaining the access right over the first data, obtaining an access policy assigned by the first application to the second application for access to the first data, and building the sharing zone according to the access policy by using the ac

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Guo Hongwei
• He Long
• Li Fangming
• Tang Xiao Qiu
• Wang Xi Ning
• Zhang Jing

Classifications

• G06F21/6281 Primary

  at program execution time, where the protection is within the operating system · CPC title

• G06F21/44 Primary

  Program or device authentication · CPC title

• G06F9/54

  Interprogram communication · CPC title

• H04W12/08

  Access security · CPC title

• H04W88/02

  Terminal devices · CPC title