Wrapping unmanaged applications on a mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9971585-B2
Application number	US-201514752132-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2012
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for providing approaches to generating managed applications from unmanaged applications on a mobile device. The methods and systems may include storing, by a mobile device in a memory of the mobile device, one or more unmanaged applications each comprising a corresponding application bundle and decoding, by the mobile device, the retrieved application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application. The methods and systems may also include modifying, by the mobile device, the decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application by adding a set of one or more policy-based control instructions, compiling, by the mobile device, the modified application bundle to generate a first managed application, the first managed application being configured to operate in accordance with the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, and providing, by the mobile device, the first managed application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
storing, in a memory, one or more unmanaged applications each comprising a corresponding application bundle;
retrieving metadata associated with the one or more unmanaged applications;
displaying, via a user interface, one or more selectable objects, each of the one or more selectable objects corresponding to an unmanaged application of the one or more unmanaged applications, each displayed selectable object comprising the retrieved metadata associated with the corresponding unmanaged application;
receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a first selectable object of the one or more selectable objects, the first selectable object associated with a first unmanaged application of the one or more unmanaged applications;
retrieving, from the memory and based on the selection of the first selectable object, an application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application;
decoding the retrieved application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application to generate a decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application;
modifying the decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application, to generate a modified application bundle, by adding, to the decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application:
a set of one or more policy-based control instructions,
a hook configured to call instructions in a library file, and
the library file;
compiling the modified application bundle to generate a first managed application, the first managed application configured to operate in accordance with the set of one or more policy-based control instructions; and
providing the first managed application for installation on a mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the first managed application further comprises transmitting, by a first device, the first managed application to a second device different than the first device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each step of the method is performed by the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
based on the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, restricting each managed application to only be able to communicate with other managed applications and trusted enterprise resources.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving, via the user interface, a selection of an option to operate the first unmanaged application in an unmanaged mode or in a managed mode;
based on the selection of the option to operate the first unmanaged application in the unmanaged mode, starting the first unmanaged application; and
based on the selection of the option to operate the first unmanaged application in the managed mode, starting the first managed application.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the first managed application for installation on a mobile device comprises providing the first managed application for installation on the mobile device via an application store.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
based on the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, causing the first managed application to:
pair with a client agent on first launch of the first managed application;
initialize a secure channel between the first managed application and the client agent; and
receive, from the client agent, a policy for the first managed application.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
based on the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, causing the first managed application to:
make a vault available only after an online authentication; and
limit offline access to the vault to at most a policy refresh period before the online authentication is again required.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
based on the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, causing the first managed application to:
set a hidden property of a key window, the hidden property causing content currently displayed on a screen to be hidden during a screen shot of the screen.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
based on the set of one or more policy-based control instructions, causing the first managed application to:
disable an autocorrect feature of a keyboard when entering text into sensitive text fields of the first managed application.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining which of the one or more unmanaged applications could be wrapped; and
displaying, with each of the one or more selectable objects, whether the corresponding unmanaged application could be wrapped.

12. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
sending instructions to an agent application to replace the library file of the first managed application with an updated library file.

13. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining data associated with the first unmanaged application; and
importing the data associated with the first unmanaged application from the first unmanaged application to the first managed application for use in the first managed application.

14. A system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform:
storing, in a memory, one or more unmanaged applications each comprising a corresponding application bundle;
retrieving, from the memory, metadata associated with the one or more unmanaged applications;
displaying, via a user interface, one or more selectable objects, each of the one or more selectable objects corresponding to an unmanaged application of the one or more unmanaged applications, each displayed selectable object comprising the retrieved metadata associated with the corresponding unmanaged application;
receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a first selectable object of the one or more selectable objects, the first selectable object associated with a first unmanaged application of the one or more unmanaged applications;
retrieving, from the memory and based on the selection of the first selectable object, an application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application;
decoding the retrieved application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application to generate a decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application;
modifying the decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application, to generate a modified application bundle, by adding, to the decoded application bundle corresponding to the first unmanaged application:
a set of one or more policy-based control instructions,
a hook configured to call instructions in a library file, and
the library file;
compiling the modified application bundle to generate a first managed application, the first managed application configured to operate in accordance with the set of one or more policy-based control instructions; and
providing the first managed application for installation on a mobile device.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein:
the decoding comprises accessing source code of the first unmanaged application, the source code comprising instructions for operating the first unmanaged application; and
the modifying comprises modifying the source code by adding the set of one or more policy-based control instructions to the instructions for operating the first unmanaged application.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the storing further comprises storing a security certificate configured for the first unmanaged application, the security certificate being required

Assignees

• Citrix Systems Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G06F8/41

  Compilation · CPC title

• G06F8/52

  Binary to binary · CPC title

• G06F8/72

  Code refactoring · CPC title

• G06F8/76

  Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting · CPC title

• G06F8/34

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title