Hosting an application in one of a plurality of execution environments
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsMark A. Alcazar, Murray E. Watt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Described is a mechanism for executing a hosted application in either a browser-execution environment or as a standalone application. The invention provides a mechanism that enables hosting code in either of plural hosting environments. Briefly stated, code is created that executes in a common execution environment. That execution environment can be either owned by a browser or not. When the code is launched, a host sniffer component determines from an indicator within the code which hosting environment is appropriate. Based on that indicator, the code is launched in the appropriate hosting environment. The appropriate hosting environment may be either browser hosted or standalone.
Claims20
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components, comprising:
- a body of code that includes a function call that operates to cause the body of code to be hosted in a first hosting environment, the absence of the function call being operative to cause the body of code to be hosted in a second hosting environment.
The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the body of code comprises an executable file.
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components, comprising:
- an executable file, comprising:
- a first portion including computer-executable instructions operative for performing operations;
- and
- a second portion including a function call which, when invoked, is operative to cause the executable file to be executed in an alternative hosting environment.
A computer-executable method of hosting an executable file in a hosting environment, the method comprising:
- providing a shell environment that is operative to launch the executable file in a default hosting environment common to other executable files;
- and
- providing a function that, if called by the executable file, is operative to cause the executable file to be launched in an alternative hosting environment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.