US 6,715,144 B2Granted

Request based automation of software installation, customization and activation

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsGregory Daynes, Norbert Lenz, Adrainus Schuur

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Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method for request based installation, customization and activation of software products on a computer system by means of a setup infrastructure (20) for coordinating the process phases. A plurality of exploiter plug-ins (24) are provided, each assigned to a program product already installed in the computer system or a program product to be installed. The exploiter plug-ins are used by the setup infrastructure for indicating a program package description and program product description and for providing customization dialogs and support to instantiate and activate the program to be installed. Bind supporter plug-ins (23) are assigned to selected ones of the program products and used for supporting the binding procedure by providing bind services to the setup infrastructure. The supporter plug-ins are used by the exploiter plug-ins to establish binding to at least some of the program packages or products stored, where the binding parameters needed by the exploiter plug-ins are indicated to the supporter plug-ins by bind requests. Package adapter plug-ins are provided to provide data format information for enabling the setup infrastructure to identify a program product to be installed and to generate product definition data. A management directory (27) is used for storing data associated with a particular program product and references to program products in a program library of the computer system.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A system for request based installation, customization and activation of computer program packages or products on a computer system operated by a system control program which provides support for the installation, customization and activation of computer program packages or products, said computer system having a plurality of system resources including a plurality of program packages and products stored in the system, where at least some of said program packages and products stored in the system have interdependencies among each other and where for a program packages or product to be installed, customized and activated interdependencies have to be established to at least some of the program packages and products stored in the system, the system comprising:

setup infrastructure means for coordinating the loading, customization, binding and activation of the program package or product to be installed customized and activated;
a plurality of first plug-in means each connected to one system resource of said plurality of system resources and used by the setup infrastructure means for creating a product definition, for providing customization dialogs and for support to initialize and modify said program package or product to be installed, customized and activated;
a plurality of second plug-in means each connected to selected ones of said plurality of system resources for providing bind services to the setup infrastructure means, said bind services are used by said first plug-in means to establish binding to at least some of the program packages and products store in the system, where binding parameters needed by the first plug-in means are indicated to the second plug-in means by bind requests to generically describe a state of at least one system resource of the plurality of system resources to facilitate successful installation, customization and activation of the program package or product to be installed, customized and activated, said bind requests to be interpreted by said bind services at bind time, and
wherein said bind services establish said binding using implementation specific details of the at least some of the program packages and products stored in the system, without said implementation specific details being specic details being specified in said bind requests.

1 more element

A method for request based installation, customization and activation of computer program packages or products on a computer system operated by a system control program which provides support for the installation, customization and activation of computer program packages or products, said computer system having a plurality of system resources including a plurality of program packages and products stored in the system, where at least some of said program packages and products stored in the system have interdependencies among each other and where for a program package or product to be installed, customized and activated interdependencies have to be established to at least some of the program packages and products stored in the system, the method comprising:

(a) performing a coordinating operation for loading, customization, binding and activation of the program package or product to be installed, customized and activated;
(b) creating a product definition and providing customization dialogs and support to initialize and modify said program package or product to be installed, customized and activated;
(c) providing bind services by at least some system resources of the plurality of system resources to said coordinating operation to establish binding to at least some of the program packages and products stored in the system using implementation specific details of the at least some of the program packages and products stored in the system, without said implementation specific details being specified in bind requests interpreted by said bind services;
and
(d) creating bind requests for generically describing a state of at least one system resource of the plurality of system resources to facilitate successful installation, customization and activation of the program package or product to be installed, customized and activated, and specifying binding parameters used to select bind services to be provided by at least some system resources of the plurality of system resources, said bind requests to be interpreted by said bind services at bind time.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.