System for subscription and distribution service
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program apparatus, implementing techniques for publishing, subscribing to, or playing live appliances. A live appliance includes a current virtual machine image. In publishing, a proxy file of a live appliance file type is provided to the publisher. The type is mapped to a live appliance player; so that when a proxy file is opened, the current virtual machine image is run. The player automatically binds a writeable file system external to the virtual machine image to the image to provide file storage that is accessible from within the virtual machine image and from a host operating system. The player also creates a subscription to the live appliance on the host computer if one does not exist when the proxy file is run. With the subscription, the player runs the then-current virtual machine image whenever the live appliance is run.
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42 . A system comprising:
one or more computers coupled in data communication with each other and to a data communication network to interact with users; and
a post interface, an upload interface, and a system database implemented on the one or more computers;
the post interface being operable to receive post input over the network from a publisher user posting a live appliance to the system, the post input including data source information, the data source information including version information describing a version of a virtual machine image, the version having a virtual machine version configuration, in response to which the system registers the live appliance, creates a corresponding data source including the data source information, and stores the corresponding data source in the system database;
the upload interface being operable to receive upload input over the network from the publisher user, the upload input comprising the version of the virtual machine image, and to store the virtual machine image in the system database;
the system being operable to provide a proxy for the live appliance to the publisher user in response to the publisher posting the live appliance.
43 . The system of claim 42 , further comprising:
an update interface implemented on the one or more computers, the update interface being operable to receive update input over the network from the publisher user updating the corresponding data sources for the live appliance.
44 . The system of claim 42 , wherein:
the system implements a subscription service and a distribution service, the subscription service being implemented on one or more subscription subsystem and the distribution service being implemented on one or more distribution computers;
the post interface and a subscription database being implemented on the one or more subscription computers, the subscription database being a part of the system database storing the data source; and
the upload interface and an upload database being implemented on the one or more distribution computers, the upload database being a part of the system database storing the virtual machine image.
45 . The system of claim 44 , further comprising:
an update interface implemented on the one or more subscription computers, the update interface being operable to receive update input over the network from the publisher user updating the corresponding data sources for the live appliance.
46 . The system of claim 45 , further comprising:
distribution software operable to distribute virtual machine image to a requesting user.
47 . The system of claim 46 , wherein the distribution software comprises a centralized web server.
48 . The system of claim 46 , wherein the distribution software comprises distributed peer-to-peer file sharing software.
49 . The system of claim 42 , further comprising:
distribution software operable to distribute virtual machine image to a requesting user.
50 . The system of claim 49 , wherein the distribution software comprises a centralized web server.
51 . The system of claim 49 , wherein the distribution software comprises distributed peer-to-peer file sharing software.
52 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
in response to a user action opening a proxy file on a computer, automatically invoking a player application on the computer, the player application performing player actions comprising:
using the proxy file to locate the current version of the virtual machine image; and
causing the current version of the virtual machine image to be run by a virtual machine monitor.
53 . The method of claim 52 , wherein using the proxy file to locate the current version of the virtual machine image comprises:
obtaining feed data from a data source identified in the proxy file;
using the feed data to identify a current version of a virtual machine image; and
using the feed data to locate the current version of the virtual machine image.
54 . The method of claim 52 , wherein the proxy file comprises a hyperlink to a virtual machine and using the proxy file to locate the current version of the virtual machine image comprises using the hyperlink to obtain the virtual machine image.
55 . The method of claim 52 , further comprising:
binding data files for the virtual machine image to the virtual machine image automatically from outside the virtual machine image, the data files being also visible as local files on the computer.
56 . The method of claim 52 , further comprising:
installing a guest operating system dependent helper in the virtual machine image to implement a user file system protocol to read and write the data files on a local data store; and
the player performs player actions further comprising:
configuring a network file system server on the computer to provide the guest operating system with the user file system for reading and writing the data files.
57 . The method of claim 52 , wherein the data source includes an RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed and the feed data includes data obtained from the RSS feed.
58 . The method of claim 52 , wherein:
the data source is identified in the proxy by a link to the data source; and
the player uses the link to access the data source.
59 . The method of claim 58 , wherein the link is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
60 . The method of claim 58 , wherein the virtual machine image includes an operating system and application software installed on the virtual machine.
61 . The method of claim 58 , wherein the virtual machine monitor is a VMWare Player, a Microsoft Virtual Server, a Xen virtual machine monitor, a Parallels virtual machine monitor, or a Virtuozzo virtual machine monitor.
62 . The method of claim 58 , wherein the virtual machine monitor provides machine-level virtualization or operating system level virtualization.
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