Granted Patent B2

US 11,693,913 · App. 16/532,959 · Granted Jul 4, 2023

Inventors: Youjun Gu (Nanjing, CN); Fuping Zhou (Nanjing, CN); Wenping Xu (Nanjing, CN); Xiao Yuan (Nanjing, CN)

Assignee: CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC.

G06F16/9538G06F16/9532H04L63/0815H04L67/34

Abstract

Claims (67)

1. A method for searching applications, comprising:

receiving, at a unified interface running a computing device, a set of search terms, the computing device having a set of virtual applications configured to run within the unified interface, wherein the set of virtual applications are not opened on the client device when the search terms are received;

obtaining, at the computing device, a search list that specifies remotely located source applications that are searchable, wherein each source application corresponds to one of the virtual applications;

constructing a search request for each source application in the search list, each search request including the set of search terms configured for a search function of a respective source application;

receiving responses from each source application based on the set of search terms;

providing a list of search results to the computing device; and

opening a corresponding virtual application within the unified interface via the computing device in response to a selection of a search result from the list of search results.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one the virtual application comprises a Software as a Service (SaaS) virtual application.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the search request further comprises configuration information for the virtual application, the configuration information including:

a name of the virtual application;

a location of the source application corresponding to the virtual application;

a format for the search request and the at least one response; and

a communication protocol for the search request and the at least one response.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the configuration information for the virtual application further includes:

an authentication attribute for the search request; and

an authentication method, if authentication is required for the search request.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further including:

providing the search results list to a user within the unified interface.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further including bringing the user directly to a source page of content in the virtual application in response to the selection of the item.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein providing the search request to the source application corresponding to the virtual application further includes:

providing the search request to a common virtual application; and

forwarding the search request from the common virtual application to the source application corresponding to the virtual application.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein receiving the at least one response from the source application corresponding to the virtual application further includes:

receiving the at least one response at the common application; and

forwarding the at least one response from the common virtual application to the computer device.

9. The method according to claim 7 , further including:

sending a single sign-on (SSO) token for a user to the common virtual application; and

authenticating the user with the common virtual application using the SSO token of the user.

10. A computing device, comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform a method for searching applications, the method including:

receiving, at a unified interface running a computing device, a set of search terms, the computing device having a set of virtual applications configured to run within the unified interface, wherein the set of virtual applications are not opened on the client device when the search terms are received;

obtaining, at the computing device, a search list that specifies remotely located source applications that are searchable, wherein each source application corresponds to one of the virtual applications;

constructing a search request for each source application in the search list, each search request including the set of search terms configured for a search function of a respective source application;

receiving responses from each source application based on the set of search terms;

providing a list of search results to the computing device; and

opening a corresponding virtual application within the unified interface via the computing device in response to a selection of a search result from the list of search results.

11. The computing device according to claim 10 , wherein at least one virtual application comprises a Software as a Service (SaaS) virtual application.

12. The computing device according to claim 10 , wherein the search request further comprises configuration information for the virtual application, the configuration information including:

a name of the virtual application;

a location of the source application corresponding to the virtual application;

a format for the search request and the at least one response; and

a communication protocol for the search request and the at least one response.

13. The computing device according to claim 12 , wherein the configuration information for the virtual application further includes:

an authentication attribute for the search request; and

an authentication method, if authentication is required for the search request.

14. The computing device according to claim 10 , the method performed by the processor further including:

providing the search results list to a user within the unified interface.

15. The computing device according to claim 14 , the method performed by the processor further including bringing the user directly to a source page of content in the virtual application in response to the selection of the item.

16. The computing device according to claim 10 , wherein providing the search request to the source application corresponding to the virtual application further includes:

providing the search request to a common virtual application; and

forwarding the search request from the common virtual application to the source application corresponding to the virtual application.

17. The computing device according to claim 16 , wherein receiving the at least one response from the source application corresponding to the virtual application further includes:

receiving the at least one response at the common application; and

forwarding the at least one response from the common virtual application to the computer device.

18. The computing device according to claim 17 , the method performed by the processor further including:

sending a single sign-on (SSO) token for a user to the common virtual application; and

authenticating the user with the common virtual application using the SSO token of the user.

19. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, which when executed by a computing system, performs a method for searching applications, the method comprising:

receiving, at a unified interface running a computing device, a set of search terms, the computing device having a set of virtual applications configured to run within the unified interface, wherein the set of virtual applications are not opened on the client device when the search terms are received;

obtaining, at the computing device, a search list that specifies remotely located source applications that are searchable, wherein each source application corresponds to one of the virtual applications;

constructing a search request for each source application in the search list, each search request including the set of search terms configured for a search function of a respective source application;

receiving responses from each source application based on the set of search terms;

providing a list of search results to the computing device; and

opening a corresponding virtual application within the unified interface via the computing device in response to a selection of a search result from the list of search results.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19 , wherein the method further comprises:

providing the search results list to a user within the unified interface.

Assignments (9)

Continuity (2)