Mobile App Development Sandbox for Incremental Debugging

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Solution Overview

Problem

Mobile application developers face significant overhead and hindered authoring experiences due to the need for repackaging and reinstallation of applications on mobile devices for incremental debugging changes, as third-party IDEs are not allowed to deploy updates directly to the mobile device's sandbox.

Innovation Solution

Creating a temporary sandbox on the mobile device allows for incremental changes to be tested and debugged without repackaging and reinstallation, by using an application driver to write compiled files to a writable area, enabling seamless transitions between authoring and debugging tasks.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If third party IDEs deploy applications to mobile device sandbox, then application testing and debugging capability is improved, but platform security restrictions prevent this deployment

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveapplication testing capabilityVSAvoidplatform security

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism that bridges the IDE and the mobile device sandbox. The system uses a combination of remote file system mounting and local file system access to enable the IDE to deploy and test applications without directly accessing the protected sandbox, thus maintaining security while enabling development capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If developers repackage entire application for incremental changes, then application update is achieved, but packaging time and overhead increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveapplication update capabilityVSAvoidpackaging time

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the application deployment process into separate components. Instead of repackaging the entire application, the system allows incremental updates by deploying only the changed files or modules to the mobile device, significantly reducing packaging time and improving development productivity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-compiling and preparing update components in the development environment before deploying them to the mobile device. This allows incremental changes to be tested without waiting for full application repackaging, reducing the time loss associated with updates.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Ease of operation

If IDE offers seamless transitions between authoring and debugging, then authoring experience is improved, but current repackaging process hinders this transition

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveauthoring experienceVSAvoiddeployment process complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges the authoring and debugging environments by enabling the IDE to directly access and test application components on the mobile device through the intermediary mechanism. This integration eliminates the need to switch between separate repackaging and testing processes, providing seamless transitions and improving the overall authoring experience.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS8930917B2Method and apparatus for mobile application development and testing that avoids repackaging and reinstallation

Publication Date: 2015.01.06 ADOBE INC

AI summary

A computer implemented method and apparatus for mobile application development comprises receiving at least one compiled source code file into the temporary sandbox; and testing the at least one compiled source code file in the temporary sandbox.