Unified Package Manager for Multi-Domain Home Screen
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile devices running multiple virtualized operating systems face challenges in presenting a unified home screen that displays applications from multiple domains securely, while maintaining isolation between corporate and personal data and applications.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize a unified package manager and application launcher within a hybrid domain to retrieve and decorate package information from multiple domains, allowing a single home screen to list and launch applications across different operating system instances without requiring changes to the home screen application, by intercepting API calls and providing decorated package information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple virtualized operating systems are run on a single device, then security is improved through domain isolation, but the complexity of managing applications across domains increases
Solution Approach 1:
A unified package manager is introduced as an intermediary component that receives requests from the home screen application, queries multiple domain-specific package managers across different operating systems, aggregates the results, and presents a unified view to the user. This mediator handles the complexity of cross-domain application management while allowing the home screen to remain simple and unaware of the underlying multi-domain architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified package manager serves multiple functions: it acts as a client to individual domain package managers, aggregates package information from multiple domains, decorates package data with domain-specific information, and provides a unified interface to the home screen application. This multi-functional component resolves the complexity of managing applications across multiple virtualized operating systems.
2Ease of operation
If a single home screen displays applications from multiple domains, then user convenience is improved, but the risk of security breaches between domains increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by decorating package information with domain-specific identifiers and attributes. Each application listing includes metadata that identifies its source domain, allowing the system to maintain a unified user interface while preserving domain-specific security contexts. This enables the home screen to display applications from multiple domains without compromising domain isolation.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified package manager acts as a secure intermediary that retrieves package information from multiple domains through controlled API calls. It decorates the retrieved information with domain identifiers and passes it to the home screen application, which then displays applications from all domains in a unified manner. The actual application launching is handled by the target domain's application launcher, maintaining security boundaries while providing user convenience.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the home screen application is modified to support multiple domains, then domain-specific functionality is improved, but the adaptability of the home screen across different systems decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The multi-domain management functionality is extracted from the home screen application and placed in a separate unified package manager component. The home screen application maintains its original simple structure and only interacts with the unified package manager through standard package manager interfaces. This extraction allows the home screen to support multiple domains without increasing its own complexity, as the complex multi-domain logic resides in the dedicated unified package manager.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A method at a computing device having a plurality of concurrently operating domains for providing a unified home screen, the method sending a request for package information from a home screen application on the computing device; receiving the request for package information at a unified package manager on the computing device; requesting, from the plurality of concurrently operating domains, package information; receiving package information from at least one of the plurality of concurrently operating domains at the unified package manager on the computing device; decorating the received package information with domain information for a domain from which the package information was received at the unified package manager on the computing device; and providing the decorated package information to the home screen application.