RU2295752C1 - Method for controlling synchronization of software updates - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: computer engineering.

SUBSTANCE: method for controlling synchronization of updates of software includes recording into system memory of computer device of user of one software application, updating of this application in form of its full version or a set of separate elements of application, comparison of software shipped as update and software present on user side in its current condition to detect differences, combination of elements of user software and elements of software shipped as update in overwriting mode.

EFFECT: increased reliability and installation and reliability of process of installation of complicated software.

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Description

The invention relates to the field of computer engineering and programming, and in particular to the field of development of applied software tools (applications) on certain technological software platforms and the delivery of their updates to user computers.

The concept of a software platform and platform-oriented application building is now generally accepted and is interpreted much more widely than just the ability of an application to work in a specific operating system. A platform is understood as a runtime environment and a set of technologies used as the basis for building a certain range of applications.

Hereinafter, “application” will mean computer application software that performs many different functions and allows the user to solve many different tasks, while the terms “application”, “computer program” and “software” will be used synonymously.

Since object-oriented approaches are currently widely used in the design and development of application software, the application for both the developer and the user does not appear as a continuous sequence of data and commands (which is actually any computer program if it is considered on low machine level), but in the form of a clearly structured set of software objects that have a certain functional purpose. Moreover, each object is usually assigned a name and a unique (within the application) identifier. Below, synonyms can use the terms “objects”, “components”, “parts of an application” and “elements of an application”.

Methods for installing and configuring software are known (Andreev A.G. et al. Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Professional / Under general editing by Chekmarev A.N. and Vishnyakova D.B. - St. Petersburg: BHV - St. Petersburg, 2000 - 992 s. .: p. 145, 373). These methods are implemented in modern digital computers in the form of installation programs that copy software files to the destination computer, as well as record configuration parameters and other software configuration steps. The sequence of technological operations in known methods of installing and configuring software must be strictly carried out in the order specified by the developer of the installation program.

The known installation program Windows Installer is an integral part of IntelliMirror technology used to work with Windows 200 applications (Integrates with Microsoft. Visual Studio. Net Help. 1992-2003. Microsoft Corporation. 0103 Part No. X 09-19409, 19410, 19411). With its help, the installation of applications and their updating is simplified, the possibility of a “version conflict” is eliminated, and additional features for managing programs installed in the system appear. The installation program consists of a main installation package and associated installation packages. In turn, each installation package consists of one or more operations, combined according to the logic of the functioning of the installation package. The installation package may contain links to other installation packages. In this case, when performing the installation and configuration of the software, not all operations of each installation package can be used, but only their arbitrary selection, determined by the goals and composition of the software, as well as the configuration of hardware. The way to install and configure the software requires installation operations as part of these packages in the strict sequence specified by the developer.

In order to optimize installation processes within each installation product, a weight factor can be assigned to each installation parameter (US No. 2003/0163807, G 06 F 009/445, published on 08.28.2003). Each weighting factor, in combination with the state of the installation parameters and information about the partition of potential destination computers, is used in the selection procedure for each potential destination computer system for the corresponding package of installation packages. Each installation package that makes up the software installation and software configuration system by the method is developed independently of other packages and can subsequently be used in other installation programs in combination with other installation packages without any modifications. Therefore, firstly, within each installation package, the absolute order of execution of all actions is specified, and the installation packages are started from the main installation package by sequential search. Secondly, there may be the same type of actions in two or more installation packages. Therefore, during the installation and configuration of the software, the same type of actions will be performed as many times in how many installation packages they are repeated. This significantly complicates the exercise of objective control over the sequence of actions in the installation packages, it reduces reliability, makes the installation of complex software systems impossible.

One of the significant advantages of a clear distinction between the software platform and the application, especially in such areas of tasks as economic analysis or accounting, but not only in them, is the high level of adaptability of application solutions to the requirements of specific users.

Many manufacturers of software platforms and application programs provide mechanisms for updating versions, as well as for expanding application functions, including using additional components downloaded onto a user's computer from the network, such as the Internet.

A solution is known for providing network-based software extensions. This method assumes, in particular, that the application program or computer platform is installed on the user's computer, and via the network, for example, the Internet, descriptions of software extensions are delivered to the user, and these extensions are configured so that the downloaded and installed extensions can be included in user software platform (RU 2250490, G 06 F 9/445, publ. 2005.04.20).

A known method of installing and configuring software, including the allocation and download of installation packages, starting with the main one, assigning in each installation package the weight of each one or more than one selected value of one or more installation parameters associated with the installation and configuration of the software installation package, determining the set of destination computers on which the installation of the software installation package can be carried out, determining the procedure Calculation of each of the installation parameters, partitioning the set of destination computers in accordance with each installation parameter using the assigned weights in combination with the state of the installation parameters, calculating the correspondence of each installation parameter for each of the potential destination computer systems, with one or more operations in each installation the package are combined according to the logic of the functioning of the installation package into a phase to which one or more attributes are assigned, followed by Each successive phase of the current installation package is selected, analyzed, identified and marked with a label; in this case, if the next phase of the downloaded installation package is marked as processed, the system proceeds to the next phase of the downloaded installation package, and if the next phase of the downloaded installation package is not marked as processed, then the next phase is called in each nested installation package, and if the next phase does not have calls in each nested installation package, then its identifier is entered in the absolute sequence of the phases, and if the current phase is found in one of the installation packages, then all phases located before the found one are found, analyzed and identified, and the found phase itself, each of which is marked with processing as processed (RU 2260839, G 06 F 9/445, publ. 2005.09.20).

This well-known solution offers a way to install and configure software on a user's computer with the ability to objectively control the process of installing programs, including when using a set of installation packages. This, in particular, allows the installation and updating of complex software, including the selective updating of individual components of such software on a user's computer.

This technical solution was made as a prototype for the claimed object.

But for a number of software applications, for example, designed to solve the problems of economic analysis, accounting and planning, and control of production processes, the ability to effectively modify the finished application by a user or a third party who was not involved in its creation is especially important. With an industrial approach to the development and support of applications, as a rule, programs are created by teams of programmers not from scratch, but standard solutions are finalized and developed. Such software applications often provide for the possibility of their flexible configuration and making changes to them by the user or third-party developers on the request of the user. Such changes made by the user can be very significant and can affect, in particular, the user interface of the application, its individual objects (forms, modules, directories, reports, etc.) that provide solutions to the user's application problems, but at the same time are closely related with each other, and even the data storage structure.

Thus, for a number of application applications, the task of delivering updates and extensions of programs prepared by the developer and installing them on users' computers is particularly difficult. For example, for economic software applications used by organizations and entrepreneurs to keep records and prepare regulated reporting, it is characteristic that, firstly, for such economic systems, updates and extensions are issued much more often (for example, due to changes in the requirements of the law) than for other programs, and, secondly, the fact that quite often, as mentioned above, it is practiced to change the applied solutions by the users themselves in order to adapt the circulation software product about their needs. The latter feature is particularly difficult, since when a developer releases any update of an application solution, it becomes necessary to synchronize the changes made by him with those that were made during implementation and operation by the user (or by his order).

The disadvantages of the solutions described above are that when they are applied during the update delivery process, it is not possible to fully take into account the changes made by the user or a third party. As a result, the user either has to refuse the update offered by the developer, or, agreeing to update the software, after installing the received new components, partially or completely lose the settings, changes and additions that he made to the software used by himself.

The present invention is directed to solving the technical problem of updating custom software running on a user's computer, in cases where it is required to provide:

- updating not all, but only certain parts (modules, objects) of a software application, in cases where updating certain parts for various reasons is undesirable for the user;

- Updating various parts of the same software application through service packs supplied by various developers.

The technical result achieved in this case is to increase the reliability of the installation and ensure the reliability of the installation of complex software systems, especially those that are subject to frequent changes and adjustments, due to the possibility of objective control over the update process of the modified application.

The proposal can also be used in the process of developing a set of application applications in cases where one or more simple applications is a descendant of a more complex application and, accordingly, inherit some of the objects that make up the complex application. In this case, the developer modifies the elements within the framework of a complex (main) application, and then, using the update synchronization mechanism, updates the modified elements in all derived child applications.

The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that a method for delivering updates, installing and configuring software is implemented, which includes the following operations: delivering updates on tangible media or over the network and writing them to RAM or ROM of a user's computer device, comparing the software delivered as an update software and user software in its current state to identify differences, combining elements of user software and elements supplied as a software update, while the selection of elements of user software available to be replaced by the installed update is carried out on the basis of data on the support rules for a particular element and on the basis of data on differences in versions identified as a result of comparison .

In this case, when comparing the user’s existing software and installed as a software update for differences, a detailed comparison is made of those elements of the two indicated software versions that are marked as corresponding (comparable), while the correspondence of the elements is determined by their specific properties and featured automatically.

The result of comparing the software available to the user and delivered as a software update is provided to the user with output to a specific information display device and / or is recorded as one or more files on the storage medium.

When displaying the result of the comparison, the user has the opportunity to select various modes of displaying information about the revealed differences of the compared applications, at least the following modes are provided: displaying a list of elements that are present in one of the selected compared applications and are absent in the other; displaying a complete list of different elements of both applications; displaying a complete list of elements of both software applications, both different and identical.

According to the results of comparing the user’s software and delivered as a software update before combining, the user has the opportunity to independently mark the software elements as appropriate (comparable) or cancel the automatically matching elements.

Comparison and integration of the software available to the user and delivered as an update of the software can be implemented both by means of the software platform installed on the user's computer device, in the environment of which the software to be updated is running, and by using a special separately supplied software tool intended for comparing and / or combining software versions.

The rules for supporting specific elements of the user’s existing software in its current state are set by the user, taking into account the restrictions set by the software developer for each of the elements based on the value of this element to ensure the integrity and operability of the software as a whole.

At least one previous version of the software supplied by the developer is also recorded in the RAM or ROM of the user's computer device, which makes it possible to compare the software delivered as an update with the user's current state with this previous version and output the result in any form about the history of changes in the elements of the software installed as an update and the user’s software security in its current condition.

These features are significant and interconnected with the formation of a stable set of features sufficient to obtain the desired technical result.

The technical result in this set of features is achieved by analyzing the changes (comparing versions) and providing both the developer and the user with the ability to control the synchronization of updates up to individual objects and procedures of the program. The ability to compare applied software applications also allows you to copy individual functional program elements from one application to another in an automatic or semi-automatic mode (under user control).

The technical result from the application of the proposal is that selective recording of the delivered updated parts (modules, objects) of the software application to the users' computers is performed, i.e. Updates issued by a developer or several developers apply only to strictly defined parts of an application recorded on the user's computer without violating its logical integrity and overall health.

Management of the synchronization process, i.e. selective updating is usually provided by providing the user with the ability to directly indicate which elements of the application are subject to update and which are not. But when it comes to complex applications containing hundreds of objects, such an analysis becomes extremely difficult for the user. The user cannot always track the relationship between objects, and as a result of his actions (for example, refusal to update certain key objects and independently modify them), the functional integrity and performance of the application may be violated.

To avoid this, the developer himself must indicate which of the objects are key to the application and their modification or deletion can violate its integrity. When attempting to modify or delete such objects, the user will be at least informed of the consequences of their actions. Thus, for each of the objects, depending on its significance, the developer sets the rules for change. These rules can be Boolean values (flags), taking values 0/1, for example, “modification of the object is allowed” / “modification of the object by the user is undesirable”, but they can also be more complex sets of values, for example, for each object, the developer one of three or more states is specified.

The values of support rules and change rules can be conveniently written and stored in the computer memory together with the application objects themselves, but similar values can be stored in external information storages, in particular, in remote databases. Fixing the change rules established by the developer for each of the application objects and the rules for supporting objects set by the user allows them to be taken into account during the automated selective update procedure.

The drawing shows a version of the algorithm update version.

The following is an example of a specific implementation of the method according to the invention.

According to the present invention, there is considered a method for controlling the synchronization of software updates, including writing to the system memory of a computer device on which a software platform is installed that provides operation of at least one application application, updating this application in the form of its full updated version or as a set of separate application elements to be updated compared to the previous version, and the installation of the update in the specified application Kladno application.

A feature of this method is that after writing to the system memory of a computer device, application application updates perform a detailed comparison of this update and the application application installed in the computer device in its current state to detect differences in at least the general properties and / or parameters of the application, and / or individual objects and, based on the results of the comparison, form a record of the revealed differences indicating for each position of the compared elements the established limits to change them based on the value of this element to ensure the integrity and operability of the installed application as a whole, and then combine the elements of the application installed on the computer device and the elements of the application installed as an update in the mode of rewriting the whole elements of the installed version of the application by the corresponding elements supplied as part of the update, with the addition of new objects that were not in the wound from the update package e installed version, or in the overwrite mode of the corresponding individual elements of the application, while combining using those update elements of the application that have no restrictions.

Consider one of the forms of carrying out the invention.

The user has a software platform installed on the computer that enables the operation of one or more application applications also installed on the user's computer. By a user's computer is meant any computer system including a microprocessor device and a storage device. A user's computer can, in particular, have the usual configuration for an IBM-compatible computer: contain one or more processors, system memory (ROM and RAM), a system bus, input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse, and devices for reading external information carriers, information output devices, and run under the control of the basic input-output system (BIOS) and any operating system. The software platform is written to the RAM and / or ROM of the computer and its instructions are processed by the processor. One or more application applications are written to the RAM and / or ROM of the computer, the commands of which are executed by the processor either directly or indirectly, in particular with the use of an interpreter built into the software platform.

The delivery of updates for certain applications may take the form of delivery of service packs, including either a fully updated version of the application, or a set of individual elements (objects) of the application to be updated compared to the previous version. Service packs are delivered by the developer to the user recorded on tangible media or over the network, in particular, it can be the Internet.

Service packs are provided with service information indicating to which versions (version numbers) of the software application the given service pack is applicable. For example, the developer may indicate that the service pack to version 1.3 can be applied to the application versions 1.1 and 1.2, but not to earlier versions.

When the service packs are delivered to the user by means of the software platform, the version is checked and the potential possibility of updating the application installed by the user using these service packs is revealed.

It also determines the support status of the current version of the application installed on the computer by the user. The application, depending on the degree and nature of changes made to it by the user or third parties, can, in particular, be considered to be fully (automatically) supported by the developer or be withdrawn from full support. Changes in the application status are recorded in the service fields of the application file (s).

If the application has the status of a developer who provides updates that is fully (automatically) supported, then an automatic update is performed due to the received service packs without involving the comparison and merging of application versions, while all elements belonging to the previous version are simply replaced with new ones. A copy of the previous version of the application, however, can be stored on the user's computer, in particular for the purpose of tracking the history of changes in objects (see below).

If changes are made to the current version of the application installed by the user, the status of full (automatic) application support is removed. At the same time, however, it remains possible to apply the updates supplied by the developer to individual objects of such an application.

For these purposes, the procedures for comparing and combining application versions are used, which in this implementation of the invention are provided by software platform tools.

The software platform allows the user to make detailed comparisons of the various elements of two versions of the application: the general properties and parameters of the application can be compared, individual objects, in particular, screen forms, modules, description texts, layouts of printing forms, and so on, up to individual procedures and functions, can be compared, written in a programming language.

In one embodiment of the proposal, the comparison is made by writing at least two versions of the application to the user's computer’s RAM and analyzing their structure using a special algorithm implemented in the form of instructions from a software tool included in this case as part of a software platform.

The algorithm for analyzing the structure of the application, in particular, may provide for a comparison by internal identifiers (unique codes) of objects that are assigned automatically when the object is created. Comparison by internal object identifiers is effective when the compared versions of the application are descendants of the same previous version.

In addition, a comparison is made according to the names of objects - if they coincide, such objects are considered the same entity and then a more detailed comparison of them occurs. In relation to forms, for example, a comparison can be made by the form names, then by the page headings of the form and identifiers, if the correspondence of the pages is established, then the user interface controls located in them will be compared.

The results of comparing two applications can be displayed on any display device, for example, a monitor or printer, and also recorded in a file.

Comparison results are usually displayed in tabular form. The objects of the two compared versions, the correspondence between which is established, are usually located on the same line of the table. When displaying the result of the comparison, the user has the opportunity to choose various modes of displaying information about the revealed differences of the compared applications, at least the following modes are provided: displaying a list of elements that are present in one of the selected compared applications and are absent in the other; displaying a complete list of different elements of both applications; displaying a complete list of elements of both software applications, both different and identical.

Two objects of two compared versions are considered appropriate if they perform the same function in different versions of the application. As a rule, such objects have the same name and internal identifiers. In the process of finalizing the version, however, the user can make such changes in his version of the application that the objects corresponding in appearance will actually change their essence and begin to perform other functions. On the other hand, objects of two versions of the application that differ in appearance (for example, by name) can, in fact, be of the same type and perform the same function in the compared versions of the application.

In this regard, according to the results of the comparison, the user is prompted in an interactive mode to confirm the revealed correspondences between the objects, components and other elements of the two applications or to cancel the automatically established correspondence for certain elements. The user using input devices (for example, the “mouse” manipulator) has the ability to mark certain rows of the table and thereby confirm or deselect elements of different versions of the application.

Taking into account the corrections made by the user, data on the revealed correspondence between the elements of the compared versions of the application and the state of each element of one are written to the system memory and / or ROM of the computer in the form of a suitable information structure (array of variables) version of the application in relation to a similar element of another version (modified, deleted, unchanged, etc.). The indicated data can later be used in the version merging procedure.

Together with each version of the application, data is stored that describes the change rules for its specific objects established by the developer. In this considered embodiment of the proposal for each object, the developer sets one of three rules for changing objects:

1) “Changes allowed” mode - a rule that recognizes a modification with respect to an object as permissible;

2) “Changes are not recommended” mode - a rule that recognizes a modification with respect to an object as acceptable, however, when an attempt is made to modify the user is given an additional warning about the undesirability of changing such an object;

3) “Changes are prohibited” mode - prohibition of any modification of the application object; in case the object is modified, the application is completely removed from the support of the developer.

If the changes made by the user are consistent with the rules established by the developer for specific objects, then the application is assigned the status of being “on [partial] support with the possibility of change”. In this mode, it is possible to track the history of changes in two descendant versions (modified by the user and updated by the developer) in relation to the initial (previous) version of the provider.

If the changes are not consistent with the rules established by the developer, for example, an object is modified for which the "Changes are prohibited" mode is set, then the application is completely removed from support. When completely removed from support, updating objects of a user-modified version of the application is possible due to the delivered service packs only in manual mode, i.e. proceeding from the established priority of the compared versions or by setting by the user special union rules for each of the pairs of corresponding elements.

At least two merge modes can be applied to elements of two applications, the correspondence between which was established using the version comparison operation:

1) the mode in which there is a replacement (rewriting) of the whole elements of the application version installed by the user with the corresponding elements supplied as part of the update by the developer, and new objects that were not in the user version are simply added to it from the update package;

2) a mode in which the combination of the corresponding application elements occurs - individual details of objects, forms, modules, description texts, layouts of printed forms, stored requests, and so on, up to individual procedures and functions written in a programming language. In this case, the result of the combination is determined by the specifics of the corresponding elements of the application and depends on the association rules set by the user or developer, in particular, on the given priority of one of the compared applications.

In those cases when the application has the status of being supported (both full automatic support and support with the possibility of changes), as a rule, the first merge mode is applied.

As indicated above, when updating an application that is supported, a comparison can be made of the current and initial state of the application installed on the computer by the user, i.e. applications at the time of its previous delivery by the developer, since the reference version of the previous delivery is also stored on the user's computer.

This means that the comparison procedure described above can be applied to identify differences with respect to three versions of the same application:

(1) in the new delivery of the developer application compared to the previous delivery of the developer, for example, the difference between the versions 1.00 and 1.01 of the application supplied by the developer;

(2) in the current state of the application modified by the user compared with the initial (previous) delivery of the developer, for example, the difference between the version 1.00 supplied by the developer and its modified analogue operated by the user (version 1.00 ');

(3) in the current state of the user-modified application compared to the new application delivery, for example, the difference between the user-modified version 1.00 'and the updated version 1.01 supplied by the developer.

This allows you to visually trace the history of changes in objects in descendant applications, i.e. for each pair of corresponding application elements, you can determine whether there have been changes in them compared to the initial delivery of the developer. The comparison results may reflect the following states of objects.

User version 1.00 ' Updated by developer version 1.01 Item A is not changed. Item A is not changed. Item B not changed Item B changed Item B changed Item B is unchanged Element D modified Element D modified

The results of the comparison of the three versions are recorded in the system memory and / or in the ROM of the computer in the form of a suitable information structure (an array of variables, a virtual table, etc.), later they are used in the procedure of combining the updated version with the modified version of the user.

In order to ensure maximum flexibility, the tools of the software platform allow the user to establish rules for supporting objects of his modified application. For example, he may refuse to support the supplier of a specific object or application component if he assumes responsibility for further modification of this object or if this object is not needed to solve its applied problems (“Discontinued” mode). An object removed from support and deleted by the user, for example, during the upgrade will not be offered for recovery. In the described embodiment of the proposal, the user can set one of three support modes for each object: 1) removed from support 2) is edited while maintaining support 3) is not edited.

The rules for supporting application elements set by the user, as well as the change rules for specific objects established by the developer, are stored as service information in the computer’s memory, for example, they are recorded in the service fields of the application file (s). But it is obvious that such rules can also be stored in an external database, including on remote computers connected to a user's computer via a network or channel and providing data transfer. To change the rules for supporting objects, the user uses information input devices, such as a keyboard and / or “mouse” manipulator, with the help of which information is stored in the computer’s memory about which rule among the possible within the given software platform is set for a particular application object. In this case, the user does not need to establish support rules for each of the tens or hundreds of objects that may be part of the application. Usually, by default, a rule (predefined) is already set for each of the objects in the application, and only for those objects that the user modifies in accordance with their own needs or deletes, if necessary, they need to set support rules that are different from the predefined ones.

The next stage of synchronization - version merging - is carried out taking into account the rules for supporting objects set by the user. But the user sets such rules taking into account the rules for changing objects set by the developer providing support. For example, for an object for which the developer has set the rule “Changes are forbidden”, the only available (out of three possible) user rule “Not Editable” is automatically set. This is logical, because when you try to edit or remove such an object from support, the user will have to completely remove the application from support.

In the process of combining the modified but supported version of the user and the updated version of the application supplied by the developer, the following standard rules for updating the corresponding elements of the application are used.

User version 1.00 ' Updated by developer version 1.01 User-defined support rule Default merge mode Item not changed Item not changed Any Take from version 1.00 '(the element remains the same as in version 1.00 of the developer) Item not changed Item changed Discontinued Take from version 1.00 '(the element remains the same as in version 1.00 of the developer) Edited with Get from version 1.01 of the developer Not editable Get from version 1.01 of the developer Item changed Item not changed Any Get from version 1.00 ' Item changed Item changed Discontinued Get from version 1.00 ' Editable Get from version 1.01 of the developer

Thus, based on the information about the history of changes in objects in the compared applications, as well as on the basis of the support rules set by the user for his modified version of the application, it is possible to synchronize the objects of the user version in automatic mode.

This procedure is performed by reading the status data (change history) of at least two corresponding objects of two versions of the application (modified version of the user and updated version of the developer), as well as information about the support rule established for the analyzed object by the user. Then, using a special algorithm implemented in the form of instructions of a software tool, which in this case is part of the software platform, it is determined whether the object should remain unchanged in the user version of the application or should it be replaced by the object from the update package supplied by the developer. An embodiment of an algorithm for updating a version not withdrawn from developer support is shown schematically in the figure.

A similar procedure is repeated for each pair of corresponding application objects. For each pair, a control signal is generated, on the basis of which, if necessary, a specific object is replaced by a new one supplied by the developer as part of the update.

The result of the operation of combining versions is to write to the memory of the user's computer a new, selectively updated version of the application. This version is conditionally assigned a number corresponding to the number of the latest update provided by the developer. In the above example, the application version recorded on the user's computer after the update will have the number “1.01”.

Thus, the method of updating a user-modified application, which is at the same time [partly] supported by the developer, consists of the following main steps:

1) receiving update packages and writing them to RAM or ROM of a user's computer device;

2) loading into the memory of the user's computer device 3 versions of the application (user-modified version, updated version of the developer and the previous version of the developer);

3) performing the operation of comparing 3 versions of the application loaded into the system memory and forming an information structure in the memory of the user's computer device that reflects the established correspondence between the elements of the application versions and the fact of their change;

4) reading into the memory the user-established support rules for each element of the application, while such support rules are pre-set by the user, taking into account the restrictions set by the developer (the rules for changing elements established by the developer);

5) determining, on the basis of the information structure formed as a result of comparing 3 versions of the application, and the support rules established by the user, which of the elements of the version modified by the user are subject to replacement (updating) due to elements from the version updated by the developer;

6) writing to the memory of the user's computer a new selectively updated version of the application suitable for direct operation.

The present invention is industrially applicable, as it can be implemented using computer tools.

Claims (6)

1. A method for managing the synchronization of software updates, which includes writing to the system memory of a computer device on which a software platform is installed that provides operation of at least one application, updating this application in the form of its full updated version or as a set of individual application elements to be updated compared to the previous version, and the installation of the update in the specified application, characterized in that after writing to the system memory of the computer device updates of the application application carry out a detailed comparison of this update and the application application installed in the computer device in its current state to detect differences, at least in the general properties and / or parameters of the application and / or individual objects, and the results of the comparison form a record of the identified differences indicating for each position of the compared elements the established restrictions on their change, based on the value of this element this to ensure the integrity and operability of the installed application as a whole, and then combine the elements of the application installed on the computer device and the elements delivered as an application update, in the mode of overwriting the elements of the installed version of the application as a whole with the corresponding elements supplied as part of the update, with the addition of from the update package of new objects that were not in the previously installed version, or in overwrite mode and the corresponding individual elements of the application, while the combination uses those update elements of the application that have no restrictions. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that when comparing the installed application and the installed update of this application, a detailed comparison is made of those elements of the two indicated versions of applications that are marked as comparable, while the correspondence of the elements is determined by their inherent properties and attributes. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the result of comparing the installed application and the installed update is displayed on the information display device and / or recorded in the form of at least one file on the storage medium. 4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that when the comparison result is displayed on the information display device, a list of elements present in one of the selected compared applications and absent in the other is displayed, or a complete list of the different elements of both application applications is displayed or a full list is displayed different and identical elements of both applications. 5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the results of the comparison prior to combining mark manually comparable elements of the application and its updates or cancel the installation of individual update elements. 6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the comparison and combination of the installed application and updating is carried out by means of the software platform installed on the computer device, in the environment of which the application to be updated is running, or using the separately supplied software tool.