Method and system for managing the resources of an application program

Abstract

A software resource manager is stored on a client computer and maintains a map of unique identifiers to resources, so as to determine those resources that are stored locally on the client computer and those resources that must be retrieved from a server system. The resource manager is further programmed to either pass the resources to one or more software applications or respond to a function call from the software application indicating that resources are needed. In this way, one or more software applications can be internationalized or customized without the need to distribute all of the resources for the application and without the need to restart the application.

1 . A method of managing resources of a downloadable toolbar application having a toolbar graphical interface and a language attribute, the method comprising: 
 (a) sending a resource management program from a server;    (b) receiving at the server a message to change the language attribute of the toolbar application;    (c) sending from the server system a preference parameter associated with a group of resources needed to accommodate the message to change the language attribute of the toolbar application;    (d) sending the needed group of resources from the server system if the needed group of resources is not stored locally on a client computer so as to modify the toolbar graphical interface using the needed group of resources to reflect the change to the language attribute of the toolbar application.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 recognizing a function exposed by the downloadable toolbar application; and    passing the needed group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application as an argument.    
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the downloadable toolbar application links to the needed group of resources to load text strings and image data into a memory of the client computer to thereby produce a modified toolbar graphical interface reflecting the requested change to the language attribute of the downloadable toolbar application using the text strings and image data.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 (e) storing the needed group of resources in a memory space of the client computer; and    (f) passing the needed group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application so as to enable the downloadable toolbar application to access the group of resources.    
   
   
       5 . A method of internationalizing a downloadable toolbar application, comprising: 
 (a) downloading from a server the downloadable toolbar application;    (b) installing the downloadable toolbar application on a client computer, the toolbar having a language specific attribute;    (c) sending to the server a message from the client computer that the downloadable toolbar application exhibits characteristics indicative of a desired language;    (d) receiving from the server system into a resource manager on the client computer a preference parameter associated with a language-specific group of resources needed to accommodate the message;    (e) determining whether the needed language-specific group of resources is stored locally on the client computer; and    (f) retrieving the language-specific group of resources from the server if the needed language-specific group of resources is not stored locally on the client computer so as to provide the language-specific group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application to generate a graphical user interface reflecting the desired language.    
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising: 
 passing the needed language-specific group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application so as to enable the downloadable toolbar application to access the needed language-specific group of resources.    
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the step of passing the needed language-specific group of resources comprises: 
 calling a function exposed by the downloadable toolbar application; and    passing the needed language-specific group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application as an argument.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising: 
 linking to the needed language-specific group of resources;    loading text strings and image data into memory of the client computer; and    producing a graphical user interface using the text strings and image data.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising: 
 storing the needed language-specific group of resources in a memory space of the client computer; and    passing the needed language-specific group of resources to the downloadable toolbar application so as to enable the downloadable toolbar application to access the needed language-specific group of resources.    
   
   
       10 . A software implemented resource manager operative on a computer to: 
 receive from a server system in response to an indication of a user preference a preference parameter associated with a needed group of resources for customizing a toolbar application according to the user preference;    determine, upon receipt of the preference parameter, whether the needed group of resources associated with the preference parameter is stored on the computer; and    retrieve the needed group of resources associated with the preference parameter if the needed group of resources is not stored on the computer so that the toolbar application is enabled to generate a toolbar interface using the needed group of resources according to the user preference.    
   
   
       11 . The resource manager of  claim 10 , wherein the preference parameter is a regional setting.  
   
   
       12 . The resource manager of  claim 10 , wherein the preference parameter is a language setting.  
   
   
       13 . The resource manager of  claim 10 , wherein the generation of the toolbar interface further comprises calling a function exposed by the toolbar application and passing the needed group of resources to the toolbar application as an argument so as to enable the toolbar application to link to the needed group of resources, load text strings and image data into a memory of the computer, and generate the toolbar interface using the text strings and image data.  
   
   
       14 . A system for modifying a toolbar interface of a toolbar application, the system comprising: 
 one or more computers having stored thereon a plurality of groups of resources, each of the plurality of groups associated with a preference parameter, wherein the one or more computers maintain a user profile database for storing a language preference for each of a plurality of users; and    one or more of the computers being connected to a plurality of user computers through a network, some or all of the plurality of user computers having operative thereon the toolbar application and a software implemented resource manager; and    wherein, in response to (i) a change in a language preference of a first user at a first user computer of said plurality or (ii) in response to the logging in at the first user computer of a second user with a language preference different from the first user's language preference, one of the one or more computers communicates an appropriate preference parameter to enable the software implemented resource manager on the first user computer to determine whether the group of resources associated with the appropriate preference parameter is stored locally on the first user computer.    
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the group of resources is retrieved from the server system if the group of resources is not stored locally on the first user computer.