Patent ID: 7107537
Filing Date: 2006-09-12
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An appliance application loading system for a network environment, comprising: a client; a web application server communicating with the client within the network environment and configured as a central location to store applications and configuration settings for an appliance to enable configuration setups for a plurality of appliances; a plurality of network-based appliances communicably attached with the web server within the network environment, wherein the network- based appliances each include an embedded device having a non-volatile storage device; and a loading mechanism provided on the network-based appliance and operative to download a first application to one of the appliances and a second application to another of the appliances from the web application server upon the occurrence of a power on/off cycle, wherein the loading mechanism is configured to deliver the first application in a first, dedicated servlet to the one appliance and deliver the second application in a second, dedicated servlet to the another appliance where the second, dedicated servlet is unique from the first, dedicated servlet, a first application header and a first universal resource locator (URL) are stored on the non-volatile storage device for the one appliance and a second application header and a second universal resource locator (URL) are stored on the non-volatile storage device for the another appliance, first and second application bodies are provided on the web server at a location corresponding with the URL for the one appliance and the another appliance, respectively, the URL being initialized to access the respective application body when the loading mechanism detects the respective application header, the loading mechanism is configured to automatically update one of the first dedicated servlet and the second dedicated servlet responsive to a user locally changing desired settings for one of the one appliance and the another appliance, respectively, and one of the first and second application bodies is configured to execute when one of a user and a selected one of the appliances accesses the respective application body at the URL to download at least one of the appliance packages, appliance configuration settings; and change configuration of the respective appliance on the web application server.