Patent Publication Number: US-11645187-B2

Title: Application curation

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/171,348 having the title “APPLICATION CURATION”, filed on Oct. 25, 2018, and claiming the benefit of priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/577,415 titled “APPLICATION CURATION” and filed on Oct. 26, 2017. The content of the aforementioned U.S. patent application and U.S. provisional patent allocation is hereby explicitly incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     This disclosure relates to software publishing, and more particularly to techniques for application curation. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Many modern computing systems offer to its clients (e.g., users, groups of users, processes, etc.) a collection of software applications (“apps”) that can be deployed to the computing systems. The software applications are often organized in an application marketplace or “app storefront” for presentation to the clients. The clients browse such app storefronts to select one or more apps to download and install on their respective computing system to perform some function or functions that are not native to the computing system. The apps available from a particular application source (e.g., app storefront, application repository, etc.) are often configured for operation on the specific computing system and/or environments in which they are presented. 
     For example, an app storefront on a particular mobile phone (e.g., a smart phone) will present apps that can run on the particular operating system and version (e.g., “OS1.2.2”) of the mobile phone. Other app storefronts support a different set of apps for their respective systems and/or environments (e.g., Android, Windows, etc.). The most popular of these heterogenous application sources can present multiple millions of apps to its clients. Clients at some computing environments may even have access to applications from multiple heterogeneous sources. For example, in virtualization computing environments that support multiple operating systems, clients can access applications from a set of app storefronts that correspond to each of the supported operating systems. 
     Unfortunately, there are no mechanisms available to assist a client in selecting apps from such numerous collections of apps from multiple heterogenous application sources (e.g., app storefronts). Legacy techniques force the user to iterate through multiple collections and browse through the numerous app storefronts using whatever browsing and/or keyword search techniques might be available at each app storefront. This process is extremely time consuming and often surpasses the limit of human comprehension. For example, a user looking for a finance application might search the millions of available apps using a keyword “finance”. However, the result set of such a keyword search could comprise hundreds or even thousands of apps. The user is then tasked to determine additional keywords and/or to manually analyze other information (e.g., app descriptions, app ratings, etc.) to reduce the result set to a manageable size. 
     With such legacy approaches, the user also has the responsibility to determine the comparative performance and/or security risk of a particular app. As the number of available apps presented to a client increases, the human and/or computing resources consumed in searching, analyzing, and selecting apps relevant to a client commensurately increases. What is needed is a technique to analyze numerous applications from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources to determine a set of applications that are (1) properly authorized, (2) properly configured for a set of client-specific computing resources, and (3) relevant to a particular client. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure describes techniques used in systems, methods, and in computer program products for application curation, which techniques advance the relevant technologies to address technological issues with legacy approaches. Certain embodiments are directed to technological solutions for deployment of centralized application curation agents that facilitate client-specific curation of applications from multiple heterogeneous application sources so as to populate custom client-specific application marketplaces. 
     The disclosed embodiments modify and improve over legacy approaches. In particular, the herein-disclosed techniques provide technical solutions that address the technical problems attendant to how to determine, from numerous applications accessible from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources, a set of authorized and/or relevant applications to present to a client. Such technical solutions relate to improvements in computer functionality. Various applications of the herein-disclosed improvements in computer functionality serve to reduce the demand for computer memory, reduce the demand for computer processing power, reduce network bandwidth use, and reduce the demand for inter-component communication. Some embodiments disclosed herein use techniques to improve the functioning of multiple systems within the disclosed environments, and some embodiments advance peripheral technical fields as well. As one specific example, use of the disclosed techniques and devices within the shown environments as depicted in the figures provide advances in the technical field of computing cluster management as well as advances in various technical fields related to human interfaces pertaining to app storefront access. 
     Further details of aspects, objectives, and advantages of the technological embodiments are described herein, and in the drawings and claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The drawings described below are for illustration purposes only. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  1    illustrates a computing environment in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. 
         FIG.  2    depicts a client-specific application curation technique as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation, according to an embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a block diagram of a system for application curation, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    presents an application authorization technique as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    presents an application tagging technique as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    illustrates an application curation control workspace as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  7    depicts a customized application marketplace presentation technique as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  8    depicts system components as arrangements of computing modules that are interconnected so as to implement certain of the herein-disclosed embodiments. 
         FIG.  9 A  and  FIG.  9 B  present block diagrams of computer system architectures having components suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure, and/or for use in the herein-described environments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure address the problem of how to determine, from numerous applications accessible from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources, a set of authorized and/or relevant applications to present to a client. Some embodiments are directed to approaches for deployment of centralized application curation agents that facilitate client-specific curation of applications from multiple heterogeneous application sources so as to populate custom client-specific application marketplaces for presentation to the client. The accompanying figures and discussions herein present example environments, systems, methods, and computer program products for application curation. 
     Overview 
     Disclosed herein are techniques for implementing a centralized application curation agent that facilitates client-specific curation of applications from multiple heterogeneous application sources to populate custom application marketplaces (e.g., app storefronts) that are specific to a particular user or client. As such, the curated contents of an app storefront that is presented to a first client (e.g., user) may be different from the curated contents of an app storefront that is presented to a second (different) client (e.g., user). In certain embodiments, a set of applications are accessed from multiple heterogenous application sources (e.g., app storefronts, application repositories, etc.). A set of curation rules are applied to the applications to determine a set of authorized applications. The authorized applications are processed against the curation rules to determine one or more publication attributes for the authorized applications. More specifically, curation rules are sets of logical tests or conditions that are applied over characteristics of an application or an application repository so as to make a decision as to whether or not to subject the application or an application repository to further processing. 
     Customized application marketplaces are populated with curated applications selected from the authorized applications based at least in part on criteria that derive from characteristics of the client (e.g., user, group of users, etc.) of the respective customized application marketplaces. In certain embodiments, the customized application marketplaces are generated responsive to an application view request from the client. In certain embodiments, the curation rules and/or the publication attributes are controlled at a user interface. In certain embodiments, the heterogeneous application sources comprise one or more sources that are local to a particular computing environment and one or more sources that are external to the particular computing environment. 
     Definitions and Use of Figures 
     Some of the terms used in this description are defined below for easy reference. The presented terms and their respective definitions are not rigidly restricted to these definitions—a term may be further defined by the term&#39;s use within this disclosure. The term “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application and the appended claims, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or is clear from the context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A, X employs B, or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. As used herein, at least one of A or B means at least one of A, or at least one of B, or at least one of both A and B. In other words, this phrase is disjunctive. The articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or is clear from the context to be directed to a singular form. 
     Various embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures. It should be noted that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are sometimes represented by like reference characters throughout the figures. It should also be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the disclosed embodiments—they are not representative of an exhaustive treatment of all possible embodiments, and they are not intended to impute any limitation as to the scope of the claims. In addition, an illustrated embodiment need not portray all aspects or advantages of usage in any particular environment. 
     An aspect or an advantage described in conjunction with a particular embodiment is not necessarily limited to that embodiment and can be practiced in any other embodiments even if not so illustrated. References throughout this specification to “some embodiments” or “other embodiments” refer to a particular feature, structure, material or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments as being included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in some embodiments” or “in other embodiments” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment or embodiments. The disclosed embodiments are not intended to be limiting of the claims. 
     DESCRIPTIONS OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG.  1    illustrates a computing environment  100  in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As an option, one or more variations of computing environment  100  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. 
     The diagram shown in  FIG.  1    is merely one example of a computing environment  100  in which the herein disclosed techniques for application curation can be implemented. A large corpus of available apps  116  from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources  110  (e.g., app storefronts, application repositories, etc.) are available to a set of clients  150  (e.g., user  152 , group  154 , project  156 , site  158 , etc.) in computing environment  100 . Heterogeneous application sources  110  can comprise a set of local apps  112  developed and presented (e.g., published) by local developers  102 . Such local apps might be developed by local developers that share with the client a common set of computing resources (e.g., a computing cluster of a particular enterprise). 
     Heterogeneous application sources  110  can further comprise one or more sets of external apps that are made available via any number of external app marketplaces (e.g., external app marketplace  114   1 , and/or external app marketplace  114   N ), which external apps have been developed and presented by external developers  104 . Such external apps might be developed by external developers at respective sets of computing resources (e.g., at a respective app development firm) that are not shared with the client or with other developers. For reasons earlier discussed, a technique is needed to analyze the numerous applications from the heterogeneous application sources  110  to determine a set of applications that are (1) properly authorized, (2) properly configured for a set of client-specific computing resources, and (3) relevant to a particular client (e.g., user  152 , group  154 , project  156 , site  158 , etc.). 
     As can be observed in  FIG.  1   , the herein disclosed techniques address this need by implementing an application curation agent  120  that facilitates client-specific curation of applications from multiple heterogeneous application sources to populate custom application marketplaces (e.g., app storefronts) that are specific to a particular client. Specifically, the application curation agent  120  comprises an authorization service  122  that applies a set of curation rules  132  to the apps from the heterogeneous application sources  110  to determine a set of authorized apps (operation 1). Such authorization may be performed automatically based at least in part on the curation rules  132  and/or may involve manual intervention (e.g., by a system administrator). A publication service  124  determines various publication attributes (e.g., publication tags) of the authorized apps based at least in part on the curation rules (operation 2). 
     A marketplace generation service  126  at application curation agent  120  populates various client-specific application marketplaces with curated apps selected from the authorized (and tagged) apps based at least in part on a set of client data  134  associated with the respective clients of the corresponding client-specific application marketplaces (operation 3). For example, client-specific sets of curated apps  172  are presented in respective client-specific application marketplaces (e.g., client-specific application marketplace  140   1 , . . . , client-specific application marketplace  140   2 , . . . , client-specific application marketplace  140   3 , . . . , client-specific application marketplace  140   4 , etc.) based on client data (e.g., user attributes, etc.) associated with a particular client. 
     The techniques discussed as pertains to  FIG.  1    and herein facilitate improvements in computer functionality as compared to other approaches. Specifically, rather than present the entire corpus of available apps  116  to every one of the clients  150 , the herein disclosed techniques present a smaller, more manageable, client-specific sets of curated apps  172  in the client-specific application marketplace. The client-specific sets of curated apps  172  are selected to be applicable to each specific requesting client. As compared to prior approaches, the approaches disclosed herein serve to reduce the consumption of processing resources, storage resources, networking resources, and/or other computing resources. Implementing the herein disclosed techniques for application curation further improves the experience and productivity of the client when interacting with a large corpus of available applications. 
     An embodiment of the herein disclosed techniques as implemented in a client-specific application curation technique is shown and described as pertains to  FIG.  2   . 
       FIG.  2    depicts a client-specific application curation technique  200  as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation. As an option, one or more variations of client-specific application curation technique  200  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The client-specific application curation technique  200  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. 
     The client-specific application curation technique  200  presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that facilitate rule-based curation of applications available to a set of clients. As shown, the client-specific application curation technique  200  can commence by accessing a set of application metadata corresponding to a plurality of applications from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources (step  230 ). For example, a computing system of a particular large enterprise may interact with multiple app storefronts that comprise applications that can operate in the computing system. One or more curation rules are applied to the application metadata to determine a set of authorized apps from the applications (step  240 ). 
     A set of rules (e.g., a rule base) such as the curation rules comprises data records storing various information that can be used to form one or more constraints to apply to certain functions and/or operations. For example, the information pertaining to a rule in the rule base might comprise the conditional logic operands (e.g., input variables, conditions, constraints, etc.) and/or operators (e.g., “if”, “then”, “and”, “or”, “greater than”, “less than”, etc.) for forming a conditional logic statement that returns one or more results and/or invokes one or more actions. For example, according to the herein disclosed techniques, certain inputs (e.g., one or more attributes from the application metadata) might be applied to curation rules to authorize applications that are developed by certain vendors. Other authorization criteria codified in the curation rules might pertain to app security, app performance, and/or other aspects of the applications. Various publication attributes (e.g., publication tags) included in the application metadata of the authorized apps are determined based at least in part on the curation rules (step  250 ). As an example, the curation rules might be consulted to determine publication tags that map the authorized apps to clients that would consider the apps relevant (e.g., to their role or function). 
     A set of curated apps for a particular client is selected based at least in part on the application metadata of the curated apps and/or certain characteristics of the client (step  270 ). As shown, step  270  might be performed responsive to a client application view request  260 . Such a request might be invoked, for example, by a client (e.g., user) clicking on an app storefront icon in the client&#39;s workspace. In this case, the characteristics of the client might comprise attributes from a user profile. The curated apps selected specifically for the client are then presented in a client-specific marketplace that is accessible to the client (step  272   1 ). In accordance with the aforementioned example, the client-specific marketplace can be rendered in the client&#39;s workspace. 
     A detailed embodiment of a system, data flows, and data structures that implement the techniques disclosed herein is presented and discussed as pertains to  FIG.  3   . 
       FIG.  3    is a block diagram of a system  300  for application curation. As an option, one or more variations of system  300  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The system  300  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. 
     As shown in the embodiment of  FIG.  3   , application curation agent  120  interacts with heterogeneous application sources  110  and a set of representative client devices (e.g., client device  342   1  associated with admin  352 , and client device  342   2  associated with user  152 ). Heterogeneous application sources  110  can comprise a plurality of app storefronts (e.g., app storefront  316 ) and/or a plurality of app repositories (e.g., app repository  318 ). The heterogeneous nature of the heterogeneous application sources  110  is due at least in part to the mechanisms for interacting with the various app storefronts and/or app repositories. Application curation agent  120  accommodates such variability in a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) such as application source APIs  322 . Application source APIs  322  comprise a set of APIs that are designed to interact with a respective one or more heterogeneous application sources  110 . Specifically, application source APIs  322  serve to collect the metadata corresponding to the applications from heterogeneous application sources  110  for storage in application metadata  336  at application curation agent  120 . 
     Application metadata  336  and/or any other data described herein can be organized and/or stored using various techniques. For example, application attributes  338  associated with application metadata  336  indicate that the metadata might be organized and/or stored in a tabular structure (e.g., relational database table) that has rows that relate various attributes with a particular application. As another example, the information might be organized and/or stored in a programming code object that has instances corresponding to a particular application and properties corresponding to the various attributes associated with the application. 
     Specifically, as depicted in application attributes  338 , a data record (e.g., table row or object instance) for a particular application might describe an application identifier (e.g., stored in a “appID” field), an application type (e.g., stored in a “type” field), a publication date (e.g., stored in a “pubDate” field), a set of computing resources used by the application (e.g., stored in a “resources [ ]” object), and/or other application attributes. As shown, the “resources [ ]” object might store an operating system type (e.g., stored in an “osType” field), a number of CPUs (e.g., stored in a “numCPU” field), a maximum memory consumed (e.g., stored in a “maxMem” field), a number of GPUs (e.g., stored in a “numGPU” field), and/or other computing resource attributes associated with a particular application. The application metadata may also comprise information pertaining to an application&#39;s state (e.g., stored in a “state” field), a list of publishing environments (e.g., stored in a “publishTo[ ]” object), and/or other specialized data structures implemented to facilitate the herein disclosed techniques. 
     Authorization service  122  at application curation agent  120  accesses application metadata  336  and curation rules  132  to identify a set of authorized apps. Specifically, authorization service  122  applies a set of filtering rules  382  from curation rules  132  to application metadata  336  to determine a set of state attributes  324  for the applications represented in application metadata  336 . As an example, state attributes  324  might indicate a particular application is in an authorization state, a pending state, an accepted state, a rejected state, or a published state. The state attribute for a particular application can be stored in the “state” field corresponding to the application (e.g., “thisapp.state=authorized”, or “thisapp.state=accepted”), etc.). 
     Publication service  124  at application curation agent  120  accesses a certain portion of application metadata  336  (e.g., pertaining to applications in an authorized state) and curation rules  132  to determine various publication attributes for the applications represented in application metadata  336 . Specifically, publication service  124  applies a set of publication rules  384  from curation rules  132  to the portion of application metadata  336  to determine a set of publication attributes  326  for the applications represented in the selected portion of application metadata  336 . Publication attributes are values that control accessibility by a particular user, or by a particular group of users. Publication attributes may be codified as constant, static values, or publication attributes may be determined dynamically based on a formula and/or based on logic, and/or based on other values. As an example, publication attributes  326  might indicate a particular application is to be published into certain environments (e.g., the finance department, to Linux users, etc.) based on the application type (e.g., a finance-related application) or other characteristics. A publication attribute for a particular application can be stored in the “publishTo[ ]” object corresponding to the application (e.g., “thisapp.publishTo.addToList=finance_department”). In certain embodiments, the operations performed at authorization service  122  (e.g., application authorization) and the operations performed at the publication service  124  (e.g., application tagging) are performed in parallel and/or asynchronously. 
     In some cases, admin  352  may interact with a set of application curation controls  362   1  in a workspace  344   1  at client device  342   1  to determine one or more curation rules  132 , state attributes  324 , publication attributes  326 , and/or other information pertaining to the applications managed at application curation agent  120  in accordance with the herein disclosed techniques. For example, admin  352  might reject a particular application (e.g., due to a failure during testing) that would otherwise be authorized according to curation rules  132 . 
     Marketplace generation service  126  at application curation agent  120  accesses a certain portion of application metadata  336  (e.g., pertaining to applications in an authorized state), curation rules  132 , and client data  134  to populate client-specific application marketplaces with curated apps based at least in part on attributes from client data  134  that are associated with the respective clients of the corresponding client-specific application marketplaces. For example, responsive to a client application view call  328  from user  152  at client device  342   2 , marketplace generation service  126  can apply a set of display rules  386  from curation rules  132  to the portion of application metadata  336  and/or the set of client attributes from client data  134  that are associated with user  152  and/or client device  342   2 . 
     The outcome produced by evaluating the display rules  386  subject to the aforementioned application information and/or client-specific information is used to determine whether or not to present constituents of a set of client-specific curated apps  372   1  so they can be accessed from a client-specific application marketplace  140   5  at a workspace  344   2  of client device  342   2 . As can be observed in a set of client attributes  334 , the client attributes accessed by marketplace generation service  126  can comprise a client identifier (e.g., stored in a “clientID” field), a device identifier (e.g., stored in a “deviceID” field), a list of client roles (e.g., stored in a “role[ ]” object), a list of client groups (e.g., stored in a “group[ ]” object), a client location (e.g., stored in a “location” field), and/or other attributes associated with a particular client. 
     The components, data flows, and data structures shown in  FIG.  3    presents merely one partitioning and associated data manipulation approach. The specific example shown is purely exemplary, and other subsystems and/or partitioning and/or data management approaches are reasonable. 
     The foregoing discussions describe a technique for determining a set of authorized apps from a collection of applications (e.g., step  240  of  FIG.  2   ), which techniques are disclosed in further detail as follows. 
       FIG.  4    presents an application authorization technique  400  as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation. As an option, one or more variations of application authorization technique  400  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The application authorization technique  400  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. 
     The application authorization technique  400  presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that identify a set of authorized applications from a collection of available applications, according to the herein disclosed techniques. Various representative examples are also presented to illustrate the application authorization technique  400 . 
     As shown, the application authorization technique  400  can commence by enumerating a collection of applications identified as authorized candidates (step  402 ). As an example, the candidate applications might comprise apps (e.g., newly available apps) that have not yet been processed for authorization. Various filtering rules from a set of curation rules are accessed to facilitate the application authorization technique  400  (step  404 ). For each subject application from the enumerated applications, the application metadata for the application is retrieved (step  406 ). If there is(are) no application control input(s) pertaining to the application to consider (see “No” path of decision  408 ), the filtering rules are applied to the application metadata of the application to determine an authorization state for the application (step  414 ). 
     For example, and as shown in the example filtering rule  424 , a rule might analyze the application type (e.g., “finance”) to determine whether to authorize the application. If application control input(s) pertaining to the application is(are) to be considered (see “Yes” path of decision  408 ), any pertinent application control input(s) is(are) analyzed to determine an authorization state for the application (step  412 ). As shown in the example state controls  422 , a “Rejected” state for the application might be selected (e.g., by a system administrator). The determined authorization state for the application is then codified in the application metadata for the application (step  416 ). As depicted in the example filtering rule  424 , for example, the authorization state for an application of “type==finance” is codified in the application metadata by setting the application&#39;s “state” attribute to “accepted”. 
     The foregoing discussions describe a technique for tagging applications with certain publication attributes (e.g., step  250  of  FIG.  2   ), which techniques are disclosed in further detail as follows. 
       FIG.  5    presents an application tagging technique  500  as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation. As an option, one or more variations of application tagging technique  500  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The application tagging technique  500  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. 
     The application tagging technique  500  presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that tag certain applications (e.g., authorized applications) with publication attributes in accordance with the herein disclosed techniques. Various representative examples are also presented to illustrate the application tagging technique  500 . As shown, the application tagging technique  500  can commence by enumerating a collection of applications identified as candidates for publication tagging (step  502 ). As an example, the candidate applications might comprise apps that have been authorized but have not yet been tagged for publication. Various publication rules from a set of curation rules are accessed to facilitate the application tagging technique  500  (step  504 ). 
     For each subject application from the enumerated applications, the application metadata for the application is retrieved (step  506 ). If there is(are) no application control input(s) pertaining to the application to consider (see “No” path of decision  508 ), the publication rules are applied to the application metadata of the application to determine one or more publication attributes (e.g., tags) for the application (step  514 ). For example, as shown in the example publication rule  524 , a rule might analyze the application type (e.g., type=“finance”) to determine the publication attribute(s) for the application. If application control input(s) pertaining to the application is(are) to be considered (see “Yes” path of decision  508 ), any pertinent application control input(s) is(are) analyzed to determine one or more publication attributes for the application (step  512 ). 
     As shown in the example publication controls  522 , a “Finance Dept.” publication tag and a “Linux” publication tag might be selected for the application (e.g., by a system administrator). The application is then tagged for publication by modifying the application metadata of the application in accordance with the determined publication attributes (step  516 ). As depicted in the example publication rule  524 , for example, a “finance_department” tag is added to the “publishTo[ ]” object (e.g., list) in the application metadata of applications of “type==finance”. More specifically, publication rules are sets of logical tests or conditions that are applied over characteristics of an application or an application repository so as to tag the application with a display indication that is subsequently used in determining whether or not to present the application in a client-specific marketplace. 
     The foregoing discussions describe techniques for consideration of certain application curation control inputs when implementing the herein disclosed techniques. In some cases, control inputs and/or other information pertaining to techniques for application curation can be reviewed and/or defined in a user workspace (e.g., user interface) as disclosed in further detail as follows. 
       FIG.  6    illustrates an application curation control workspace  600  as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation. As an option, one or more variations of application curation control workspace  600  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The application curation control workspace  600  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. 
     The application curation control workspace  600  of  FIG.  6    comprises a user interface window  602 . As shown, admin  352  might interact with a set of application curation controls  362   2  in user interface window  602  to facilitate the herein disclosed techniques as implemented in certain embodiments. Specifically, admin  352  might desire to view and/or edit certain attributes pertaining to a “FinanceApp23” application. For example, admin  352  might want to test the application by clicking a “Test” button. Responsive to the outcome of the test, admin  352  might click the “Edit” button to change the “Application State” from “ACCEPTED” to another state (e.g., “REJECTED”). Admin  352  may further control the “Publication Tags” of the application by selecting one or more of the shown publication tags (e.g., “Finance Dept.”, “Engineering”, “Windows”, or “Linux”) and/or adding and selecting a new publication tag. Admin  352  can further edit and/or add “Applicable Rules” (e.g., curation rule R01, curation rule R02) that can be applied to various apps according to the herein disclosed techniques. When admin  352  clicks the “Save” button, the inputs from application curation controls  362   2  are codified in application metadata  336  and/or curation rules  132  at application curation agent  120 , and/or processed by other components of application curation agent  120  in accordance with the techniques discussed herein. 
     When certain attributes (e.g., state attributes, publication attributes, etc.) are codified in the application metadata of a collection of applications, client-specific sets of curated applications from the applications can be selected for presentation in customized application marketplaces as disclosed in the following. 
       FIG.  7    depicts a customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  as implemented in systems that facilitate application curation. As an option, one or more variations of customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. The customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  or any aspect thereof may be implemented in any environment. The customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that select a client-specific set of curated apps for presentation in a customized application marketplace to a particular client, according to the herein disclosed techniques. The depicted technique is merely one possible implementation of the functions of step  270  (of  FIG.  2   ). Various representative examples are presented to illustrate the customized application marketplace presentation technique  700 . 
     As shown, the customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  can commence by detecting a client application view request from a client (step  702 ). Various client attributes associated with the client are retrieved (step  704 ). A collection of applications authorized for access by the client are enumerated (step  706 ). Certain display rules from a set of curation rules are accessed to facilitate the customized application marketplace presentation technique  700  (step  708 ). 
     For each subject application from the enumerated applications, the application metadata for the application is retrieved (step  712 ). The display rules are applied to the application metadata of the application and/or the client attributes of the client to determine a display indicator for the application (step  714 ). For example, as shown in the example display rule  724 , a rule might compare the publication tag (e.g., stored in a “publishTo” field) of an application to the group identifier (e.g., stored in a “group” field) of a client to determine the display indicator (e.g., “true” or “false” stored in an ephemeral “display” attribute). If the display indicator is positive (see “Yes” path of decision  716 ), the application is added to a list of curated apps (step  718 ). If the display indicator is negative (see “No” path of decision  716 ), no further action for the subject application is taken in this flow. 
     When all enumerated applications have been processed, the curated apps selected specifically for the client are then presented in a client-specific marketplace that is accessible to a client device of the client (step  272   2 ). For example, and as illustrated, client-specific curated apps  372   2  (e.g., “FinanceApp23”, “AppX”, and “AppZ”) can be presented in a client-specific application marketplace  140   6  on a display screen of any type of client device. 
     Additional Embodiments of the Disclosure 
     Additional Practical Application Examples 
       FIG.  8    depicts a system  800  as an arrangement of computing modules that are interconnected so as to operate cooperatively to implement certain of the herein-disclosed embodiments. This and other embodiments present particular arrangements of elements that, individually and/or as combined, serve to form improved technological processes that address determining, from numerous applications accessible from a plurality of heterogeneous application sources, a set of authorized and/or relevant applications to present to a client. The partitioning of system  800  is merely illustrative and other partitions are possible. As an option, the system  800  may be implemented in the context of the architecture and functionality of the embodiments described herein. Of course, however, the system  800  or any operation therein may be carried out in any desired environment. 
     The system  800  comprises at least one processor and at least one memory, the memory serving to store program instructions corresponding to the operations of the system. As shown, an operation can be implemented in whole or in part using program instructions accessible by a module. The modules are connected to a communication path  805 , and any operation can communicate with other operations over communication path  805 . The modules of the system can, individually or in combination, perform method operations within system  800 . Any operations performed within system  800  may be performed in any order unless as may be specified in the claims. 
     The shown embodiment implements a portion of a computer system, presented as system  800 , comprising one or more computer processors to execute a set of program code instructions (module  810 ) and modules for accessing memory to hold program code instructions to perform: accessing, by a computing system, application metadata corresponding to a plurality of applications from a plurality of application sources (module  820 ); applying one or more curation rules to the application metadata to determine one or more authorized applications (module  830 ); determining one or more publication attributes from the application metadata corresponding to the authorized applications, the publication attributes determined based at least in part on one or more of the curation rules (module  840 ); selecting one or more curated applications from the authorized applications, the one or more curated applications being selected based at least in part on the application metadata of the curated applications (module  850 ); and presenting a selected portion of the curated applications in an application marketplace, the selected portion based at least in part on client data corresponding to a particular client (module  860 ). 
     Variations of the foregoing may include more or fewer of the shown modules. Certain variations may perform more or fewer (or different) steps, and/or certain variations may use data elements in more, or in fewer or in different operations. Still further, some embodiments include variations in the operations performed, and some embodiments include variations of aspects of the data elements used in the operations. 
     System Architecture Overview 
     Additional System Architecture Examples 
       FIG.  9 A  depicts a block diagram of an instance of a computer system  9 A 00  suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Computer system  9 A 00  includes a bus  906  or other communication mechanism for communicating information. The bus interconnects subsystems and devices such as a central processing unit (CPU), or a multi-core CPU (e.g., data processor  907 ), a system memory (e.g., main memory  908 , or an area of random access memory (RAM)), a non-volatile storage device or non-volatile storage area (e.g., read-only memory  909 ), an internal storage device  910  or external storage device  913  (e.g., magnetic or optical), a data interface  933 , a communications interface  914  (e.g., PHY, MAC, Ethernet interface, modem, etc.). The aforementioned components are shown within processing element partition  901 , however other partitions are possible. Computer system  9 A 00  further comprises a display  911  (e.g., CRT or LCD), various input devices  912  (e.g., keyboard, cursor control), and an external data repository  931 . 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, computer system  9 A 00  performs specific operations by data processor  907  executing one or more sequences of one or more program code instructions contained in a memory. Such instructions (e.g., program instructions  902   1 , program instructions  902   2 , program instructions  902   3 , etc.) can be contained in or can be read into a storage location or memory from any computer readable/usable storage medium such as a static storage device or a disk drive. The sequences can be organized to be accessed by one or more processing entities configured to execute a single process or configured to execute multiple concurrent processes to perform work. A processing entity can be hardware-based (e.g., involving one or more cores) or software-based, and/or can be formed using a combination of hardware and software that implements logic, and/or can carry out computations and/or processing steps using one or more processes and/or one or more tasks and/or one or more threads or any combination thereof. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, computer system  9 A 00  performs specific networking operations using one or more instances of communications interface  914 . Instances of communications interface  914  may comprise one or more networking ports that are configurable (e.g., pertaining to speed, protocol, physical layer characteristics, media access characteristics, etc.) and any particular instance of communications interface  914  or port thereto can be configured differently from any other particular instance. Portions of a communication protocol can be carried out in whole or in part by any instance of communications interface  914 , and data (e.g., packets, data structures, bit fields, etc.) can be positioned in storage locations within communications interface  914 , or within system memory, and such data can be accessed (e.g., using random access addressing, or using direct memory access DMA, etc.) by devices such as data processor  907 . 
     Communications link  915  can be configured to transmit (e.g., send, receive, signal, etc.) any types of communications packets (e.g., communication packet  938   1 , communication packet  938   N ) comprising any organization of data items. The data items can comprise a payload data area  937 , a destination address  936  (e.g., a destination IP address), a source address  935  (e.g., a source IP address), and can include various encodings or formatting of bit fields to populate packet characteristics  934 . In some cases, the packet characteristics include a version identifier, a packet or payload length, a traffic class, a flow label, etc. In some cases, payload data area  937  comprises a data structure that is encoded and/or formatted to fit into byte or word boundaries of the packet. 
     In some embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement aspects of the disclosure. Thus, embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and/or software. In embodiments, the term “logic” shall mean any combination of software or hardware that is used to implement all or part of the disclosure. 
     The term “computer readable medium” or “computer usable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to data processor  907  for execution. Such a medium may take many forms including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks such as disk drives or tape drives. Volatile media includes dynamic memory such as RAM. 
     Common forms of computer readable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium; CD-ROM or any other optical medium; punch cards, paper tape, or any other physical medium with patterns of holes; RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, or any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other non-transitory computer readable medium. Such data can be stored, for example, in any form of external data repository  931 , which in turn can be formatted into any one or more storage areas, and which can comprise parameterized storage  939  accessible by a key (e.g., filename, table name, block address, offset address, etc.). 
     Execution of the sequences of instructions to practice certain embodiments of the disclosure are performed by a single instance of a computer system  9 A 00 . According to certain embodiments of the disclosure, two or more instances of computer system  9 A 00  coupled by a communications link  915  (e.g., LAN, public switched telephone network, or wireless network) may perform the sequence of instructions required to practice embodiments of the disclosure using two or more instances of components of computer system  9 A 00 . 
     Computer system  9 A 00  may transmit and receive messages such as data and/or instructions organized into a data structure (e.g., communications packets). The data structure can include program instructions (e.g., application code  903 ), communicated through communications link  915  and communications interface  914 . Received program code may be executed by data processor  907  as it is received and/or stored in the shown storage device or in or upon any other non-volatile storage for later execution. Computer system  9 A 00  may communicate through a data interface  933  to a database  932  on an external data repository  931 . Data items in a database can be accessed using a primary key (e.g., a relational database primary key). 
     Processing element partition  901  is merely one sample partition. Other partitions can include multiple data processors, and/or multiple communications interfaces, and/or multiple storage devices, etc. within a partition. For example, a partition can bound a multi-core processor (e.g., possibly including embedded or co-located memory), or a partition can bound a computing cluster having plurality of computing elements, any of which computing elements are connected directly or indirectly to a communications link. A first partition can be configured to communicate to a second partition. A particular first partition and particular second partition can be congruent (e.g., in a processing element array) or can be different (e.g., comprising disjoint sets of components). 
     A module as used herein can be implemented using any mix of any portions of the system memory and any extent of hard-wired circuitry including hard-wired circuitry embodied as a data processor  907 . Some embodiments include one or more special-purpose hardware components (e.g., power control, logic, sensors, transducers, etc.). Some embodiments of a module include instructions that are stored in a memory for execution so as to facilitate operational and/or performance characteristics pertaining to application curation. A module may include one or more state machines and/or combinational logic used to implement or facilitate the operational and/or performance characteristics pertaining to application curation. 
     Various implementations of database  932  comprise storage media organized to hold a series of records or files such that individual records or files are accessed using a name or key (e.g., a primary key or a combination of keys and/or query clauses). Such files or records can be organized into one or more data structures (e.g., data structures used to implement or facilitate aspects of application curation). Such files, records, or data structures can be brought into and/or stored in volatile or non-volatile memory. More specifically, the occurrence and organization of the foregoing files, records, and data structures improve the way that the computer stores and retrieves data in memory, for example, to improve the way data is accessed when the computer is performing operations pertaining to application curation, and/or for improving the way data is manipulated when performing computerized operations pertaining to deployment of centralized application curation agents that facilitate client-specific curation of applications from multiple heterogeneous application sources so as to populate custom client-specific application marketplaces. 
       FIG.  9 B  depicts a block diagram of an instance of a cloud-based environment  9 B 00 . Such a cloud-based environment supports access to workspaces through the execution of workspace access code (e.g., workspace access code  942   0 , workspace access code  942   1 , and workspace access code  942   2 ). Workspace access code can be executed on any of client devices  952  (e.g., laptop device  952   4 , workstation device  952   5 , IP phone device  952   3 , tablet device  952   2 , smart phone device  952   1 , etc.). A group of users can form a client group  958 , and a client group can be composed of any types or roles of users. For example, and as shown, a client group can comprise a user, an administrator, a creator, etc. Any user can use any one or more of the client devices, and such client devices can be operated concurrently to provide multiple concurrent sessions and/or other techniques to access workspaces through the workspace access code. 
     A portion of workspace access code can reside in and be executed on any client device. Any portion of the workspace access code can reside in and be executed on any computing platform  951 , including in a middleware setting. As shown, a portion of the workspace access code resides in and can be executed on one or more processing elements (e.g., processing element  905   1 ). The workspace access code can interface with storage devices such as networked storage  955 . Storage of workspaces and/or any constituent files or objects, and/or any other code or scripts or data can be stored in any one or more storage partitions (e.g., storage partition  904   1 ). In some environments, a processing element includes forms of storage, such as RAM and/or ROM and/or FLASH, and/or other forms of volatile and non-volatile storage. 
     A stored workspace can be populated via an upload (e.g., an upload from a client device to a processing element over an upload network path  957 ). A stored workspace can be delivered to a particular user and/or shared with other particular users via a download (e.g., a download from a processing element to a client device over a download network path  959 ). 
     In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will however be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, the above-described process flows are described with reference to a particular ordering of process actions. However, the ordering of many of the described process actions may be changed without affecting the scope or operation of the disclosure. The specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than in a restrictive sense.