Patent ID: 7590981

Claim:
A tangible computer-readable medium bearing an update package for use by an update agent to perform an offline update of a software application on a client computer, the update package comprising: an update catalog file, the update catalog file comprising: a list of updates available in the update package; and a table of file locations of update payloads corresponding to each update available in the update package; a set of update fragments for each update available in the update catalog file, wherein each update fragment represents a communication exchange of update transaction information simulating information to be exchanged between the client computer and an online update service when communication with the online update service is unavailable, and wherein each set of update fragments corresponds to a set of transaction information and which is used by an update agent's media module to simulate communication with the online update service in responding to communications from the update agent's communication module when the communication module when the communication with the online update service is unavailable; and an update payload, wherein the update payload includes at least one update file for an update available in the update catalog file, and such that the update file effectuates one or more modifications on the software application, wherein the update payload is installed by the update agent using the media module.