Patent attributes
A technique is described herein for updating a running application that includes a plurality of program modules (e.g., services). The technique performs its updating operation without having to suspend the execution of the running application, and without reloading all of the program modules in the running application. The technique leverages a mapping component to map a calling program module's call to a function to a called program module that implements the function. A current application manifest provides mapping logic for use by the mapping component. In some examples, the technique also transforms data passed by the calling program module to conform to a data format expected by the called program module. This is appropriate when the calling program module and the called program module use different schemas to define the data.