Application development using mutliple primary user interfaces

• US 10,061,565 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2016
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Zabel, Shawn, Pike, Jeffrey, Bender, Brian, Doubleday, Dennis, Murawski, Mark D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Ted T
• Application Number:
  US14/987,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20160202958A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 717104-113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Generally discussed herein are techniques, software, apparatuses, and systems configured for application development for an application using multiple primary user interfaces. In one or more embodiments, a method can include receiving data indicating a plurality of workflow activities to be used in an application, each of the workflow activities including data corresponding to a configuration of a view model module and a list of views to be associated with the configuration, receiving data indicating a plurality of primary user interface views to associate with each of the workflow activities, receiving data indicating a connection between two of the workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities, and producing an application model based on the received data indicating the plurality of workflow activities, the data indicates the connection between two of the workflow activities and the data indicating the plurality of primary user interface views.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of separate and independent primary user interfaces for a single user;

a processor communicatively couple to each of the plurality of primary user interfaces; and

a memory database communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory database comprising;

a workflow activity repository including a plurality of workflow activities stored thereon and configured to be used in an application having states, wherein workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities are respectively associated with the states of the application, and wherein each workflow activity of the plurality of workflow activities includes data corresponding to a configuration of a view model module and a list of views to be associated with the configuration, the processor being configured to receive the data and instruct the view model module to perform one or more operations that cause a plurality of views of the list of views to be simultaneously presented on multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to the data being loaded into the view model module, and cause views of the list of views to remain synchronous across multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to transitions between states of the application; and

an application development module communicatively coupled to the workflow activity repository, the processor being configured to execute instruction from the application development module to cause a view of an application being built using the application development module to be displayed to a user, the application development module configured to provide an environment in which a user defines connections between workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities and produce an application model based on the user-defined connections and the workflow activities connected by the connections.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the application development module is configured to cause a display to present the workflow activities as objects which the user can drag and drop onto a workbench and allow the user to draw connections between objects on the workbench.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the application development module is configured to produce a document that includes a description of the application model.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the application model is configured to be bound to a primary user interface at run time or build time; and

a run or build of the application model is different for different primary user interfaces.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities are configurable so that a user configures a dialog to be presented using a voice dialogue view and text or a graphic to be presented using a visual view simultaneous with the voice dialogue view.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a view repository communicatively coupled to application development module, and wherein the environment further allows a user to associate one or more views with a workflow activity, wherein each view module defines a type of view to be provided in response to the workflow activity being performed.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of workflow activities are platform, view, user interface, and application independent.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, at an application development environment stored in a memory database, data indicating a plurality of workflow activities to be used in an application having states, wherein workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities are respectively associated with the states of the application, and wherein each of the workflow activities includes data corresponding to a configuration of a view model module and a list of views to be associated with the configuration;

receiving, at the application development environment, data indicating a plurality of separate and independent primary user interface views to associate with each of the workflow activities;

receiving, at the application development environment, data indicating a connection between two of the workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities;

producing with a processor coupled to the memory database, an application model based on the received data indicating the plurality of workflow activities, the data indicating the connection between two of the workflow activities and the data indicating the plurality of separate and independent primary user interface views; and

configuring, with the processor, the application so that the application is executable by a processor for causing a plurality of views of the list of views to be simultaneously presented on multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to the data being loaded into the view model module, and causing views of the list of views to remain synchronous across multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to transitions between states of the application.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising presenting the plurality of workflow activities as objects which the user can drag and drop onto a workbench of the application development environment and allow the user to draw the connections between objects on the workbench.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein producing the application model includes producing a document that includes a description of the application model.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising, binding the application model to a plurality of primary user interfaces at run time or build time;

and

wherein a run or build, respectively, of the application model is different for different primary user interfaces.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving data indicating a first view to be associated with a first workflow activity of the plurality of workflow activities and receiving data indicating a second view to be associated with the first workflow activity such that the first view and the second view are presented simultaneously in response to the workflow activity being performed.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first workflow activity includes a voice dialogue view and a visual view, and wherein the method further comprises receiving data indicating a dialog to be associated with the voice dialogue view and receiving data indicating a text or a graphic to be associated with the visual view.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising compiling the application model and loading the application model into an application.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage device comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving data indicating a plurality of workflow activities to be used in an application having states, wherein workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities are respectively associated with the states of the application, and wherein each of the workflow activities includes data corresponding to a configuration of a view model module and a list of views to be associated with the configuration;

receiving data indicating a plurality of separate and independent primary user interface views to associate with each of the workflow activities;

receiving data indicating a connection between two of the workflow activities of the plurality of workflow activities;

producing an application model based on the received data indicating the plurality of workflow activities, the data indicating the connection between two of the workflow activities and the data indicating the plurality of separate and independent primary user interface views; and

configuring, with the processor, the application so that the application is executable by a processor for causing a plurality of views of the list of views to be simultaneously presented on multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to the data being loaded into the view model module, and causing views of the list of views to remain synchronous across multiple of the primary user interfaces in response to transitions between states of the application.

16. The device of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising:

presenting the plurality of workflow activities as objects which the user can drag and drop onto a workbench and allow the user to draw the connections between objects on the workbench.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the instructions for producing the application model include instructions that, when executed by the machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising producing a document that includes a description of the application model.

18. The device of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the machine configure the machine to perform operations comprising binding the application model to a plurality of primary user interfaces at run time or build time;

and wherein a run or build, respectively, of the application model is different for different primary user interfaces.

19. The device of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising receiving data indicating a first view to be associated with a first workflow activity of the plurality of workflow activities and receiving data indicating a second view to be associated with the first workflow activity such that the first view and the second view are presented simultaneously in response to the workflow activity being performed.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the first workflow activity includes a voice dialogue view and a visual view, and wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising receiving data indicating a dialog to be associated with the voice dialogue view and receiving data indicating a text or a graphic to be associated with the visual view.