Method of hosting a first application in a second application

• US 10,402,239 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2017
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Degirmenci, Ozcan, Zeller, Mark Jeremy, Larimore, Stefan I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Roni, Syed A
• Application Number:
  US15/490,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20170220400A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A method of hosting a first application (e.g., a virtual application) inside a second application (e.g., a control displayed by a web browser). The method includes executing the first application inside a runtime environment generated at least in part by a runtime engine. The executing first application calls user interface functions that when executed inside the runtime environment generate a first user interface. The runtime engine captures these calls, generates messages comprising information associated with the captured calls, and forwards the messages to a user interface manager that is a separate application from the runtime engine. The user interface manager receives the messages, translates the information associated with the captured calls into instructions for the second application, and sends the instructions to the second application. The control receives the instructions sent by the user interface manager, and displays a second user interface for the first application based on the instructions.

Claims

1. A computer executable method for use with a first application configured to generate a first user interface and a second application displaying a second user interface, the second user interface being different from the first user interface, a runtime environment being implemented by a runtime engine executing in a host operating system, the first application executing inside the runtime environment, the method comprising:

receiving, by a user interface manager executing on at least one computing device, a user interface message generated by the runtime engine, the runtime environment encapsulating the first application from the host operating system, the user interface message comprising instructions generated by the first application and configured to modify the first user interface, the first user interface being displayable by the runtime engine;

generating, by the user interface manager, at least one user interface command for the second user interface, the at least one user interface command being generated based on the user interface message; and

sending, by the user interface manager, the at least one user interface command to the second application, the at least one user interface command being configured to cause the second application to modify the second user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating, by the user interface manager, execution of the first application.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

downloading, by the user interface manager, the first application from a server over the Internet.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

perform, by the user interface manager, an initialization process comprising loading a configuration file, wherein if execution of the first application is not initiated in a shell, execution of the first application is initiated in a suspended state thereby suspending execution of the first application, and the user interface manager ends the suspension of the execution of the first application after the initialization process has completed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising after receiving the user interface message:

identifying, by the user interface manager, one or more of a plurality of listeners configured to generate a user interface command for the user interface message, each of the plurality of listeners comprising at least one condition and at least one action; and

for each listener identified, determining, by the user interface manager, whether the at least one condition is satisfied, and when the at least one condition is satisfied, performing the at least one action of the listener, the at least one action generating one or more user interface commands.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

loading, by the user interface manager, at least one configuration file comprising configuration information for the plurality of listeners; and

configuring, by the user interface manager, the plurality of listeners based on the configuration information.

7. The method of claim 1 for use with the first application being a virtual application, and the runtime engine being a virtual runtime engine, wherein the virtual runtime engine captures the instructions generated by the virtual application and thereby prevents the virtual application from modifying the first user interface, and

the user interface manager receives the user interface message from the virtual runtime engine.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the user interface manager, a handle to the second user interface; and

using, by the interface manager, the handle to send the at least one user interface command to the second application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the user interface manager, at least one message identifying a call to an application programming interface function of the runtime environment; and

sending, by the user interface manager, the at least one message to the runtime engine, the runtime engine being configured to call the application programming interface function of the runtime environment.

10. A computer executable method for use with a virtual application and a web browser, the virtual application being executable by a virtual runtime engine and configured to call windowing functions each operable to display or modify at least one window of a first user interface, the first user interface being displayed by the virtual runtime engine, the virtual runtime engine being configured to capture calls to the windowing functions and generate user interface messages based on the captured calls, the capturing of the calls preventing the virtual runtime engine from displaying or modifying the first user interface, the virtual runtime engine executing within a host operating system, the web browser displaying a web page comprising a control configured to display content, the method comprising:

receiving, by the user interface manager executing on at least one computing device, at least one of the user interface messages generated by the virtual runtime engine, the virtual application being encapsulated from the host operating system by the virtual runtime engine, the at least one user interface message identifying a particular one of the windowing functions operable to display or modify a particular window of the first user interface;

generating, by the user interface manager, at least one user interface command for the control displayed by the web page, the at least one user interface command being generated based on the particular windowing function; and

sending, by the user interface manager, the at least one user interface command to the control, the at least one user interface command being configured to cause the control to display or modify the content displayed by the control.

11. A computer executable method performed by a runtime engine configured to provide at least a portion of a runtime environment, the method comprising:

executing, by the runtime engine, an application inside the runtime environment provided at least in part by the runtime engine, the runtime engine executing in a host operating system, the runtime environment encapsulating the application from the host operating system, the application being configured to instruct the runtime environment to generate a first user interface when executing;

capturing, by the runtime engine, user interface messages generated by the executing application thereby preventing the executing application from generating the first user interface, the user interface messages including instructions to the runtime environment to modify the first user interface;

sending, by the runtime engine, at least a portion of the captured user interface messages to an external process configured to generate a second user interface different from the first user interface, both the external process and the second user interface executing outside the runtime environment provided at least in part by the runtime engine;

receiving, by the runtime engine, one or more application programming messages from the external process in response to having sent the portion of the captured user interface messages to the external process; and

calling, by the runtime engine, one or more application programming interfaces associated with a first portion of the one or more application programming messages.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more application programming messages are received over a named-pipe connection between the runtime engine and the external process.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the external process is a user interface manager of a virtual process manager configured to download the application from a server over the Internet and initiate execution of the application.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the external process is a control displayed by webpage displayed by web browser, and the virtual process manager is configured to render the second user interface in the control.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second user interface comprises contents of one or more windows.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first portion of the one or more application programming messages comprises fewer than all of the one or more application programming messages, and the method further comprises:

sending, by the runtime engine, at least one user interface message to the external process for each application programming message not in the first portion of the one or more application programming messages.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

comparing, by the runtime engine, the captured user interface messages to a list of user interface messages, the portion of the captured user interface messages sent to the external process comprising ones of the captured user interface messages on the list of user interface messages to send to the external process.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the application comprises one or more threads, and the method further comprises:

setting up, by the runtime engine, a hook procedure for each of the one or more threads, each hook procedure being executable by a hook configured to monitor the thread for user interface messages, the hook triggering the execution of the hook procedure whenever the hook detects a user interface message, when executed, the hook procedure providing an indication that a user interface message has been generated.

19. A method of hosting a first application in a second application, the method comprising:

receiving, by a user interface manager, a request from the second application to execute the first application;

sending, by the user interface manager, a command to a runtime engine to execute the first application inside a runtime environment generated at least in part by the runtime engine, the runtime engine executing the first application in response to the command, the runtime engine executing in a host operating system, the first application being encapsulated from the host operating system by the runtime environment, the first application calling user interface functions configured to cause the runtime engine to generate a first user interface, the runtime engine capturing the calls to the user interface functions, generating messages comprising information associated with the captured calls, and forwarding the messages to the user interface manager;

receiving, by the user interface manager, the messages;

translating, by the user interface manager, the information associated with the captured calls into instructions for the second application; and

sending, by the user interface manager, the instructions to the second application, the second application displaying a second user interface for the first application based on the instructions and making the first application appear as if the first application is executing inside the second application.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the second application is a web browser.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the second user interface is displayed by a control operating inside the web browser.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first application is a virtual application.