System and method for describing and instantiating extensible user interfaces
First Claim
1. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for automatically instantiating user interface windows for interacting with at least one application program, comprising:
- providing at least one user interface definition, wherein the at least one user interface definition includes a description of any user interface elements and associated event handlers that are to be placed into at least one user interface window for interacting with at least one running application program;
automatically reading and interpreting the user interface definition prior to automatically instantiating the at least one user interface window; and
automatically instantiating the at least one user interface window based on the at least one user interface definition.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A “UI producer” is used to automatically instantiate extensible user interface (UI) windows. The automatically instantiated UI windows are based on dynamic definitions of those UI'"'"'s. These UI definitions, which include descriptions of controls or other elements used to populate one or more UI windows, are read and interpreted by the UI producer prior to rendering the UI windows. In addition, these UI definitions may also define or reference one or more event handlers or “listeners” that are to be associated with particular controls, groups of controls, or entire UI windows so that the controls or UI windows are capable of interacting with an associated application. After reading the UI definitions, the UI descriptions are acted upon to automatically instantiate each UI window using at least one database of predefined controls and custom elements, with automatic layout rules being used to organize controls and elements within each UI window.
293 Citations
57 Claims
-
1. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for automatically instantiating user interface windows for interacting with at least one application program, comprising:
-
providing at least one user interface definition, wherein the at least one user interface definition includes a description of any user interface elements and associated event handlers that are to be placed into at least one user interface window for interacting with at least one running application program;
automatically reading and interpreting the user interface definition prior to automatically instantiating the at least one user interface window; and
automatically instantiating the at least one user interface window based on the at least one user interface definition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A system for automatically generating user interface windows for interacting with at least one computer program, comprising:
-
loading at least one primary user interface description file, wherein the at least one primary user interface description file specifies any of user interface elements to be included in a user interface window, general relationships between the user interface elements, and zero or more event handlers to be associated with particular user interface elements; and
interpreting the at least one primary user interface description file for arranging the at least one user interface elements for at least one user interface window and automatically rendering the at least one user interface window for interfacing with at least one computer program. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 57)
-
-
42. A computer-implemented process for describing user interface windows, comprising using a computing device to:
-
create at least one user interface (UI) definition file;
wherein each UI definition file includes descriptions of any UI elements that are to be used in automatically instantiating at least one UI window;
wherein at least one of the UI definition files includes descriptions of any listeners that are to be associated with one or more of the UI elements for providing an interface between the UI elements and one or more computer programs; and
wherein the at least one UI definition file includes descriptions of any parent, child, and sibling relationships between each UI element within each UI window. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
-
Specification