System and method for smart graphical components

• US 20040113951A1
• Filed: 12/17/2002
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brockway, Brandon
• Granted Patent: US 7,111,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/811
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A system and method in which a graphical component determines its appearance and runtime behavior based upon the type of container to which it belongs is provided. The container type corresponds to an implementation construct such as a class in C++ and Java, or a struct in C. This implementation construct is referred to as the classtype. The graphical component determines the classtype of it'"'"'s parent container at runtime and dynamically alters its appearance and behavior based upon a programmatic heuristic or a configuration file. For example, a smart graphical component placed inside of a container with a classtype of “desktop” may display descriptive text, however, the same component may not display the descriptive text when in a toolbar. Runtime behavior may also be determined based upon the classtype of the parent container. Component behavior resulting from user activation can also vary depending upon the parent container classtype.

Claims

1. A method of executing a container-aware graphical component on a computer system, said method comprising:

identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component;

retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype;

displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on a display device accessible from the computer system;

receiving a request for the graphical component; and

executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes.

2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the identifying further comprises:

retrieving a first classtype corresponding to a first parent object, the first parent object being the immediate parent of the graphical component;

determining whether the first classtype is a recognized container class;

retrieving, in response to the first classtype not being a recognized container class, a second classtype corresponding to a second parent object, the second parent object being a parent of the first object;

determining whether the second classtype is a recognized container class; and

assigning the classtype in response to the second classtype being a recognized container class.

3. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

traversing, from the graphical component, up an object tree of parent objects until a parent classtype corresponding to one of the parent objects is a recognized container class; and

assigning the classtype to the parent classtype that first matches a recognized container class.

4. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the parent classtype corresponds to a container, wherein the container is selected from the group consisting of a toolbar, a desktop, a folder, a window, a frame, a dialog box, and a menu.

5. The method as described in claim 1 wherein at least one of the display attributes is selected from the group consisting of a textual description, an icon size, an icon border, and an icon highlight.

6. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the graphical component is adapted to be displayed and executed on a plurality of operating system platforms, and wherein the displaying and executing are consistent across the plurality of operating system platforms.

7. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

booting one of the operating system platforms on the computer system;

loading a virtual machine middleware application on the operating system platform, wherein the virtual machine middleware application is adapted to run platform-neutral applications;

invoking a desktop shell application in the virtual machine middleware application, the desktop shell including a desktop window that includes one or more container windows; and

receiving the graphical component from a server connected to the computer system over a computer network, wherein the displaying is performed within the desktop window and wherein the executing is performed by the virtual machine middleware application.

8. The method as described in claim 7 wherein the virtual machine middleware application is a Java virtual machine and wherein both the desktop shell application and the graphical component are Java applications.

9. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory area accessible by the processors;

a nonvolatile storage device accessible by the processors;

a display device accessible by the processors;

an operating system executed by the processors for managing the information handling system;

a virtual machine middleware application running on the operating system;

a object handling tool for executing a container-aware graphical component, the object handling tool including;

means for identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component;

means for retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype;

means for displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on the display device;

means for receiving a request for the graphical component; and

means for executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes.

10. The information handling system as described in claim 9 wherein the identifying further comprises:

means for retrieving a first classtype corresponding to a first parent object, the first parent object being the immediate parent of the graphical component;

means for determining whether the first classtype is a recognized container class;

means for retrieving, in response to the first classtype not being a recognized container class, a second classtype corresponding to a second parent object, the second parent object being a parent of the first object;

means for determining whether the second classtype is a recognized container class; and

means for assigning the classtype in response to the second classtype being a recognized container class.

11. The information handling system as described in claim 9 further comprising:

means for traversing, from the graphical component, up an object tree of parent objects until a parent classtype corresponding to one of the parent objects is a recognized container class; and

means for assigning the classtype to the parent classtype that first matches a recognized container class.

12. The information handling system as described in claim 9 wherein the parent classtype corresponds to a container, wherein the container is selected from the group consisting of a toolbar, a desktop, a folder, a window, a frame, a dialog box, and a menu.

13. The information handling system as described in claim 9 wherein at least one of the display attributes is selected from the group consisting of a textual description, an icon size, an icon border, and an icon highlight.

14. The information handling system as described in claim 9 wherein the graphical component is adapted to be displayed and executed on a plurality of operating system platforms, and wherein the means for displaying and means for executing are consistent across the plurality of operating system platforms.

15. The information handling system as described in claim 9 further comprising:

means for booting one of the operating system platforms on the computer system;

means for loading a virtual machine middleware application on the operating system platform, wherein the virtual machine middleware application is adapted to run platform-neutral applications;

means for invoking a desktop shell application in the virtual machine middleware application, the desktop shell including a desktop window that includes one or more container windows; and

means for receiving the graphical component from a server connected to the computer system over a computer network, wherein the displaying is performed within the desktop window and wherein the executing is performed by the virtual machine middleware application.

16. The information handling system as described in claim 15 wherein the virtual machine middleware application is a Java virtual machine and wherein both the desktop shell application and the graphical component are Java applications.

24. The method as described in claim 15 wherein the virtual machine middleware application is a Java virtual machine and wherein both the desktop shell application and the graphical component are Java applications.

17. A computer program product stored on a computer operable media for executing a container-aware graphical component on computer system, said computer program product comprising:

means for identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component;

means for retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype;

means for displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on a display device;

means for receiving a request for the graphical component; and

means for executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes.

18. The computer program product as described in claim 17 wherein the identifying further comprises:

means for retrieving a first classtype corresponding to a first parent object, the first parent object being the immediate parent of the graphical component;

means for determining whether the first classtype is a recognized container class;

means for retrieving, in response to the first classtype not being a recognized container class, a second classtype corresponding to a second parent object, the second parent object being a parent of the first object;

means for determining whether the second classtype is a recognized container class; and

means for assigning the classtype in response to the second classtype being a recognized container class.

19. The computer program product as described in claim 17 further comprising:

means for traversing, from the graphical component, up an object tree of parent objects until a parent classtype corresponding to one of the parent objects is a recognized container class; and

means for assigning the classtype to the parent classtype that first matches a recognized container class.

20. The computer program product as described in claim 17 wherein the parent classtype corresponds to a container, wherein the container is selected from the group consisting of a toolbar, a desktop, a folder, a window, a frame, a dialog box, and a menu.

21. The computer program product as described in claim 17 wherein at least one of the display attributes is selected from the group consisting of a textual description, an icon size, an icon border, and an icon highlight.

22. The computer program product as described in claim 17 wherein the graphical component is adapted to be displayed and executed on a plurality of operating system platforms, and wherein the means for displaying and means for executing are consistent across the plurality of operating system platforms.

23. The computer program product as described in claim 17 further comprising:

means for booting one of the operating system platforms on the computer system;

means for loading a virtual machine middleware application on the operating system platform, wherein the virtual machine middleware application is adapted to run platform-neutral applications;

means for invoking a desktop shell application in the virtual machine middleware application, the desktop shell including a desktop window that includes one or more container windows; and

means for receiving the graphical component from a server connected to the computer system over a computer network, wherein the displaying is performed within the desktop window and wherein the executing is performed by the virtual machine middleware application.