Hosted application as a designer in an integrated development environment

• US 20050183059A1
• Filed: 02/13/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Loksh, Svetlana, Chitsaz, Reza, Quinn, Thomas E. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented

Abstract

Architecture that integrates an unmanaged application as a hosted application into a design environment in a coherent yet usable manner such that the developer can use the hosted application'"'"'s native functionality yet leverage rich productivity features provided by the IDE. The IDE includes a hosting component that comprises an application adaptor for providing an interface from the unmanaged application to the IDE. The IDE further includes a designer framework that provides user access to designer capabilities of the IDE. The host adaptor interfaces to the designer framework either directly and/or through an integration interface. Thus, the developer/user can then access the native functionality of the unmanaged application as well as the IDE functionality. This provides rich integration between the development environment and the hosted application, the end result of which is the designer interacting with the IDE.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates a software development environment, comprising:

an unmanaged application that facilitates processing a document; and

a hosting component that interfaces to the unmanaged application such that the unmanaged application functions as a designer within the development environment.

2. The system of claim 1, the hosting component supports an object linking and embedding (OLE) technology.

3. The system of claim 1, the unmanaged application includes at least one of a word processing application and a spreadsheet application.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an integration interface to facilitate integrating a third-party unmanaged application as a designer in the development environment.

5. The system of claim 1, the development environment is an integrated development environment (IDE).

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a host adaptor that interfaces to the unmanaged application, which adaptor is application specific to facilitate integrating the unmanaged application into the development environment.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a document-hosting subcomponent that facilitates hosting the document that can be manipulated in the development environment.

8. The system of claim 1, the document can be manipulated using at least one of the unmanaged application and the development environment.

9. The system of claim 1, the document is one of a new document and an existing document.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a designer framework that facilitates interfacing the hosting component to the development environment.

11. The system of claim 1 facilitates hosting a plurality of different unmanaged applications.

12. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the system of claim 1.

13. A computer employing the system of claim 1.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tray component that facilitates presenting non-visual data in the IDE.

15. A system that facilitates an IDE, comprising:

an unmanaged application that facilitates processing a document; and

a hosting component that interfaces to the unmanaged application such that the unmanaged application functions as a designer within the IDE, the hosting component further comprising,

an integration interface to facilitate integrating a third-party unmanaged application as a designer in the development environment;

a host adaptor that interfaces to the unmanaged application, which adaptor is application specific to facilitate integrating the unmanaged application into the development environment; and

a document-hosting subcomponent that facilitates hosting a document that can be manipulated in the development environment.

16. The system of claim 15, the host component further comprising a designer framework that facilitates interfacing the hosting component to the development environment.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein native functionality of the unmanaged application is available within the IDE.

18. The system of claim 15 facilitates adding a control to the document and editing properties of the control.

19. The system of claim 15 facilitates a merging of menus of the unmanaged application and the IDE.

20. The system of claim 15, the document contains at least one of embedded and linked objects.

21. The system of claim 15 facilitates the presentation of a properties window that displays properties for code-behind project items.

22. The system of claim 15, the designer operates in a design view and a code view.

23. The system of claim 15, the designer can handle the document in at least one of a binary format and an XML format.

24. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of integrating an unmanaged application into a development environment, the method comprising:

receiving the unmanaged application; and

interfacing the unmanaged application to the development environment with a host adaptor that is specific to the unmanaged application such that the unmanaged application is accessible as a designer within the development environment.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising hosting a document in the development environment such that the document is manipulated using native functionality of the unmanaged application and functionality of the development environment.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising hosting a document in the development environment and exposing a code-behind file associated with the document such that contents of the file can be manipulated.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising hosting a document in the development environment and exposing a code-behind file associated with each subdocument of the document such that contents of each file can be manipulated.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising providing a view control that triggers in response to an event.

29. A method of integrating an unmanaged application into a development environment, comprising:

receiving the unmanaged application;

interfacing the unmanaged application to the development environment with a host adaptor that is specific to the unmanaged application such that the unmanaged application is accessible as a designer within the development environment; and

hosting a document in the development environment such that functionality of the development environment and the unmanaged application can be used to manipulate the document.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising manipulating the document by at least one of,

performing a drag-and-drop operation of a control onto the document;

viewing a data-behind file associated with the document;

writing managed code in the data-behind file;

operating the designer in a design mode and a runtime mode;

presenting non-visual data; and

drawing managed objects on the document.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising providing a special page of preferences for the unmanaged application such that when integrated into the development environment, the unmanaged application behaves according to the preferences.

32. A system that facilitates of integrating an unmanaged application into a development environment, comprising:

means for receiving the unmanaged application;

means for interfacing the unmanaged application to the development environment with a host adaptor that is specific to the unmanaged application such that the unmanaged application is accessible as a designer within the development environment;

means for hosting a document in the development environment such that functionality of the development environment and the unmanaged application can be used to manipulate the document; and

means for manipulating the document.

33. The method of claim 32, the means for manipulating further comprising manipulating means for at least one of,

performing a drag-and-drop operation of a control onto the document;

viewing a data-behind file associated with the document;

writing managed code in the data-behind file;

operating the designer in a design mode and a runtime mode;

presenting non-visual data; and

drawing managed objects on the document.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising means for exposing properties and components of the document for manipulation.