Generic user interface command architecture

• US 20050246725A1
• Filed: 05/03/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Odins-Lucas, Zeke B., Gusmorino, Paul A. III, Miller, Marc M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,922 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Certain aspects of a generic user interface command architecture allow an application to host commands for presentation on a computing device. The commands can be written by the same designer or author as the application, or alternatively by other parties (e.g., by a third-party developer). Other aspects of the generic UI command architecture describe an application programming interface (API) that can be used to allow the application to host the commands. Other aspects of the generic UI command architecture describe an activation mechanism by which registered commands can be activated by an application.

Claims

1. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

negotiate, with a command broker, for a presentation model to be used in presenting a command via a user interface; and

obtain, based on the negotiated presentation model, a command provider associated with the command.

2. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to interact with the command provider in response to the command being subsequently invoked by a user.

3. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to make context information available to the command broker.

4. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to negotiate for the presentation model further cause the one or more processors to:

obtain, from the command broker, a list of one or more presentation models supported by the command broker; and

select at least one of the one or more presentation models supported by the command broker.

5. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to negotiate for the presentation model further cause the one or more processors to:

notify the command broker of the selected presentation model.

6. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to notify the command broker of the selected presentation model further cause the one or more processors to invoke a GetProvider method exposed by the command broker, and include the selected presentation model as a parameter of the GetProvider method.

7. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

negotiate, with a plurality of additional command brokers, for presentation models to be used in presenting a plurality of additional commands associated with the plurality of additional command brokers; and

obtain, based on the negotiated presentation models, identifiers of a plurality of additional command providers associated with the plurality of additional commands.

8. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions are part of a command host that supports one or more presentation models not supported by the command broker.

9. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to negotiate with the command broker further cause the one or more processors to:

access a modes enumeration exposed by a component; and

receive, in response to accessing the modes enumeration, a list of a plurality of different presentation models supported by the command broker for the command.

10. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to create the command broker by:

identifying an object definition that includes one or more arguments;

for each of the one or more arguments that is a non-literal argument, recursively identifying one or more additional object definitions based on the argument; and

creating, as the command broker, the objects defined by the identified object definitions.

11. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that implement a command broker, the plurality of instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

identify, to a requester, a plurality of presentation models supported by the command broker, the command broker being associated with a particular command; and

negotiate, with the requestor, which of the plurality of presentation models is to be used to present the command via a user interface.

12. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

create, based on the negotiated presentation model, a command provider for the command; and

notify the requestor of the command provider.

13. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to create the command provider comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to instantiate the command provider.

14. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

access a command context; and

determine, based at least in part on the command context, which of the plurality of presentation models supported by the command broker to identify to the requester.

15. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to negotiate which of the plurality of presentation models is to be used to present the command comprise instructions which cause the one or more processors to receive, from the requestor, an identification of one of the plurality of presentation models.

16. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the requestor comprises a command host.

17. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

expose a modes enumeration; and

identify the plurality of presentation models supported by the command broker by returning to the requestor, in response to the requestor invoking the modes enumeration, a list of the plurality of presentation models supported by the command broker.

18. A system comprising:

a command host to provide a workspace where a plurality of user interface commands can be presented; and

a command broker, communicatively coupled to the command host, to identify a plurality of supported modes for a command, and further to negotiate with the command host to determine which of the plurality of supported modes is to be used for the command.

19. A system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

a plurality of additional command brokers communicatively coupled to the command host, each of the plurality of additional command brokers to identify multiple supported modes for one of a plurality of different commands, and each of the plurality of additional command brokers further to negotiate with the command host to determine which of the multiple supported modes is to be used for the particular command.

20. A system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

a command provider, created by the command broker based on the determined mode to be used for the command, to control actions that are followed when the command is invoked.

21. A system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

a command context, communicatively coupled to the command broker, identifying information regarding the system that can be used by the command broker.

22. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that describe a component, wherein the component, when created, is to:

expose a modes enumeration; and

return to a requestor, in response to the requestor invoking the modes enumeration, a list of one or more presentation models supported by the component for a particular command associated with the component.

23. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component is created by being instantiated.

24. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to have an identity property that identifies the component.

25. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to:

expose a first property that allows a command context for the component to be set.

26. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to have a group property that allows identification of one or more groups to which the particular command belongs.

27. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to:

expose a groups enumeration; and

return to the requestor, in response to the requestor invoking the groups enumeration, a list of one or more groups supported by the component.

28. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to:

expose a get provider property, the get provider property having a parameter that is an identifier of a presentation model; and

create, in response to the requester invoking the get provider property, a command provider component that implements the particular command for the identified presentation model.

29. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 28, wherein the component is to create the command provider component by instantiating the command provider component.

30. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the component, when created, is further to have a command context handler property that is fired whenever a context for the particular command changes.

31. A method comprising:

accessing a modes enumeration exposed by a component; and

receiving, in response to accessing the modes enumeration, a list of one or more presentation models supported by the component for a particular command associated with the component.

32. A method as recited in claim 31, further comprising:

accessing an identity property of the component to retrieve the identity of the component.

33. A method as recited in claim 31, further comprising:

accessing a first property of the component that allows a command context for the component to be set.

34. A method as recited in claim 31, further comprising:

accessing a groups enumeration of the component; and

receiving, in response to accessing the groups enumeration, a list of one or more groups supported by the component.

35. A method as recited in claim 31, further comprising:

accessing a get provider property of the component;

including, as a parameter in the accessing of the get provider property, an identifier of one of the one or more presentation models supported by the component; and

receive, in response to accessing the get provider property, an identifier of a command provider component that implements the particular command for the presentation model identified as the parameter.

36. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions to create a command broker, the plurality of instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

identify an object definition that includes one or more arguments;

for each of the one or more arguments that is a non-literal argument, recursively identify one or more additional object definitions based on the argument; and

create, as the command broker, the objects defined by the identified object definitions.

37. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 36, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to identify, as the object definition, a top-level object definition associated with the command broker.

38. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 36, wherein the plurality of instructions that cause the one or more processors to create the objects defined by the identified object definitions further cause the one or more processors to instantiate the objects defined by the identified object definitions.

39. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 36, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to identify the object definition within a registry of a Windows®

operating system.

40. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 36, wherein the object definition includes a type field storing data representing an identifier of an object defined by the first object definition, and an arguments field storing data representing one or more additional object definitions.

41. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a first object definition including a type field storing data representing an identifier of an object defined by the first object definition, and an arguments field storing data representing one or more additional object definitions; and

a second object definition identified by the arguments field, wherein during a processing operation on the first object definition, the arguments field is examined to identify the second object definition.

42. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein the data structure includes data defining a command broker.

43. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 41, wherein the first object definition further comprises an assembly field to store data representing an identifier of a command host to create the first object definition.