Hosting environment abstraction model for content

• US 20060101436A1
• Filed: 10/26/2004
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Christopher L., Alcazar, Mark A., Goodwin, Margaret L.
• Application Number:
  US10/974,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20060101436A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/141
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

Software programming models are provided for supporting host-environment agnostic content that can be hosted in different hosting environments (e.g., browser or window) without needing to rewrite the content. The models comprise a host-environment abstraction wrapper that provides a transparent layer of abstraction between content and host-environment specific instructions. The host-environment abstraction wrapper supports the use of host-environment independent interaction instructions or declarative statements in content by invoking host-environment specific implementation details on behalf of the content. The host-environment independent interaction instructions represent particular interactions between some content and a hosting environment, but do not provide host-environment implementation instructions that are specific to any particular hosting environment.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable medium having at least one instruction embodied as an application program interface stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processing system, enables content to be hosted in a plurality of hosting environments, the at least one medium comprising:

at least one host-environment abstraction instruction that invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to a selected hosting environment from the plurality of hosting environments on behalf of at least one host-environment interaction instruction for the content that does not provide at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments.

2. The medium as set forth in claim 1 wherein the at least one host-environment abstraction instruction comprises at least one reference to the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

3. The medium as set forth in claim 2 wherein the at least one reference comprises at least one of a method call for a method defined in the host-environment object, an event handler registration for an event defined in the host-environment object, and an attribute value assignment for an attribute defined in the host-environment object.

4. The medium as set forth in claim 2 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

5. The medium as set forth in claim 1 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

6. A method for enabling content to be hosted in a plurality of hosting environments, the method comprising:

invoking at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to a selected hosting environment from the plurality of hosting environments on behalf of at least one host-environment interaction instruction for the content that does not provide at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein invoking at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to a selected hosting environment further comprises:

referencing the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7 wherein referencing the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction further comprises:

calling a method defined in the host-environment object, registering an event handler for an event defined in the host-environment object, or assigning a value to an attribute defined in the host-environment object.

9. The method as set forth in claim 7 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

10. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

11. A system for enabling content to be hosted in a plurality of hosting environments, the system comprising:

a host-environment abstraction system that invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to selected hosting environment from the plurality of hosting environments on behalf of at least one host-environment interaction instruction for the content that does not provide at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the host-environment abstraction system references the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

13. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the host-environment abstraction system references the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction by calling a method defined in the host-environment object, registering an event handler for an event defined in the host-environment object, or assigning a value for an attribute defined in the host-environment object.

14. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

15. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

16. At least one computer-readable medium having at least one instruction associated with content stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processing system, enables the content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the at least one medium comprising:

at least one host-environment interaction instruction that identifies at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

at least one reference instruction that references at least one host-environment abstraction instruction which invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

17. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein the at least one host-environment interaction instruction comprises at least one of programmatic and declarative markup language content.

18. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein the at least one host-environment interaction instruction comprises extensible application markup language (XAML) content.

19. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

20. A method for enabling content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the method comprising:

identifying at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

referencing at least one host-environment abstraction instruction which invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

21. The method as set forth in claim 20 further comprising:

identifying the at least one desired interaction using at least one of programmatic and declarative markup language content.

22. The method as set forth in claim 20 further comprising:

identifying the at least one desired interaction using extensible application markup language (XAML) content.

23. The method as set forth in claim 20 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

24. A system for enabling content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the system comprising:

a host-environment interaction system that identifies at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

a host-environment instruction system that references at least one host-environment abstraction instruction which invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

25. The system as set forth in claim 24 wherein the host-environment interaction system uses at least one of programmatic and declarative markup language content to identify the at least one desired interaction.

26. The system as set forth in claim 24 wherein the host-environment interaction system uses extensible application markup language (XAML) content to identify the at least one desired interaction.

27. The system as set forth in claim 24 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

28. At least one computer-readable medium having at least one instruction associated with content stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processing system, enables the content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the at least one medium comprising:

at least one host-environment interaction instruction that identifies at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

at least one host-environment abstraction instruction that invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment on behalf of the at least one host-environment interaction instruction for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

29. The medium as set forth in claim 28 wherein the at least one host-environment abstraction instruction comprises at least one reference to the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

30. The medium as set forth in claim 29 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

31. The medium as set forth in claim 28 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

32. A method for enabling content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the method comprising:

identifying at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

invoking at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment on behalf of at least one host-environment interaction instruction that identifies the at least one desired interaction for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

33. The method as set forth in claim 32 wherein invoking the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction further comprises:

referencing the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

34. The method as set forth in claim 33 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

35. The method as set forth in claim 32 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.

36. A system for enabling content to be hosted in a selected hosting environment, the system comprising:

a host-environment interaction system that identifies at least one desired interaction involving the content and any one of a plurality of hosting environments without providing at least one interaction implementation detail that is specific to any one of the plurality of hosting environments including the selected hosting environment; and

a host-environment abstraction system that invokes at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is specific to the selected hosting environment on behalf of the host-environment interaction system for implementing the at least one desired interaction.

37. The system as set forth in claim 36 wherein the host-environment abstraction system references the at least one host-environment interaction implementation instruction that is on a host-environment object associated with the selected hosting environment.

38. The system as set forth in claim 37 wherein the host-environment object comprises a representation of a browser or a window in which the content is hosted.

39. The system as set forth in claim 36 wherein the selected hosting environment comprises at least one of a browser environment and a window environment.