Declarative mechanism for defining a hierarchy of objects

• US 20060129920A1
• Filed: 02/10/2006
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Relyea, Robert A., King, Joseph, Bogdan, Jeff, Wilson, Chris, Grambihler, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 7,464,329 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4493 Object persistence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Described is a method and data structure that enables an object to be specified declaratively within a markup document. The markup document may be XML-based. In accordance with the invention, the object is written based on a mapping. The mapping includes a URL attribute for defining a location for a definition file having assemblies and namespaces where classes are specified. The class name is mapped to the markup document as a tag name. Properties and events of a class are mapped to attributes of the tag associated with the class. The method further includes a method to parse the markup language to create a hierarchy of objects. Attributes that do not map directly to a class are defined with a definition tag. The definition tag is also used to add programming code to a page.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a markup language data structure, comprising:

a first data field containing data mapped to a programming language class; and

a second data field containing data mapped to one of a property and an event in the class.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising a third field containing data indicating a uniform resource locator for retrieving a definition file having at least one assembly and at least one namespace for interpreting the first field and the second field.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein if the second data field has a * character, the second data field is set to a value equal to one of a newly instantiated object and an existing referenced object during process of the data structure.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second data field has stored thereon a compound property and wherein upon processing the second data field, a type converter is called if the second field is a text string.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 wherein upon processing the second data field, if the second field is an other tag, a class based on the other tag'"'"'s name is located, an object of the class based on the other tag'"'"'s name is instantiated, and the object is set as a value of a property on the tag.