System and method for unified visualization of two-tiered applications

• US 20060236302A1
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Shenfield, Michael, Fritsch, Brindusa, Goring, Bryan, Bateman, Cameron
• Granted Patent: US 8,006,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

An application generation environment coordinates development of component-based two-tiered applications using a unifying data model comprising an interconnected model of objects. The data model unifies the two-tiered application to present a single logical application for visualisation and for programming using a graphical user interface. The data model transparently programs tiers of the application in response to user input to program the single logical application. Application components are generated for execution within a two-tiered execution environment such as a client device (e.g. a wireless mobile device) and a gateway server providing a stateful proxy with which to access services or a remote data source via a network. The application components may by generated with marks to denote portions thereof for execution within the respective tiers of the two-tiered execution environment.

Claims

1. A method for programming a two-tiered application comprising:

providing a unifying data structure defining a unifying data model for programming application components for each tier of the two-tiered application;

providing an application development tool having a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) for programming the two-tiered application, said GUI visualizing the two-tiered application as a single logical application in accordance with the unifying data model;

receiving user input via the GUI; and

defining said application components in response to user input and the unifying data model.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the unifying data model determines which of said tiers of the two-tiered application is programmed in response to the user input.

3. The method as claimed in any one of claims 2 comprising generating the application components for deploying for execution in a two-tiered execution environment, said generating providing marks for marking portions of said application components in accordance with the unifying data model and the tiers of the two-tiered application.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 comprising deploying said application components to said two-tiered execution environment in response to said marks.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 comprising executing said application components by said two-tiered execution environment in response to said marks.

6. The method as claimed in any one of claims 5 wherein the two-tiered application comprises a first tier defining a client for execution on a mobile device runtime environment and a second tier for execution on a server runtime environment providing a stateful proxy with which to access a data source via a network.

7. The method as claimed in any one of claims 6 wherein generating the application components comprises expressing said application components in accordance with a structured definition language.

14. A machine readable medium comprising program code means executable on a computer having a programmable processor for implementing the method as claimed in claim 1.

8. A system for programming a two-tiered application, the system comprising:

a processor and a memory storing instructions and data to configure the processor to provide;

a modeling module for defining application components for each tier of the two-tiered application in accordance with a unifying data model;

a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) for programming the two-tiered application, said GUI visualizing the two-tiered application as a single logical application in accordance with the unifying data model and in response to user input received using said GUI to program said single logical application, said unifying data model transparently determining which tier to program.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8 comprising a serialization module for expressing the application components of the application in accordance with the unifying data model for execution in a two-tiered execution environment.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the serialization module is configured to express the application components with marks for marking portions of the application components for execution on respective tiers of the two-tired execution environment.

11. The system as claimed in any one of claims 10 wherein the system comprises an integrated development environment tool platform.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the integrated development environment tool platform comprises an Eclipse platform.

13. The system as claimed any one of claims 12 wherein the unifying data model conforms to the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and the serialization module is configured to express the model in accordance with the EMF.