System for defining and activating pluggable user interface components for a deployed application

• US 20060242124A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Batthish, Karim M., Simpson, Russell L. Jr., Fields, Brendan C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,793,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Maintaining a plurality of application component catalogs describing user experiences associated with particular application programs. The invention includes an extensible schema for the application component catalogs and a method for matching user experiences within the application component catalogs to particular user requests. The invention provides an extensible and scalable infrastructure for customizing a user interface experience.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing a data structure representing a schema defining user experiences associated with various application program, said data structure comprising;

a plurality of experience fields, each of the plurality of experience fields storing an experience value representing a user interface experience associated with an application program;

a plurality of application element fields associated with each of the plurality of experience fields, each of the plurality of application element fields storing an application element value representing an application element associated with the experience value stored in the experience field; and

an element class field associated with each of the plurality of application element fields, the element class field storing an element class value representing an action, state, or form associated with the application element value stored in the application element field; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving a request for data from the application program;

identifying one of the plurality of experience fields in the data structure as a function of the application program;

identifying one of the plurality of application element fields associated with the identified experience field as a function of the requested data; and

providing, to the application program, the requested data via the element class value associated with the application element value in the identified application element field.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data structure represents an application component catalog.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a user transmits the request for data via the application program, and wherein the data structure further comprises a user scope field storing a property for determining if the data structure applies to the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the application program comprises a server-deployed client application.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

receiving, from the application program, an element class value associated with the application program; and

storing the element class value in the data structure.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

receiving, from the application program, an application element value associated with the application program; and

storing the application element value in the data structure.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium stores a plurality of the data structures, and wherein at least one of the plurality of data structures inherits an experience value, an application element value, or an element class value from another one of the plurality of data structures.

8. A computerized method for providing a user interface experience upon request, said computerized method comprising:

receiving a request for data from software, said received request identifying a user associated with the request;

identifying an application component catalog from a plurality of application component catalogs as a function of the user, said application component catalog including a plurality of user interface experiences;

identifying one of the plurality of user interface experiences in the identified application component catalog as a function of the software, said identified user interface experience having a plurality of application elements associated therewith;

identifying one of the plurality of application elements as a function of data in the request; and

providing the requested data via the identified application element.

9. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein identifying the one of the plurality of application elements comprises mapping the received request to an action as a function of a context associated with the received request.

10. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein identifying the one of the plurality of application elements comprises identifying a form.

11. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the software comprises a client application deployed by a server application.

12. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein receiving the request for data from software comprises receiving the request for data from the user via the software.

13. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the software comprises one or more of the following:

an operating system and an application program.

14. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the software comprises a plurality of user interface components, and wherein receiving the request comprises receiving the request from one of the plurality of user interface components.

15. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the received request for data specifies an action and a state, and wherein identifying the one of the plurality of application elements comprises identifying one of the plurality of application elements as a function of the action and the state.

16. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the computerized method recited in claim 8.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components for providing a user interface experience upon request, said components comprising:

a communications component for receiving a request for data from software, said received request identifying a user associated with the request, said received request having an action value and a state value;

a user mapping component for identifying an application component catalog corresponding to the user, said application component catalog including a plurality of user interface experiences;

an experience mapping component for identifying one of the plurality of user interface experiences in the identified application component catalog based on the software, said identified user interface experience having a plurality of forms associated therewith; and

an user interface mapping component for identifying one of the plurality of forms in the identified user interface experience as a function of the action value and the state value, wherein the communications component provides the identified form to the software.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the software comprises a server-deployed client application.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the software comprises a plurality of user interface components, and wherein the communications component receives the request from one of the plurality of user interface components.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the user mapping component identifies the most specific application component catalog corresponding to the user.