SYSTEM AND METHOD TO FACILITATE DESIGN-TIME COMPONENT DISCOVERY

• US 20070083848A1
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pepin, Brian, Burke, Shawn
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,582 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A system and method for discovering the design time attributes of a component are provided. The invention includes a type descriptor that can access metadata associated with a component and report the metadata to a development tool. The invention further includes a custom type descriptor interface that can be implemented on a component in order to dynamically provide information regarding the component to the type descriptor. The invention further includes a type descriptor filter service interface that can be implemented by the development tool to facilitate filtering of design time information regarding components in order to simulate a run time environment. The invention further comprises methodologies and tools for facilitating application development.

Claims

1-16. -16. (canceled)

17. A system that implements a design time component model discovery service comprising:

a type descriptor that stores a component entry regarding an instance of a component, and dynamically retrieves metadata concerning the instance of the component; and

a development tool that requests information associated with the instance of the component from the type descriptor, and provides the information to a developer to facilitate application development.

18. The system of claim 18, the type descriptor upon receiving a request from the development tool dynamically inspects the metadata for the instance of the component.

19. The system of claim 18, the information comprises attributes including properties and events.

20. The system of claim 18, the type descriptor includes a plurality of component entry data structures for each instance of a component active in a design time environment, to facilitate communication between the instances of components and the developer at design time.

21. The system of claim 20, the data structures are stored in databases, tables, records, arrays, or lists.

22. The system of claim 20, each component entry data structure includes a plurality of reflected property descriptors that store values of properties associated with the instance of the component.

23. The system of claim 22, each reflected property descriptor is a reflection of a property descriptor that provides a description of a property.

24. The system of claim 23, the property is selected from a name, attributes, component class that the property is associated with, or a type of the property.

25. The system of claim 20, each component entry data structure includes a plurality of reflected event descriptors that store descriptions of events related to the instance of the component.

26. The system of claim 25, each reflected event descriptor is a reflection of the event descriptor which provides a description of an event.

27. The system of claim 25, the event descriptor is selected from a name, attributes, a component that the event is bound to, an event delegate, a type of the delegate, and whether the delegate is multicast.

28. The system of claim 20, each component entry data structure includes an attribute collection that includes descriptive elements that modify types and members.

29. A system for implementing a design time component model discovery service:

a component that dynamically reports information concerning an instance of the component depending on whether it is running at design time or run time;

a type descriptor that analyzes and stores the information in a component entry for the instance of the component and reports the information to a development tool; and

a custom type descriptor interface, provided by the component, that monitors the information and manipulates the information before reporting the information to the type descriptor.

30. The system of claim 29, the information comprises attributes including properties and events.

31. The system of claim 29, the information is in the form of one of pure metadata or manipulated information.

32. The system of claim 29, the custom type descriptor interface is optionally not implemented so that pure metadata regarding the instance of the component is received by the type descriptor.

33. A system that implements a design time component model discovery service comprising:

a plurality of type descriptor filter service interfaces that manipulate information;

a type descriptor that provides information associated with the instance of the component to the type descriptor filter service and receives manipulated information; and

a development tool that receives the information concerning an instance of a component from the type descriptor, to report the information to a developer.

34. The system of claim 33, the information includes at least one attribute including properties or events.

35. The system of claim 33, the type descriptor filter service manipulates the information by at least one of:

adding additional attributes including properties and events;

removing attributes including properties and events;

or replacing attributes including with different values in order to simulate the run time environment.

36. The system of claim 33, the type descriptor includes:

means for storing the manipulated information; and

means for reporting the manipulated information to the development tool that reports to the developer, so that the filtering process is transparent since the developer views the manipulated information concerning the instance of the component.