Metadata driven user interface

• US 20070130205A1
• Filed: 05/05/2006
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krishnan, Arvind, Singh, Jagdish, Kumar, Namendra, Shankar, Sai, Chittamuru, Satish, Pekic, Zoltan, Mondal, Nabarun, i Dalfo, Ricard, Dengler, Patrick, Sanchez, Lawrence
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Metadata is used to create customized user interface (UI) portions for an application. The metadata may be XML-based and can be interpreted and then rendered to implement a customized UI that also supports data binding between data and the UI controls. Once created, the metadata is processed by a rendering engine to display the UI controls. An interpreter may be used to interpret the metadata file before it sent to the rendering engine. Neither the rendering engine nor the interpreter needs knowledge of the host application and provides support for arbitrary metadata driven UI. The metadata schema may include mechanisms to create custom controls for the UI; programmatically modify the UI controls by providing access to a code-behind assembly as well as support event handling for the UI controls.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for creating a metadata driven user interface, comprising:

accessing metadata that is used in defining a user interface, wherein the metadata defines controls within the user interface and wherein the metadata supports binding data to one or more controls of the user interface; and

rendering the user interface according to the metadata.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing a metadata schema that includes mechanisms to:

create the controls within the user interface;

programmatically modify the controls and support event handling for the controls.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, further comprising creating the metadata for the user interface according to the metadata schema and storing the metadata in a file.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the metadata defines properties that are associated with the controls within the user interface and defines a layout of the controls within the user interface.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the metadata schema provides the ability to define custom controls and include standard controls within the user interface.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein programmatically modifying the controls comprises providing access to a code-behind assembly.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the code-behind assembly is specified in the metadata.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising exposing an object model that is configured to allow properties of the controls to be read and modified.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein binding data to one or more of the controls of the user interface comprises specifying a binding expression in the metadata.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein specifying the binding expression comprises specifying a data source that is associated with at least one control of the user interface.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the data source comprises at least one of an object data source and an XML data source.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the metadata schema is an XML schema and provides a text box type;

a button type;

a link type;

an image type;

a check box type;

a list control type; and

a radio list type.

13. A method for creating a user interface using metadata, comprising:

accessing metadata that defines controls for a user interface;

wherein the metadata is created according to a metadata schema;

binding a data source to at least one of the controls within the user interface;

wherein the data source may be selected from an object data source and an XML data source; and

rendering the user interface according to the metadata.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising using the metadata schema for programmatically modifying the controls and supporting event handling for the controls.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a wrapper class to wrap the controls of the user interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wrapper class wraps a native .NET control.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein rendering the user interface according to the metadata comprises setting control properties as specified in the metadata for each control.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising developing a code behind assembly which contains event handler code;

specifying the code behind assembly in the metadata; and

specifying an event handler that handles a particular event for a control.

19. An apparatus for rendering a user interface using metadata, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;

a data store that is configured to store a metadata file that specifies controls within a user interface and wherein the metadata includes binding expressions that are used to bind data to one or more controls of the user interface; and

a rendering engine comprising functionality that is configured to interpret the metadata and render the user interface according to the metadata.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the metadata is created according to a metadata schema that includes mechanisms to:

create the controls within the user interface;

programmatically modify the controls and support event handling for the controls.