System and method for building software applications

• US 20070234274A1
• Filed: 01/19/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Influence Health, Inc. (Mountain Acquisition Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Influence Health, Inc. (Mountain Acquisition Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Ross, David, Gans, Ronald
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A system for creating applications, such as web applications, allows a non-technical trained user to build and edit applications. The tool used to build the applications creates the application elements including actions, screens, data, header and footer, and scripts, which are stored and accessed as records in a database. The web application that is created can be exported to and installed within a website.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system including:

a first tier of codewriters, the codewriters in the first tier combining codewriters from a second tier;

the second tier of codewriters, the codewriters in the second tier creating functional units in response to a user requests by combining codewriters from a third tier; and

the third tier of codewriters, the codewriters in the third tier creating code segments in a native software language.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein codewriters in the third tier can be replaced with codewriters that create code segments in a second native software language.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein codewriters in the second tier receive parameters from the users.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the parameters are received from a sequence of screens.

5. The system of claim 1, further including a template including screen definitions and references to multiple codewriters.

6. The system of claim 5, further including a wizard to use the template to construct the sequence of screens to obtain the parameters for the multiple codewriters, and to provide the parameters to the multiple codewriters to construct the code blocks for the software application.

7. A system to produce software applications, comprising:

at least one codewriter to use parameters to construct code blocks for the software application;

a template including screen definitions for a sequence of screens to obtain parameters for the at least one codewriter and reference to the at least one codewriter; and

a wizard to use the template to construct the sequence of screens to obtain the parameters for the at least one codewriter, to use the template to indicate the at least one codewriter, and to provide the parameters to the at least one codewriter to construct the code blocks for the software application.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the template includes defaults for the application, at least some of the defaults being displayed to and modifiable by a designer in one of the screens.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the parameters are passed to the at least one codewriter in an XML data structure.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the wizard combines the code blocks into the application.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein multiple codewriters referenced by the template construct code blocks.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the template includes references to form codewriters to produce the sequence of screens.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the parameters can be stored as part of a project, wherein the parameters can be displayed in the sequence of screens when the project is opened.

14. The system of claims 7, wherein the sequence of screens can be accessed out of order.

15. The system of claims 7, wherein the screens can change based on user selections from other screens.

16. The system of claim 7, wherein software application is a web application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein web application is a healthcare application.

18. A method of producing software applications comprising:

constructing a sequence of screens defined by a template to obtain parameters, the template including screen definitions for the sequence of screens and a reference to at least one codewriter;

providing the parameters to the at least one codewriter indicated by the template; and

using the at least one codewriter to construct code blocks for the software application.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the template includes defaults for the software application, at least some of the defaults being displayed to and modifiable by a designer in one of the screens.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameters are passed to the at least one codewriter in an XML data structure.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the wizard combines the code blocks into the software application.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein multiple codewriters referenced by the template construct code blocks.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the template includes references to form code writers to produce the sequence of screens.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameters can be stored as part of a project, wherein the parameters can be displayed in the sequence of screens when the project is opened.

25. The method of claims 18, wherein the sequence of screens can be accessed out of order.

26. The method of claims 18, wherein the screens can change based on user selections from other screens.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein software application is a web application.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein web application is a healthcare application.