Dynamic design-time extensions support in an integrated development environment

• US 20070288887A1
• Filed: 06/09/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pepin, Brian K., Balsiger, Fred W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,762,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is provided which comprises a visual designer that supports at least two avenues of extension. First, the visual designer may be extended with entirely new features by adding a visual designer extension. The visual designer extension is a deriving class of an extension server object. The extension server object may be provided along with the IDE. The visual designer extension manages a list of extension objects, and exposes a service provider to such extension objects. The visual designer extension can request and publish services through the service provider. Second, the visual designer may be extended with new variations of existing features by adding additional extension objects that derive from, and are managed by, an existing visual designer extension. These two modes of extension are supported by a novel visual designer framework described herein.

Claims

1. An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) comprising a visual designer, said visual designer comprising:

an extension manager configured to load one or more extension server objects, said extension server objects corresponding to feature types, wherein new feature types can be added to said visual designer by adding new extension server objects;

wherein said one or more extension server objects communicate with one or more extension objects, said extension objects providing variations of a feature type, and wherein new variations of feature types can be added to said visual designer by adding new extension objects.

2. The IDE of claim 1, wherein said extension manager object also manages a list of extension server objects.

3. The IDE of claim 1, further comprising an editing store that is configured to create said extension manager and an editing context that provides storage for data used by said visual designer.

4. The IDE of claim 3, wherein said editing store object also maintains at least one editable object corresponding to an item that is visually represented on a visual design surface.

5. The IDE of claim 3, wherein said editing context is configured to provide at least one notification when data within said editing context changes.

6. The IDE of claim 1, wherein substantially all features of said visual designer correspond to at least one of said one or more extension server objects.

7. The IDE of claim 1, wherein said one or more extension server objects are configured to request services, publish services, and listen to events through a service provider.

8. An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) comprising a visual designer, said visual designer comprising:

a first means for extending said visual designer by adding a new feature type, said first means comprising means for deriving an extension server object, wherein said extension server object provides a visual designer feature type;

a second means for extending said visual designer, said second means comprising means for creating an extension object that derives from an existing extension server object, wherein said extension object is managed by said extension server object, and wherein said extension object provides a variation of a feature type provided by said existing extension server object.

9. The IDE of claim 8, further comprising means for loading said extension server object when creating said visual designer.

10. The IDE of claim 9, wherein said means for loading comprises an extension manager that also manages a list of extension server objects.

11. The IDE of claim 10, further comprising means for creating an editing context that provides storage for data used by said visual designer.

12. The IDE of claim 11, further comprising means for generating at least one notification when data within said editing context changes.

13. The IDE of claim 8, wherein substantially all features of said visual designer correspond to one or more extension server objects creatable by said first means.

14. The IDE of claim 8, wherein said extension server object is configured to request services, publish services, and listen to events through a service provider.

15. In a system comprising a computer running Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software, said IDE software comprising a visual designer, a method comprising:

receiving a request to instantiate said visual designer;

creating an editing store object, an editing context, and an extension manager object;

instantiating, by said extension manager object, at least one extension server object, wherein said extension server object corresponds to a feature type;

loading, by said extension server object, at least one extension object corresponding to a variation of said feature type.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein substantially all features of said visual designer correspond to said at least one extension server object.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising creating, by a user, a new extension server object.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising creating, by a user, a new extension object.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising associating said extension object with an extension server object using extension attribute metadata.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating at least one notification when data within said editing context changes.