COMMON COMPONENT FRAMEWORK

• US 20080077941A1
• Filed: 09/21/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Refinitiv US Organization, LLC (Refinitiv US Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Reuters America LLC (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kolba, Nicholas, Tyldesley, Mike, Holmes, Raymond Douglas, Chua Tze Hou, Adrian, Leung, Kwok Ping
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/326
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]

Abstract

A Common Component Framework (CCF) provides a container interface and a component interface for communication in a multi-tiered software application. Component context data may be transmitted to and from a container describing a current state of a component executing within the container. Context data may correspond to a specific entity (e.g., a financial entity such as a company or stock) identified by a user interacting with the component. The container may communicate the context data between different components to synchronize and coordinate component behavior, providing a more robust and coherent user experience. In addition to component context data, other information may be transmitted between containers and components such as properties, menu options, and data fields, supporting more complete integration of even web-based components into containers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of electronic communication between a component software object and a software container object, comprising:

initiating a registration function on a container object, passing into said function a first interface pointer corresponding to a generic component interface supported by a component object within the container object;

receiving from the container object a second interface pointer corresponding to a generic container interface supported by the container object, wherein the first and the second interface support a predetermined set of functions for generic communication between a component and a container;

receiving user input on a user interface control running within the component object;

determining a function supported by the container interface associated with the received user input; and

invoking the function in the container interface using the second interface pointer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the container object and the first component execute within an instance of a browser application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a component context data from the container object via the second interface, the component context data comprising an entity identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the entity identifier is associated with one of a company name, a stock name, a bond name, a market name, and a country name.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

in response to receiving the component context data from the container object, retrieving data from a remote data store based on the component context data;

executing component-specific functionality using the retrieved data; and

updating a user interface of the component object based on the executed component-specific functionality.

6. A computer-implemented method of electronic communication between a component software object and a container software object, comprising:

transmitting a first interface pointer from a container to a first component object, the first interface pointer defining a plurality of functions supported by the container with respect to the first component;

receiving at the container a second interface pointer from a second component object, the second interface pointer defining a plurality of functions supported by the second component with respect to the container;

receiving via the first interface an indication that a first user action has occurred within the first component, said indication comprising component context data;

detecting a second user action associated with the second component; and

transmitting via the second interface the component context data to the second component.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether the component context data is compatible with the second component; and

if the component context data is not compatible with the second component, converting said component context data based on stored information describing the second component.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first user action comprises a selection of an entity from a user interface within the first component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected entity comprises one of a company name, a stock name, a bond name, a market name, and a country name.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first user action comprises a drag event associated with an entity in a user interface within the first component.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second user action comprises a drop event associated with the entity, the drop event occurring on a user interface within the second component.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the first user action designates one or more data fields within a user interface of the first component, and wherein the second user action comprises a drop event for the designated data fields into a user interface of the second component.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the first and the second user action comprises a user command for exporting selected data fields into a spreadsheet software application.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the container, the first component, and the second component execute within an instance of a browser application.

15. One or more computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed on a computer system, perform a method comprising:

transmitting a first interface pointer to a first component object, the first interface pointer defining a plurality of functions supported with respect to the first component;

receiving a second interface pointer from a second component object, the second interface pointer defining a plurality of functions supported by the second component;

receiving via the first interface an indication that a first user action has occurred within the first component, said indication comprising component context data;

detecting a second user action associated with the second component; and

transmitting via the second interface the component context data to the second component.

16. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the component context data is compatible with the second component; and

if the component context data is not compatible with the second component, converting said component context data based on stored information describing the second component.

17. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the first user action comprises a selection of an entity from a user interface within the first component.

18. The computer readable media of claim 17, wherein the selected entity comprises one of a company, stock, bond, market, and country.

19. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the first user action comprises a drag event associated with an entity in a user interface within the first component.

20. The computer readable media of claim 19, wherein the second user action comprises a drop event associated with the entity, the drop event occurring on a user interface within the second component.

21. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the first user action designates one or more data fields within a user interface of the first component, and wherein the second user action comprises a drop event for the designated data fields into a user interface of the second component.

22. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein one of the first and the second user action comprises a user command for exporting selected data fields into a spreadsheet software application.

23. The computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the method is executed within an instance of a browser application, and wherein the first component and the second component execute within the same Internet browser application instance.