CONNECTING WITH AN APPLICATION INSTANCE

• US 20080127054A1
• Filed: 09/07/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stubbs, Paul, Davis, Jackson M., Shepard, John A., Nordlund, Philo N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A facility is provided for connecting with an application instance. In various embodiments, the facility starts an integrated development environment component, provides an identifier to the integrated development environment component so that the integrated development environment component can indicate the identifier when registering, locates the provided identifier in a registry, and connects to the identified process. The facility can include a running object table component that stores identifications of running application instances and their corresponding monikers, and an application having a provider component that can communicate with an integrated development environment component that, when started by the application, receives an identifier and registers the started integrated development environment with the running object table, the registration including the associated identifier so that the application can identify the started integrated development environment.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system for connecting with an instance of an integrated development environment, comprising:

starting an integrated development environment component;

providing an identifier to the integrated development environment component so that the integrated development environment component can indicate the identifier when registering; and

locating the provided identifier in a registry, the locating identifying a process associated with the started integrated development environment component so that the identified process can be connected to.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the locating includes searching moniker entries in the registry for the provided identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the registry is a running object table.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a command to the identified process.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the command is to load a project.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the command is to customize the integrated development environment.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing includes identifying an application that starts the integrated development environment so that the integrated development environment can customize itself.

8. A system for connecting with an instance of an integrated development environment, comprising:

a running object table component that stores identifications of running application instances and their corresponding monikers; and

an application having a provider component that can communicate with an integrated development environment component that, when started by the application, receives an identifier and registers the started integrated development environment with the running object table, the registration including the associated identifier so that the application can identify the started integrated development environment.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the running object table component associates monikers with running objects, wherein a running object is an integrated development environment instance.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the integrated development environment has an application proxy component.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the application proxy component receives commands from the application.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the integrated development environment is MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the identifier is a globally unique identifier.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the application has a provider component for communicating with the integrated development environment.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the provider component starts the integrated development environment, waits for the integrated development environment to start, and locates the identifier in the running object table.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the provider component identifies a pointer associated with the integrated development environment associated with the identifier so that the application can employ the pointer to connect to the integrated development environment.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for connecting with an instance of an application, the method comprising:

starting a first instance of an application; and

under control of a controlling application,

starting a second instance of the application and providing an identifier to the second instance of the application so that the second instance of the application can register an association between the second instance of the application and the identifier; and

locating the registered association so that the controlling application can connect to the second instance of the application rather than the first instance of the application.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein locating the registered association includes locating a unique identifier in the registry of running objects to identify the second instance of the application.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the first and second instances of the application are integrated development environments.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising causing the second instance of the application to select a portion of a registry corresponding to the identifier.