Dynamic mating of a modified user interface with pre-modified user interface code library

• US 20080127060A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Reamey, Donald Allen
• Granted Patent: US 8,201,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Mating of a modified user interface to existing user interface code is provided. When a user interface is modified, a pseudo code representation of the modified user interface is generated. At application runtime, the pseudo code representation is passed to a user interface render engine that is modified to parse the pseudo code representation to generate a representation of the modified user interface that may be processed by the render engine for rendering the modified user interface for display. A generic code library is generated for receiving events from the modified user interface and for passing the received events to proper event handlers in the existing code library without the need to modify the existing code library in response to modifying the user interface.

Claims

1. A method of modifying a software application user interface, comprising:

creating a pseudo user interface presentation file for describing modifications to the user interface;

at software application runtime, passing the pseudo user interface presentation file to a user interface render engine for generating a user interface presentation file;

associating a render engine extension with the render engine for causing the render engine to render the user interface presentation file according to a desired file format;

at the render engine, parsing the pseudo user interface presentation file and obtaining the modifications to the user interface;

rendering a modified user interface according to the user interface presentation file;

generating a generic software code library for allowing interaction between the modified user interface and an existing software code library; and

processing events received via the modified user interface at the existing software code library via the generic software code library.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a pseudo user interface presentation file includes creating a pseudo user interface presentation file for describing user interface components of the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a pseudo user interface presentation file includes creating a pseudo interface user interface presentation file for describing events associated with user interface components of the user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a pseudo user interface presentation file includes creating a pseudo user interface presentation file for describing an existing software code library associated with the user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a pseudo user interface presentation file includes creating the pseudo user interface presentation file as a pseudo Extensible Application Markup Language file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein passing the pseudo user interface presentation file to a user interface render engine includes passing the pseudo user interface presentation file as an Extensible Markup Language file to the user interface render engine.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein causing the render engine to generate the user interface presentation file according to a desired file format includes causing the render engine to generate the user interface presentation file according to an Extensible Application Markup Language file format.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, at the render engine, creating a table of events associated with the user interface components of the user interface.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein creating the table of events includes mapping events associated with the user interface components of the user interface with event handlers in the existing software code library.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein processing events received via the modified user interface at the existing software code library via the generic code library includes:

receiving an event via the modified user interface;

passing the event to the generic software code library;

at the generic software code library, parsing the table of events to determine an event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event; and

at the generic software code library, passing the received event to the event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event for execution of an associated functionality of the software application.

11. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method of modifying a software application user interface, the method comprising:

creating a pseudo Extensible Application Markup Language (PXAML) user interface presentation file for describing modifications to the user interface;

at software application runtime, passing the pXAML presentation file to a user interface render engine for generating an Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) user interface presentation file;

associating a render engine extension with the render engine for causing the render engine to generate the XAML user interface presentation file;

at the render engine, parsing the pXAML presentation file, obtaining the modifications to the user interface, and creating a table of events associated with the user interface components of the user interface;

rendering a modified user interface according to the user interface presentation file;

generating a generic software code library for allowing interaction between the modified user interface and an existing software code library; and

processing events received via the modified user interface at the existing software code library via the generic software code library.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein passing the pXAML presentation file to a user interface render engine includes passing the pXAML presentation file as an Extensible Markup Language file.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein creating the table of events includes mapping events associated with the user interface components of the user interface with event handlers in the existing software code library.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein processing events received via the modified user interface at the existing software code library via the generic code library includes:

receiving an event via the modified user interface;

passing the event to the generic software code library;

at the generic software code library, parsing the table of events to determine an event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event; and

at the generic software code library, passing the received event to the event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event for execution of an associated functionality of the software application.

15. A system for modifying a software application user interface, comprising:

a pseudo user interface presentation file containing data for describing modifications to the user interface;

a user interface render engine operative to render a modified user interface according to the user interface presentation file; and

a generic software code library operative to receive events via the modified user interface and to map the received events to corresponding event handlers of an existing software code library.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the generic code library is further operative to receive an event via the modified user interface;

to parse a table of events to determine an event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event; and

to pass the received event to the event handler in the existing software code library that corresponds to the received event for execution of an associated functionality of the software application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the user interface render engine is further operative

to create a table of events for mapping events in the modified user interface with corresponding event handlers in the existing software code library.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a render engine extension operative to cause the user interface render engine

to receive the pseudo user interface presentation file at application runtime and to generate a user interface presentation file according to a desired format prescribed by the render engine extension.

19. The system of claim 18, the render engine extension being further operative to cause the user interface render engine to parse the pseudo user interface presentation file and to determine the modifications to the user interface;

20. The system of claim 17, the render engine extension being further operative to cause the user interface render engine to parse the pseudo user interface presentation file to determine one or more events associated with components of the modified user interface and to determine one or more event handlers of the existing software code library corresponding to the one or more events associated with components of the modified user interface.