ITERATIVE COMPONENT BINDING

• US 20090204942A1
• Filed: 02/07/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Box, Donald F., Moore, Anthony J., Szyperski, Clemens A., Kimmerly, Randy S., Anderson, Christopher L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented

Abstract

Component domains used to define a binding between various components associated with the component domain. The component domain tracks the various services to be imported by each component, and tracks the various services exported by each component. At runtime, rather than at compile time, the various interrelations between the components are bound using the service import and export data. Accordingly, depending on the components available and their characteristics, the bindings may differ. This permits applications to be much more flexible. In one implementation, the binding is performed iteratively. For example, if after one iteration of binding service imports to service exports, some components may expand the services that they export, or the services that they desire to import.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for composing a plurality of components of a program, the method comprising:

an act of creating a component domain;

an act of instantiating an initial set of one or more components such that they are associated with the component domain, and such that services imported, if any, by each of the components in the initial set are made visible to the component domain, and such that services exported, if any, by each of the components of the initial set are also made visible to the component domain;

an act of the component domain identifying any component of the initial set of one or more components that includes nested components;

for each component of the initial set of components that includes one or more nested components, an act of expanding the component that includes one or more nested components such that the nested components are also visible to the component domain to the extent that services imported, if any, by the nested component are made visible to the component domain, and such that services exported, if any, by the nested component are made visible to the component domain;

an act of the component domain polling the initial set of components for services exported; and

an act of the component domain polling the initial set of components for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported of at least one of the components of the initial set of components using one of the services exported by another of the initial set of components, wherein the acts of expanding for each component that includes one or more nested components, the act of the component domain polling for services exported, and the act of the component domain polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported occur in a predetermined order.

2. A computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the predetermined order is first the act of expanding for each component that includes one or more nested components, second the act of the component domain polling for services exported, and third the act of the component domain polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported.

3. A computer program product in accordance with claim 2, the method further comprising:

prior to the act of polling for services exported, an act of notifying at least some of the initial set of components that polling for services exported is about to begin.

4. A computer program product in accordance with claim 3, the method further comprising:

after the act of polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported, and act of notifying at least some of the initial set of components that polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported has now completed for now.

5. A computer program product in accordance with claim 2, the method further comprising:

after the act of polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported, an act of notifying at least some of the initial set of components that polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported has now completed for now.

6. A computer program product in accordance with claim 2, wherein the collective acts including the act of expanding for each component that includes one or more nested components, the act of the component domain polling for services exported, and third the act of the component domain polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported are performed in an initial iteration of the collective acts of polling, the method further comprising:

after the act of polling for services imported and satisfying at least one of the services imported in the initial iteration of the collective acts, an act of determining if there might be further services imports that were added as a result of the act of satisfying at least one of the service imports; and

an act of performing a subsequent iteration of the collective acts.

7. A computer program product in accordance with claim 6, wherein the collective acts are iteratively performed for a plurality of iterations until all service imports are satisfied.

8. The computer program product in accordance with claim 6, wherein the additional service imports were added as a result of additional components being associated with the component domain in order to satisfy a service import of the initial set of components, an additional service import being a service import of at least one of the additional components.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 6, wherein the additional service import was added by one of the initial set of components after having had another of its service imports satisfied.

10. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory and/or storage media.

11. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for composing a plurality of components of a program, the method comprising:

an act of creating a component domain that is capable of identifying services exported and services imported by each component instantiated within the component domain;

an act of instantiating an initial set of components in the component domain; and

an act of iteratively performing the following for at least two iterations;

an act of performing a nested component expansion of each of the components in the initial set of components, wherein the nested component expansion allows the component domain to identify services exported and imported by the nested components;

an act of the component domain identifying the services exported, if any, by each of the components in the initial set of components including the nested components;

after identifying the services exported, an act of the component domain identifying the services imported, if any, by each of the components in the initial set of components;

an act of satisfying at least one of the services imported; and

an act of determining whether there are yet other services imported that are yet to be satisfied after the act of satisfying, and if so, continuing the act of iterating with the next iteration with respect to a possibly expanded set of components in the component domain, and if not, ending the act of iterating.

12. The computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory and/or storage media.

13. The computer program product in accordance with claim 12, wherein for at least one of the iterations, the act of satisfying at least one of the services imported comprises:

an act of satisfying at least one of the services imported with a service exported by another of the components in the component domain.

14. The computer program product in accordance with claim 12, wherein for at least one of the iterations, the act of satisfying at least one of the services imported comprises:

an act of searching the instantiated components within the component domain;

an act of determining that none of the instantiated components in the component domain export the service;

an act of finding a component that is not yet instantiated inside the component domain that exports the service;

an act of instantiating the found component in the component domain; and

an act of binding the service exported by the instantiation of the found component with the service imported by the component that was already instantiated within the component domain.

15. The computer program product in accordance with claim 14, wherein the act of finding comprises:

an act of consulting a catalog listing components and their services exported.

16. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the nested components expanded includes at least two levels of nested components.

17. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, further comprising:

for at least one of the iterations, an act of notifying the components in the component domain before identifying the services exported by the components, and after the act of satisfying at least one of the services exported.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, further comprising:

an act of notifying the components in the component domain after the act of iterating is complete.

19. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for composing a plurality of components of a program, the method comprising:

an act of creating a component domain that is capable of identifying services exported and services imported by each component instantiated within the component domain;

an act of instantiating an initial set of components in the component domain;

an act of iteratively performing the following for at least two iterations;

an act of performing a nested component expansion of each of the components in the initial set of components, wherein the nested component expansion allows the component domain to identify services exported and imported by the nested components;

an act of notifying the components in the component domain before identifying the services exported by the components,

an act of the component domain identifying the services exported, if any, by each of the components in the initial set of components including the nested components;

after identifying the services exported, an act of the component domain identifying the services imported, if any, by each of the components in the initial set of components;

an act of satisfying at least one of the services imported; and

an act of notifying the components in the component domain that the act of satisfying is complete;

an act of determining whether there are yet other services imported that are yet to be satisfied after the act of satisfying, and if so, continuing the act of iterating with the next iteration with respect to a possibly expanded set of components in the component domain, and if not, ending the act of iterating; and

an act of notifying the components in the component domain that the act of iterating is complete.

20. The computer program product in accordance with claim 19, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory and/or storage media.