APPLICATION BUILDING

• US 20100313181A1
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fernandez, Roland L., Robbins, Daniel C., Robertson, George G., Fisher, Danyel A., Nachmanson, Lev B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,879 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

The described implementations relate to unified application building. In one implementation unified application building tools can include a unifying component model configured to communicate with a set of components that are supported by different frameworks. The unified application building tools can also include a unification engine configured to bind events between individual components in a unified manner that is independent of an individual framework upon which individual components are supported.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform acts, comprising:

allowing a user to define a domain in which to build an application; and

,

presenting a set of domain-specific components at a level of abstraction consistent with the domain, wherein the user can select individual components from the set to build the application.

2. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the allowing comprises allowing the user to select the domain from a list of domains.

3. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the presenting comprises presenting the domain-specific components in a uniform manner that is independent of a component-specific framework.

4. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising enabling the user to add additional components to the set.

5. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising enabling the user to combine selected components to create a new component to be added to the set.

6. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising enabling the user to adjust the level of abstraction for individual selected components during the build.

7. A computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform acts, comprising:

presenting a set of components that can be utilized by a user to build an application, wherein a first subset of the components relate to a first framework and a second subset of the components relate to a second framework; and

,

allowing the user to interact with the components of the set in a unified manner that is independent of both the first and second frameworks.

8. The computer-readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising enabling the user to specify a level of abstraction at which individual components are expressed in the set.

9. The computer-readable storage media of claim 8, further comprising allowing the user to change the level of abstraction for individual user-selected components while building the application.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 8, further comprising allowing the user to change the level of abstraction at which the application is presented to the user.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 8, wherein a first level of abstraction comprises a graphical representation and a second level of abstraction comprises a textual representation.

12. A system, comprising:

a unifying component model configured to communicate with a set of components that are supported by different frameworks; and

,

a unification engine configured to bind events between individual components in a unified manner that is independent of an individual framework upon which individual components are supported.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the unification engine is configured to bind the events according to instructions contained in a flow language file.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a selectively automatic unifying visual designer configured to allow a user to combine individual components into a new component without writing code.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising a selectively-automatic integrated development environment configured to allow a user to select a domain in which to build an application utilizing individual components.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the selectively-automatic integrated development environment is configured to offer domain-specific components to the user from which to build the application.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the selectively-automatic integrated development environment further comprises a unifying visual debugger configured to generate an animation of a debugging process of an application built from individual components.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the selectively-automatic integrated development environment is configured to allow the user to change a level of abstraction at which individual components are presented.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the selectively-automatic integrated development environment is configured to allow the user to change the level of abstraction with a single user input.