System and Method of Skinning Themes

• US 20110066953A1
• Filed: 11/19/2010
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: ROJAS, Jose Jose, Garrood, Stuart, FOMITCHEV, Mikhail, LACEY, Jon-David Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/745
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A method and media engine for rendering a graphical interface on a device is disclosed. A skinning theme document describing rendering characteristics of the graphical interface is parsed. The document comprising at least one data element representing data generated by an application and at least one custom event representing events generated by the application. The parsed information is stored in a template including at least one named data element and at least one custom event describing the graphical interface using a markup language. Updated data element or custom event information is received from an application through an interaction interface. The template is updated with the received updated data element or custom event information. The template is rendered as the graphical interface wherein the graphical user interface presents one or more data elements from each application is rendered.

Claims

1. A method of rendering a graphical interface on a device with a plurality of applications, the method comprising:

parsing a skinning theme document describing rendering characteristics of the graphical interface comprising at least one data element representing data generated by an application and at least one custom event representing events generated by the application;

storing the parsed information in a template including at least one named data element and at least one custom event describing the graphical interface using a markup language;

receiving updated data element or custom event information from an application of the plurality of applications through an interaction interface;

updating the template with the received updated data element or custom event information;

passing the template to a renderer; and

rendering the template as the graphical interface wherein the graphical user interface presents one or more data elements from each of the plurality of applications is rendered.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the skinning theme document defines the graphical interface in scalar vector graphics (SVG) format.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein parsing the skinning theme document comprises SVG transcoding the skinning theme document into code representing the template

4. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the parsed information in the template provides for the late binding of the data element on the device to the named data element of the template prior to rendering of the graphical user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying a named data element of the at least one named data elements of the template in accordance with layout manager control information parsed from the template file.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

notifying an application of the plurality of applications of the occurrence of an event.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

registering a function to call to notify the application of the occurrence of the event; and

calling the registered function to notify the application of the occurrence of the event.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

registering an event filter with the function specifying an event filter defining one or more event types whose occurrence is to be notified.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a request from the application to be notified of the occurrence of any events.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving an event filter specifying an event filter defining one or more event types whose occurrence is to be notified.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical interface is an interface for the application, the method further comprising:

receiving a unique identifier associated with the application;

searching for a skinning theme document having an identifier corresponding to the unique identifier of the application; and

selecting the template file with the corresponding unique identifier for parsing.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein updating the template further comprises dynamically modifying one or more data elements prior to being rendered.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein updating the template further comprises one or more of:

truncating a data element string, appending other characters to the data elements, the length of at least one data element of the set of data elements, changing the display characteristics of the elements, and controlling the display of template information to the graphical interface that the renderer cannot render.

14. A media engine implemented in a mobile device for providing a graphical interface, the media engine comprising:

a parser for parsing a skinning theme document describing rendering characteristics of a graphical interface comprising at least one data element representing data generated by an application and at least one custom event representing events generated by the application and storing the parsed information in a template including at least one named data element associated with a data element and at least one custom event describing the graphical interface using a markup language on the device;

an interaction interface for receiving updated data element or custom event information from an application of the plurality of applications and updating the template with the received updated data element information; and

a rendered for rendering the template as the graphical interface wherein the graphical user interface presents one or more data elements from each of the plurality of applications is rendered.

15. The media engine of claim 14, further comprising:

a layout manager for modifying a named data element of the at least one named data elements of the template in accordance with layout manager control information parsed from the template file.

16. The media engine of claim 14, further comprising:

an event engine for notifying an application of the plurality of applications of the occurrence of an event.

17. The media engine of claim 16, wherein the event engine is further for:

registering a function to call to notify the application of the occurrence of the event; and

calling the registered function to notify the application of the occurrence of the event.

18. The media engine of claim 17, wherein the event engine is further for:

registering an event filter with the function specifying an event filter defining one or more event types whose occurrence is to be notified.

19. The media engine of claim 17, wherein the event engine is further for:

receiving a request from the application to be notified of the occurrence of any events.

20. The media engine of claim 17, wherein the event engine is further for:

receiving an event filter specifying an event filter defining one or more event types whose occurrence is to be notified.

21. The media engine of claim 14, wherein the graphical interface is an interface for the application, the media engine receiving a unique identifier associated with the application, searching for a skinning theme document having an identifier corresponding to the unique identifier of the application and selecting the skinning theme document with the corresponding unique identifier for parsing by the parser.

22. The media engine of claim 14 wherein the interaction interface updates the template by dynamically modifying one or more data elements prior to being rendered.

23. The media engine of claim 22 wherein interaction interface further provides one or more of:

truncating a data element string, appending other characters to the data elements, the length of at least one data element of the set of data elements, changing the display characteristics of the elements, and controlling the display of template information to the graphical interface that the renderer cannot render.