Framework to Support Application Context and Rule Based UI-Control
First Claim
1. A method for providing rule based user interface (UI) control, comprising:
- after having developed or deployed a software application, defining a rule for a UI element, said UI element to be displayed in the software application, the rule determining a value of a property of the UI element, the property specifying the layout of the UI element,storing the rule by a rule engine to a storage medium, the rule being stored in association with said UI element the rule was defined for,at runtime, receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the request being received by a rule based UI control framework,determining the rule which has been stored in association with the UI element of the request, the determination being executed by the rule based UI control framework,retrieving the determined rule from the storage medium by the rule engine,retrieving said retrieved rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, the runtime service being a service which is executed at runtime of the software application,evaluating, at runtime of the software application, the rule to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the evaluation being executed by the runtime service,setting the value of the property according to the evaluated rule at runtime of the software application,returning the set value of the property to the software application, anddisplaying the UI element by the software application, whereby the layout of the UI element depends on the set value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of a method and system provide a rule based user interface control for a software application. At configuration time of an installed software application, the method may provide a design-time environment for defining a rule for a UI element to be displayed in the software application. The rule may affect a value of a property of the UI element and may be persisted in a rule engine. Then at run-time, upon receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property, the method may retrieve the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, evaluate the rule to determine the value for the property and set the value for the property according to the evaluated rule. The set value for the property may be returned to the software application for displaying the UI element.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for providing rule based user interface (UI) control, comprising:
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after having developed or deployed a software application, defining a rule for a UI element, said UI element to be displayed in the software application, the rule determining a value of a property of the UI element, the property specifying the layout of the UI element, storing the rule by a rule engine to a storage medium, the rule being stored in association with said UI element the rule was defined for, at runtime, receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the request being received by a rule based UI control framework, determining the rule which has been stored in association with the UI element of the request, the determination being executed by the rule based UI control framework, retrieving the determined rule from the storage medium by the rule engine, retrieving said retrieved rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, the runtime service being a service which is executed at runtime of the software application, evaluating, at runtime of the software application, the rule to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the evaluation being executed by the runtime service, setting the value of the property according to the evaluated rule at runtime of the software application, returning the set value of the property to the software application, and displaying the UI element by the software application, whereby the layout of the UI element depends on the set value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A machine-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a computer to perform a method comprising:
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at configuration time of an installed software application, providing a design-time environment for defining a rule for a UI element to be displayed in the software application, the rule affecting a value of a property of the UI element, persisting the rule in a rule engine, at runtime, receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property of the UI element, retrieving the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, evaluating the rule to determine the value for the property of the UI element, set the value of the property according to the evaluated rule, and returning the set value of the property to the software application for displaying the UI element according to the set value. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer system comprising:
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a software application to interact with users, the application containing a user interface represented by a view, the view being rendered by a view modifier, the view modifier visualizing the software application during runtime, a rule based UI control framework being interoperable with the software application, the rule based UI control framework containing a design-time configuration tool and a runtime service, wherein the design-time configuration tool helps a user to create, at a design-time, rules for UI elements in the view, the design-time configuration tool including a panel displaying a hierarchy of application configuration variants, each application configuration variant comprising configuration information of UI elements, the design-time configuration tool also including a window for creating rules and assigning each created rule to a user-selected UI element of the hierarchy, the design-time being a time that the software application has been developed or deployed, but not the time that the software application is still under development, wherein the view modifier of the application sends, before displaying the view, a list of UI elements to be displayed in the view to the runtime service, wherein the runtime service retrieves and evaluates the rules to determine, at run time of the software application, values for properties of the UI elements to be displayed, each property specifying the layout of an UI element, the view being rendered by the view modifier according to the values for the UI elements'"'"' properties determined by the runtime service, and a rule engine to persist the rules created by the design-time configuration tool. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A method for providing rule based user interface (UI) control for a software application, comprising:
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receiving from the software application a request to determine a value of a property of a UI element of the software application, the property specifying the layout of said UI element, identifying a rule having been stored by a rule engine in a storage medium in association with said UI element, retrieving, by the rule engine, the rule having been stored in association with said UI element, retrieving the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, the runtime service being a service executed at runtime of the application, evaluating the rule to determine the value of the property of the UI element, setting the value of the property according to the evaluated rule, and returning the set value of the property to the software application for displaying the UI element according to the set value.
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Specification