CONVERTING DESKTOP APPLICATIONS TO WEB APPLICATIONS

• US 20120166963A1
• Filed: 12/27/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Reierson, Kristofer Hellick, Anderson, Angela Mele, Kohli, Aseem
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/52 Binary to binary
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/74 Reverse engineering; Extracting design information from source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for converting a desktop application to a web application. An interface file is generated based on a user interface of the desktop application. A logic file is generated based on application executables of the desktop application. A data model is generated based on application data and states of the desktop application. The web application is generated based on the interface file, the logic file, and the data model.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for converting a desktop application to a web application, the method comprising computer-implemented operations for:

generating, through a computer having a processor and a memory, an interface file based on a user interface of the desktop application;

generating, through the computer, a logic file based on application executables of the desktop application;

generating, through the computer, a data model based on application data and states of the desktop application; and

generating, through the computer, the web application based on the interface file, the logic file, and the data model.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating an interface file based on a user interface of the desktop application comprises:

receiving, through the computer, program code associated with the desktop application;

analyzing, through the computer, the program code to determine interface components in the user interface; and

generating, through the computer, the interface file specifying the interface components.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the interface components comprises a presence, location, or size of graphical user interface elements in the user interface.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating an interface file based on a user interface of the desktop application comprises:

receiving, through the computer, snapshots of the user interface, the snapshots comprising screen captures of the user interface in various states;

analyzing, through the computer, the snapshots to determine interface elements in the user interface; and

generating, through the computer, the interface file specifying the interface elements.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a logic file based on application executables of the desktop application comprises:

receiving, through the computer, program code associated with the desktop application;

analyzing, through the computer, the program code to extract business logic from the application executables and mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface; and

generating, through the computer, the logic file specifying the business logic and the mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface.

6. The computer-implemented of claim 5, wherein the program code comprises a high-level language representation, an assembly language representation, or a machine language representation of the desktop application.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a logic file based on application executables of the desktop application comprises:

executing, through the computer, the desktop application to effectuate runtime processes of the desktop application;

analyzing, through the computer, the runtime processes during the execution of the desktop application to extract business logic from the application executables and mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface; and

generating, through the computer, the logic file specifying the business logic and the mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

verifying, through the computer, code coverage during the execution of the desktop application; and

terminating, through the computer, the execution of the desktop application when the code coverage reaches a minimum code coverage threshold.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a data model based on application data and states of the desktop application comprises:

receiving, through the computer, program code associated with the desktop application;

analyzing, through the computer, the program code to determine variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application; and

generating, through the computer, the data model specifying the variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and the user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a data model based on application data and states of the desktop application comprises:

executing, through the computer, the desktop application to effectuate runtime processes of the desktop application;

analyzing, through the computer, the runtime processes during the execution of the desktop application to determine variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application; and

generating, through the computer, the data model specifying the variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and the user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein generating the web application based on the interface file, the logic file, and the data model comprises:

allocating, through the computer, web data stores having a database structure based on the data model.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

determining, through the computer, whether each variable specified in the data model corresponds to particular business logic in the logic file;

in response to determining that at least one variable specified in the data model does not correspond to the particular business logic in the logic file, outputting, through the computer, an error message.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the web application comprises a web interface, a page router, n-tier web business logic, and web data stores.

14. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and

a program module which executes in the processor from the memory and which, when executed by the processor, causes the computer system to covert a desktop application to a web application by

generating an interface file based on a user interface of the desktop application,

generating a logic file based on application executables of the desktop application,

generating a data model based on application data and states of the desktop application, and

generating the web application based on the interface file, the logic file, and the data model, the web application comprising a web interface, a page router, n-tier web business logic, and web data stores.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein generating the web application based on the interface file, the logic file, and the data model comprises:

generating the web interface based on the interface file;

generating the page router and the n-tier web business logic based on the logic file; and

allocating the web data stores based on the data model.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the interface file specifies interface elements in the desktop application;

wherein the logic file specifies business logic in the desktop application and mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface; and

wherein the data model specifies variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application.

17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the web interface comprises Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code that mimics a look and feel of the user interface.

18. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the page router maps each of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs) of web pages contained in the web interface to particular business logic defined by the n-tier web business logic.

19. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the program module generates the interface file, the logic file, and the data model via a combination of code analysis of program code associated with the desktop application and runtime analysis of runtime processes during execution of the desktop application.

20. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

generate, through the computer, an interface file based on a user interface of a desktop application, the interface file specifying interface components in the desktop application;

generate, through the computer, a logic file based on application executables of the desktop application, the logic file specifying business logic in the desktop application and mappings between the business logic and various states of the user interface;

generate, through the computer, a data model based on application data and states of the desktop application, the data model specifying variable types for data that is stored and retrieved by the desktop application and user states that persist across multiple sessions of the desktop application;

generate, through the computer, a web interface of a web application based on the interface file;

generate, through the computer, a page router and n-tier web business logic of the web application based on the logic file; and

allocate, through the computer, web data stores of the web application based on the data model.