Mobile Device Application Framework

• US 20120180073A1
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hin Leung Hung
• Original Assignee: Hin Leung Hung
• Inventors: HUNG, Hin Leung
• Application Number:
  US13/341,698
• Publication Number:
  US 20120180073A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

A mobile-application framework facilitates construction of interactive data display and manipulation applications without imperative programming by providing URI matching and substitution functions, wherein a substituted URI can refer to a resource contained as a hierarchically-organized item within a monolithic data stream or file.

Claims

1. A mobile application framework comprising:

a browser to retrieve a document from a resource server, the document formatted in a hierarchical markup language and containing a URI dispatch table; and

a document formatted in a hierarchical markup language and containing a URI dispatch table, wherein

the browser comprises instructions to receive a first URI, convert the first URI into a second URI according to entries in the URI dispatch table, and perform an action according to the second URI.

2. The mobile application framework of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical markup language is the Extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

).

3. The mobile application framework of claim 1 wherein the second URI identifies an element within the document.

4. The mobile application framework of claim 3 wherein the element is one of an image, a user-interface component, or a sub-document formatted in the hierarchical markup language.

5. A method comprising:

downloading a package from a remote server via a distributed data connection;

extracting a document from the package, the document formatted in a markup language and containing a URI dispatch table;

processing a first URI-like string by matching elements of the first URI-like string to patterns in the URI dispatch table;

constructing a second URI-like string by combining elements from the URI dispatch table and variables matched in the processing operation;

using the second URI-like string to select a resource from the package; and

displaying the resource.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the resource is an image.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the resource is a user-interface component.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

constructing a third URI-like string by combining elements from an attribute value of the user-interface component and variables matched during the processing operation; and

using the third URI-like string to affect a remote resource.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the resource is a sub-package stored within the package, said sub-package containing a second URI dispatch table.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

processing a third URI-like string by matching elements of the third URI-like string to patterns in the second URI dispatch table;

constructing a fourth URI-like string by combining elements from the second URI dispatch table and variables matched during a URI processing operation;

using the fourth URI-like string to affect a resource from the sub-package.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the resource from the sub-package is a user-interface control.

12. The method of claim 5 wherein the second URI comprises at least three path segments separated by at least two different delimiter characters.

13. A computer-readable medium containing instructions to cause a programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

parsing a first URL into a plurality of delimiter-separated segments;

assigning at least one of the delimiter-separated segments as a value of a variable;

constructing a second URL containing a plurality of delimiter-separated segments, at least one of the segments containing the value of the variable; and

sending a message to a user-interface component comprising a plurality of child components, wherein a name of the user-interface-component matches the second URL, and wherein sending the message causes the user-interface component to display a subset of the plurality of child components.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, containing additional instructions to cause the programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

constructing a third URL containing a plurality of delimiter-separated segments, at least one of the segments containing the value of the variable;

transmitting the third URL to a remote server to obtain a resource identified by the third URL;

receiving a JavaScript Object Notation (“

JSON”

) data sequence from the remote server; and

providing information from the JSON data sequence to the user interface component to affect a display of the user interface component or a child component of the user interface component.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 containing additional instructions to cause the programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

determining a context-node of the user-interface component by selecting a node relative to the context-node of a parent component of the user-interface component or an overriding context-node of the user-interface component.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 containing additional instructions to cause the programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

evaluating an XPath expression in relation to a context-node of a first UI component to produce a first evaluated XPath expression; and

evaluating the XPath expression in relation to a context-node of a second UI component to produce a second evaluated XPath expression, wherein the first evaluated XPath expression is different from the second evaluated XPath expression.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the delimiter-separated segments of the first URL are separated by at least two different delimiter characters.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the delimiter-separated segments of the second URL are separated by at least two different delimiter characters.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the instructions comprise a binary library for linking to a separate sequence of instructions, said second sequence of instructions implementing logic for invoking the parsing, assigning, constructing and sending operations.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the second URL comprises a leading portion containing a plurality of delimiter-separated segments joined by a plurality of first delimiter characters, followed by a second, different delimiter character and one segment, said one segment forming the message sent to the user-interface component.