SOURCE CODE EDITOR

• US 20160188301A1
• Filed: 12/29/2014
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: Xin Ye, Yan Zang
• Inventors: ZANG, Yan, YE, Xin
• Granted Patent: US 9,448,770 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors

Abstract

Disclosed herein are technologies for facilitating source code editing. In accordance with one aspect, a request for an editing feature is received in response to an editing operation associated with a library. In response to the request, metadata may be extracted from the source code file of the library and used to present the editing feature.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating cloud-based source code editing for developing an application, comprising:

providing a source code editor for generating source code of an application, where the source code editor dynamically supports third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries not previously supported by the source code editor;

performing an editing function by a user using the source code editor;

invoking an auto-completion editing feature of the source code editor to complete the source code, wherein the auto-completion editing feature provides auto-completion proposals;

invoking a metadata packager for generating a metadata package, wherein the metadata package comprises metadata of third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries;

providing the metadata package to the source code editor; and

providing auto-completion proposals to the user, wherein the auto-completion proposals is based on the metadata in the metadata package.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the metadata package comprises:

parsing comments of source code files of the third party libraries which include,

determining if the source code files of the third party libraries are complete, and

if the source code files are complete, then parsing the comments and extracting the metadata from the source code files, and

if the source code files are incomplete, then analyzing the incomplete source code files to produce metadata from the incomplete source code files.

3. A system comprising:

a non-transitory memory device for storing computer readable program code; and

a processor in communication with the memory device, the processor being operative with the computer readable program code to perform source code editing comprising;

providing a source code editor for generating source code of an application, where the source code editor dynamically supports third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries not previously supported by the source code editor,

performing an editing function by a user using the source code editor,

invoking an auto-completion editing feature of the source code editor to complete the source code, wherein the auto-completion editing feature provides auto-completion proposals,

invoking a metadata packager for generating a metadata package, wherein the metadata package comprises metadata of third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries,

providing the metadata package to the source code editor, and

providing auto-completion proposals to the user based on the metadata in the metadata package.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the editing function is performed in a cloud-based integrated development environment.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the editing function comprises entering source code via a user interface.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the editing function comprises entering one or more pre-determined characters.

7. The system of claim 3 wherein the editing function comprises invoking a menu command via a user interface.

8. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to extract the metadata based on actual source code in source code files of the third party libraries to generate the metadata package.

9. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to extract the metadata based on comments in source code files of the third party libraries to generate the metadata package.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to extract the metadata from the third party libraries to generate the metadata package comprising:

invoking a first metadata generator of the metadata packager in response to determining the comments are complete and correct; and

invoking a second metadata generator of the metadata packager in response to determining the comments are incorrect or incomplete.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to override the comments that are incorrect or incomplete by using a patch file.

12. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to extract the metadata from the third party libraries by parsing a syntax tree of the third party.

13. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to update existing metadata with the metadata from the third party libraries.

14. The system of claim 3 wherein the metadata package comprises a compressed metadata package.

15. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is operative with the computer readable program code to generate the metadata package comprising:

parsing comments of source code files of the third party libraries which include,

determining if the source code files of the third party libraries are complete, and

if the source code files are complete, then parsing the comments and extracting the metadata from the source code files, and

if the source code files are incomplete, then analyzing the incomplete source code files to produce metadata from the incomplete source code files.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon program code, the program code executable by a computer to perform source code editing comprising:

providing a source code editor for generating source code of an application, where the source code editor dynamically supports third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries not previously supported by the source code editor;

performing an editing function by a user using the source code editor;

invoking an auto-completion editing feature of the source code editor to complete the source code, wherein the auto-completion editing feature provides auto-completion proposals;

invoking a metadata packager for generating a metadata package, wherein the metadata package comprises metadata of third party libraries, including new and updated third party libraries;

providing the metadata package to the source code editor; and

providing auto-completion proposals to the user based on the metadata in the metadata package.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the program code executable by the computer to provide the auto-completion proposals comprises displaying a list of one or more candidate proposals.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the program code executable by the computer to extract the metadata asynchronously with a user interface thread.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the program code executable by the computer to extract the metadata is based on comments in source code files of the third party.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the program code executable by the computer to extract the metadata comprises:

invoking a first metadata generator of the metadata packager in response to determining the comments are complete and correct, and

invoking a second metadata generator of the metadata packager in response to determining the comments are incorrect or incomplete.