Development system with methods providing visual form inheritance
First Claim
1. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
- creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties;
creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form;
modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property;
storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden;
modifying at least one component of the ancestor form; and
in response to said modifying step, propagating a property value from each property which has been modified to all said at least one descendant form.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A visual development system is described which allows a user to derive forms from other "ancestor" forms, inheriting their components, properties, and code as a starting point for one'"'"'s own forms. During system operation, the user selects an "Inherit" menu choice for indicating to the system that the form to be created inherits from an existing ancestor form. Ancestor forms can be any forms already contained in an existing project or in an "object repository" provided by the system. Form inheritance allows the user to create a library of standard form templates, either within a single application or across an entire suite of applications. Any changes made to the ancestor form immediately appear in the descendant forms. Further, the use can customize each form type so derived while still retaining the ability to modify the standard form and have those changes reflected in the derived forms.
95 Citations
32 Claims
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1. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties; creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form; modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property; storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden; modifying at least one component of the ancestor form; and in response to said modifying step, propagating a property value from each property which has been modified to all said at least one descendant form. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties; creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form; modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property; and storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden; wherein said modifying step includes creating a property filter for blocking propagation from the ancestor form of said at least one property which has been overridden.
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14. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties; creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form; modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property; and storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden; wherein each component which inherits from the particular component inherits said event handler, and wherein said event handler is associated with the particular component via a method pointer, and wherein said method pointer is treated as a property of the component for purposes of inheritance. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties; creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form; modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property; storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden; modifying a component of the ancestor form; in response to said modifying step, notifying each component of a descendant form which inherits from the modified component of the modification; and in response to receiving a notification of the modification, updating each notified component of a descendant form with values for those properties of the ancestor which have not been overridden at the descendant form.
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18. In a form-based development system, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating an ancestor form comprising a set of components, each component having a set of properties; creating at least one descendant form, by inheriting said set of components from the ancestor form; modifying said at least one descendant form by overriding a value stored for at least one property; storing said at least one descendant form by storing values for only those properties which have been overridden; creating a new component at the ancestor form; and in response to said creating step, creating at each descendant a corresponding new component. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. In a development system having a processor and a memory, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating a first form having a first component, said first component being associated with an event handler for processing events which occur at said first component; and creating a second form which inherits from said first form, said second form having a second component which inherits from said first component, said second component automatically being associated with said event handler for processing events which occur at said second component; wherein said event handler includes programming code which executes upon invocation of the event handler, wherein a component is associated with a particular event handler by storing at that component a reference to that event handler, and wherein said reference includes a function pointer which points to a location in said memory where said program code of the event handler resides. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. In a development system having a processor and a memory, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating a first form having a first component, said first component being associated with an event handler for processing events which occur at said first component; and creating a second form which inherits from said first form, said second form having a second component which inherits from said first component, said second component automatically being associated with said event handler for processing events which occur at said second component; wherein said event handler includes programming code which executes upon invocation of the event handler, wherein a component is associated with a particular event handler by storing at that component a reference to that event handler, and wherein said reference includes a "this" pointer which references a particular form in memory, said particular form having a particular component where an event occurs giving rise to invocation of the event handler. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. In a development system having a processor and a memory, a method for assisting a user with creating an application program, the method comprising:
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creating a first form having a first component, said first component being associated with an event handler for processing events which occur at said first component; and creating a second form which inherits from said first form, said second form having a second component which inherits from said first component, said second component automatically being associated with said event handler for processing events which occur at said second component; wherein said event handler is automatically associated with said second component of said second form by assignment of a method pointer into a handler of the second component, said assigned method pointer comprising a "this" pointer referencing said second form together with a function pointer referencing a location in said memory where programming code for the event handler resides.
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29. A development system comprising:
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a computer having a processor and a memory; an interface for creating form objects having components; and
,means for creating a descendant form object from an existing ancestor form object, said means including means for automatically propagating to each descendant form object so created modifications which occur at said ancestor form object; wherein said means for automatically propagating includes means for notifying a descendant form object that its corresponding ancestor form object has been modified. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32)
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Specification