Development system with visual design tools for creating and maintaining Java Beans components

• US 6,237,135 B1
• Filed: 09/11/1998
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Borland Software Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Borland Software Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Timbol, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US09/151,562
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 717/1, 717/2
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A component-based, rapid application development (RAD) Java system providing visual designers (i.e., wizards) and methodology allowing a developer (user) to create Java Beans-compatible components rapidly and easily is described. In typical operation of the system, the user may generate a “bean” component by invoking a wizard-based interface that implements methodology for automatically generating and managing the bean. The user employs the wizard to specify information about the bean, such as the name of the bean, the package it will be in, and the class it extends from. In response to the user input, the system creates a bean with the name the user specified, places it in the user'"'"'s current project, and displays the source code generated for the bean. The user may visually interact with the bean (or other existing bean) by using the visual designers to manage the bean'"'"'s properties, including: adding properties to the bean, adding bound and constrained properties, modifying properties of the bean, removing properties from the bean, or even generate a custom property editor. In a similar manner, the user may proceed to use the visual designers to manage the bean'"'"'s events, including: adding events, listening for events, and creating custom event sets.

Claims

1. In a system for developing computer programs, said programs being created, at least in part, from software components, a method for assisting a user with creation of components, the method comprising:

providing design patterns specifying how components created in the system must appear when in source code form;

receiving user input for creating a particular component of interest, said user input specifying at least one property to be created for the component, including specifying whether said at least one property should have associated functions for setting and getting values for the property;

based on said design pattern and said user input, emitting source code suitable for creating the particular component, said source code including functions for setting and getting values for at least one property;

receiving a request to add a new property to the particular component;

in response to said request and in response to parsing said emitted source code, displaying a user interface dialog allowing the user to specify a name and type for the new property for the already-created particular component; and

based on said name and type for the new property, emitting new source code suitable for creating the particular component, said new source code including source code for creating the new property for the particular component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user input includes a user-specified name for the particular component.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated function for setting values for a property comprises a function that takes a parameter having a data type that is the same as that for the property.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated function for getting values for a property comprises a function that returns a value having a data type that is the same as that for the property.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated functions for getting and setting values each include a function name that is based, at least in part, on the user-supplied name for the particular component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said particular component is a Java bean component and wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting a Java class suitable for creating the Java bean component.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said design patterns specify how properties, methods, and events should appear in source code form for components.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said design patterns specify how components should be packaged for re-use in the system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving step includes:

receiving user input indicating whether the particular component should register to listen for events occurring at another component.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting source code for indicating that the particular component should register to listen for events occurring at another component.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each component comprises a collection of one or more Java classes that serves as a self-contained, reusable component.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving step includes:

receiving user input indicating that the particular component should include user-specified methods.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting at least initial source code for user-specified methods that the user has indicated that the particular component should include.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said source code comprises Java-compatible source code.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said particular component is a Java bean component and wherein said step of receiving user input includes:

displaying a user interface dialog allowing the user to specify a name for the component, a package that the component will be in, and a class that the component will extend from.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said particular component is a Java bean component and wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting a Java class suitable for creating the Java bean component, wherein said Java class is declared as public and includes a parameterless constructor.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a property'"'"'s associated function for getting values for the property returns the current value of the property, and wherein a property'"'"'s function for setting values for the property sets the property to a new value.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the user to specify whether the new property should have associated functions for setting and getting values for the property.

19. In a system for developing computer programs, said programs being created, at least in part, from software components, a method for assisting a user with development of components, the method comprising:

providing design patterns specifying how components created in the system must appear when in source code form;

based on said design patterns, creating a particular component by emitting source code for the particular component;

after creation of the particular component, receiving first user input requesting modification of the particular component of interest;

in response to said first user input, determining from said design patterns and from parsing the emitted source code for the particular component at least one property of the particular component that is suitable for modification;

displaying a user interface dialog displaying properties of the particular component suitable for modification;

receiving second user input specifying modification of a particular property of the particular component; and

in response to said second user input, emitting new source code suitable for recreating the particular component with the user-specified modification of the particular property.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said first user input includes a user-specified selection of the particular component from a list of components.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the determining step includes:

parsing the source code for identifying properties of the particular component.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the source code comprises Java source code.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein said particular component is a Java bean component and wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting a new Java class suitable for modifying the Java bean component.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

compiling the emitted source code for recreating the particular component.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein said design patterns specify how properties, methods, and events should appear in source code form for components.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein said design patterns specify how components should be packaged for re-use in the system.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the modification specified by said second user input comprises modifying an existing property'"'"'s type.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the modification specified by said second user input comprises deletion of an existing property.

29. A development system for assisting a user with development of components used to create software programs, the system comprising:

a parser for parsing source code for a component of interest which has already been previously generated in source code form, for determining from the source code properties, events, and methods of the component;

a user interface for displaying information relating to said parsing of the source code and for receiving user input for changing selected ones of the properties, methods, and events of the component of interest; and

a code generator for emitting new source code for the particular component, said new source code including any changes specified for the component by the user.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said parser includes design patterns for identifying properties, events, and methods of the component.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein said component comprises a Java bean component and wherein said source code comprises Java source code.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein said user input for changing selected ones of the properties, methods, and events comprises user input for adding, removing, or modifying selected ones of the properties, methods, and events.

33. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

a code editor allowing the user to edit source code for the component of interest, wherein said parser is still capable of parsing source code that has been edited by the user, for determining properties, events, and methods of the component.

34. In a system for developing computer programs, said programs being created, at least in part, from software components, a method for assisting a user with development of components, the method comprising:

providing design patterns allowing the system to determine from source code any properties, methods, and events for a given component;

based on said design patterns, creating a particular component of interest;

receiving first user input requesting a change to the particular component of interest;

in response to said first user input, determining from said design pattern and from source code for the particular component the properties, methods, and events of the particular component;

displaying a user interface dialog displaying information about at least one of any properties, methods, and events of the particular component;

receiving second user input specifying change of a particular properties, methods, or events of the particular component; and

in response to said second user input, emitting source code suitable for recreating the particular component with the user-specified change of the component.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein said first user input includes a user-specified selection of the particular component from a list of components.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the determining step includes:

parsing the source code for identifying at least some of the properties, methods, and events of the particular component.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the source code comprises Java source code.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein said particular component is a Java bean component and wherein said step of emitting source code includes:

emitting a new Java class suitable for changing the Java bean component.