Method and system for integrating external functions into an application environment
First Claim
1. A system operative to integrate a plurality of external functions into an application environment, comprising:
- a client module, the client module being a component of an editing environment in which an application can be developed, the client module having a predetermined interface that includes a predetermined function signature and being operative to bi-directionally interact with one or more different external function modules that have the predetermined interface that includes the predetermined function signature, such that attributes of at least one external function of an external function module can be provided from the external function module to the editing environment; and
a first structure operative to retain a plurality of attributes of the at least one external function, wherein the editing environment is configured to communicate with the first structure and to display the attributes to a developer and wherein the editing environment is further configured to receive a function invocation provided by the developer and to use the attributes in the first structure to determine whether the function invocation is correct.
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Abstract
A method and system for integrating external functions into an application environment. The system includes an application environment, and a predetermined interface for communicating with an external function library. External functions offered by the external function library are integrated into the application environment such that they can be used in a formula as if they were native functions. According to another embodiment, an application environment is provided which implements pass by asynchronous-access-mechanism variables, and enables an external function to have access to a user interface object after the function has returned from an invocation.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A system operative to integrate a plurality of external functions into an application environment, comprising:
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a client module, the client module being a component of an editing environment in which an application can be developed, the client module having a predetermined interface that includes a predetermined function signature and being operative to bi-directionally interact with one or more different external function modules that have the predetermined interface that includes the predetermined function signature, such that attributes of at least one external function of an external function module can be provided from the external function module to the editing environment; and
a first structure operative to retain a plurality of attributes of the at least one external function, wherein the editing environment is configured to communicate with the first structure and to display the attributes to a developer and wherein the editing environment is further configured to receive a function invocation provided by the developer and to use the attributes in the first structure to determine whether the function invocation is correct. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for integrating an external function into an application environment, the method comprising:
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specifying an external function module having at least one external function;
initiating the specified external function module;
receiving a plurality of attributes of the at least one external function from the specified external function module;
storing the plurality of attributes in a symbol table;
retrieving at least one of the attributes from the symbol table;
using the at least one attribute to determine if a function invocation provided by a developer is correct; and
if the function invocation is not correct, indicating an error condition. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for integrating an external function into an application environment, the method comprising:
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specifying an external function module having at least one external function;
initiating the specified external function module;
receiving a plurality of attributes of the at least one external function from the specified external function module;
storing the plurality of attributes in a symbol table;
invoking the at least one external function in an execution mode of a developed application;
associating a response of the at least one external function with a user interface object associated with the developed application;
initiating an access object as a function of one of the plurality of attributes of the at least one external function;
coupling the access object to the user interface object; and
maintaining the coupling after the at least one external function returns from a calling process. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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Specification