Method and apparatus for interfacing a javascript interpreter with library of host objects implemented in java

• US 6,823,504 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2000
• Issued: 11/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Sokolov, Stepan B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/714,050
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 717/136-148
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45508 Runtime interpretation or emulation, e g. emulator loops, bytecode interpretation

Abstract

A JavaScript interpreter may be interfaced with a JavaScript library of host objects implemented in Java. A JavaScript program may be accessed and parsed, an intermediate representation of the program may be generated, and the intermediate representation may be executed by interfacing with the library of host objects. In one embodiment, the JavaScript program is embedded in HTML documents in a Web browser. The browser is programmed to intercept the JavaScript code and pass execution control to an interpreter engine implemented in Java. The interpreter engine may access the program'"'"'s library of host objects through an interface to the library and execute the intermediate representation to produce the desired results as programmed in the original JavaScript source program. The implementation of the interface enables the implementation of the interpreter engine to be independent from the implementation of the library of host objects and independent from the implementation of the browser.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting one or more script language instructions in a document;

generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions, wherein the platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions is different from the script language; and

interpreting and executing each of one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation, wherein said interpreting and executing comprises;

interfacing with an object library comprising a plurality of program objects; and

accessing one or more of the plurality of program objects, wherein the one or more accessed program objects are used to implement the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein said interpreting and executing produces results in accordance with the original one or more script language instructions.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said detecting is performed by a Web browser, and wherein said generating, said interpreting and executing, and said interfacing with an object library are performed by an interpreter engine.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the interpreter engine interfaces with the object library through an object library interface external to the Web browser and the interpreter engine.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation are stored in a stack data structure, wherein the interpreter engine is a stack-machine interpreter engine that pops the one or more instructions off the stack data structure during said interpreting and executing.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions comprises validating that the one or more script language instructions conform to script language syntax.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions comprises modifying a first of the one or more program objects.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said modifying the first program object comprises adding at least one of methods and fields to the first program object.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the script language is JavaScript.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the document is a markup language document.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the markup language is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said detecting is performed by a Java-based Web browser executing within a Java Virtual Machine.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the platform-independent programming language is the Java programming language.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of program objects includes Java programming language objects.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to said processor and operable to store program instructions; and

an object library comprising a plurality of program objects;

wherein the program instructions are executable by the processor to execute a script comprising one or more script language instructions;

wherein, in said executing the script, the program instructions are further executable by the processor to;

generate a platform-independent programming language representation of the script, wherein the platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions is different from the script language; and

interpret and execute each of one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein, in said interpreting and executing, the program instructions are further executable by the processor to;

interface with the object library to access one or more of the plurality of program objects, wherein the one or more accessed program objects are used to implement the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation; and

wherein said interpreting and executing produces results in accordance with the original one or more script language instructions.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the script language is JavaScript.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the script is embedded in a markup language document.

17. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein said executing the script is performed by an interpreter engine executing within a Java Virtual Machine.

18. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the platform-independent programming language is the Java programming language, and wherein the plurality of program objects are Java programming language objects.

19. A system, comprising:

a device, comprising;

a processor;

a memory coupled to said processor and operable to store program instructions implementing a first process and a second process;

an object library comprising a plurality of program objects and accessible to processes executing within the device through an object library interface;

wherein the first process is executable within the device to;

detect one or more script language instructions in a document; and

pass execution to the second process in response to said detecting;

wherein the second process is executable within the device to;

generate a platform-independent programming language representation of the detected one or more script language instructions, wherein the platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions is different from the script language; and

interpret and execute each of one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein, in said interpreting and executing, the second process is further executable to access one or more of the plurality of program objects in the object library through the object library interface to implement the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein said interpreting and executing produces results in accordance with the original one or more script language instructions.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the object library and the object library interface are external to the first process and the second process.

21. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the system further comprises a Java Virtual Machine executable within the device, and wherein the first process is a Java-based Web browser executable within the Java Virtual Machine, and wherein the second process is a JavaScript interpreter engine executable within the Java Virtual Machine.

22. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation are stored in a stack data structure, wherein the interpreter engine is a stack-machine interpreter engine that pops the one or more instructions off the stack data structure during said interpreting and executing.

23. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein, in said generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions, the second process is further executable to add at least one of fields and methods to at least one of the one or more program objects.

24. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the document is a markup language document.

25. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the platform-independent programming language is the Java programming language.

26. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the plurality of program objects includes Java programming language objects.

27. A system, comprising:

an object library comprising a plurality of platform-independent programming language objects;

an object library interface configured to provide access to the plurality of platform-independent programming language objects in the object library to processes within the system;

a first process configured to interpret and execute each of one or more instructions of a platform-independent programming language representation of a sequence of script language instructions, wherein the platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions is different from the script language;

wherein, in said interpreting and executing, the first process is further configured to access one or more of the plurality of platform-independent programming objects in the object library through the object library interface to implement the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein said interpreting and executing produces results in accordance with the sequence of script language instructions.

28. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein the first process is further configured to generate the platform-independent programming language representation from the sequence of script language instructions prior to said interpreting and executing.

29. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein the system further comprises a Java Virtual Machine, wherein the script language is JavaScript, and wherein the first process is a JavaScript interpreter executable within the Java Virtual Machine.

30. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein the platform-independent programming language is the Java programming language.

31. A carrier medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to implement:

detecting one or more script language instructions in a document;

generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions, wherein the platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions is different from the script language; and

interpreting and executing each of one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation, wherein said interpreting and executing comprises;

interfacing with an object library comprising a plurality of program objects; and

accessing one or more of the plurality of program objects, wherein the one or more accessed program objects are used to implement the one or more instructions of the platform-independent programming language representation;

wherein said interpreting and executing produces results in accordance with the original one or more script language instructions.

32. The carrier medium as recited in claim 31, wherein said detecting is performed by a Java-based Web browser executing within a Java Virtual Machine, wherein the script language is JavaScript, and wherein said generating, said interpreting and executing, and said interfacing with an object library are performed by a JavaScript interpreter engine executable with the Java Virtual Machine.

33. The carrier medium as recited in claim 32, wherein the JavaScript interpreter engine interfaces with the object library through an object library interface external to the Java-based Web browser and the JavaScript interpreter engine.

34. The carrier medium as recited in claim 31, wherein said generating a platform-independent programming language representation of the one or more script language instructions comprises adding at least one of fields and methods to at least one of the one or more program objects.

35. The carrier medium as recited in claim 31, wherein the platform-independent programming language is the Java programming language, and wherein the plurality of program objects includes Java programming language objects.