Method and apparatus for sharing common data objects among multiple applications in a client device
First Claim
1. A software architecture for a client device, the architecture comprising:
- a data store for storing a predefined data structure having a first data object and a predefined first template having a first identifier value and a first field, where the first field of the first template is tagged as corresponding to the first data object of the data structure;
a first application process configured to output information to a user of the client device in a format defined by the first template, where the first application process, responsive to a user command, is configured to format and send a template population request message that includes an identifier field having the first identifier value for the first template, and is further configured to render the first template, when populated with data, for display to a user of the client device;
a server process within the client device, the server process being configured to receive the template population request message from an application and, responsive thereto, use the value from the template identifier value from the template population request message to retrieve a corresponding template from the data store, use the tag from the first field of the corresponding template to retrieve a value from a corresponding data object of the data structure corresponding to the tag value from the corresponding template, and return the corresponding template populated with the value from the data object to the application that sent the template population request message.
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Abstract
Disclosed is software architecture and method for sharing data objects among multiple applications in a client device. The architecture includes a server process in the client device for processing a template, such as a SHTML template for the Extended Markup Language (XML), based on a template identifier value received from a user application. Each of multiple applications has a template. Each template identifies a series of objects identified by tag values, such as XML entities, that are to be incorporated into a display page. A database of objects, such as a database of XML entities identified by tag values, is maintained that contains data objects for the applications. An update process periodically establishes a communication link with a remote server and requests download of a data document containing content data corresponding to at least a portion of several of the templates. The data document is parsed into the database of objects based on the structure of the data document, which generally conforms to a data type definition. When the server process processes different templates that reference the same data object, it will retrieve the data object from the database. Each template may then be rendered into a page of output data for display to a user. The architecture and method according to the present invention thus permit data objects to be shared by multiple applications and to be automatically updated. Each time a data object is updated, the data will be current for each user application that references the data object.
303 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A software architecture for a client device, the architecture comprising:
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a data store for storing a predefined data structure having a first data object and a predefined first template having a first identifier value and a first field, where the first field of the first template is tagged as corresponding to the first data object of the data structure;
a first application process configured to output information to a user of the client device in a format defined by the first template, where the first application process, responsive to a user command, is configured to format and send a template population request message that includes an identifier field having the first identifier value for the first template, and is further configured to render the first template, when populated with data, for display to a user of the client device;
a server process within the client device, the server process being configured to receive the template population request message from an application and, responsive thereto, use the value from the template identifier value from the template population request message to retrieve a corresponding template from the data store, use the tag from the first field of the corresponding template to retrieve a value from a corresponding data object of the data structure corresponding to the tag value from the corresponding template, and return the corresponding template populated with the value from the data object to the application that sent the template population request message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification