System and method for smart graphical components
First Claim
1. A method of executing a container-aware graphical component on a computer system, said method comprising:
- identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component, wherein the identifying includes;
retrieving a first classtype corresponding to a first parent object, the first parent object being the immediate parent of the graphical component;
determining whether the first classtype is a recognized container class;
retrieving, in response to the first classtype not being a recognized container class, a second classtype corresponding to a second parent object, the second parent object being a parent of the first parent object;
determining whether the second classtype is a recognized container class; and
assigning the classtype in response to the second classtype being a recognized container class;
retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype;
displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on a display device accessible from the computer system;
receiving a request for the graphical component; and
executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method in which a graphical component determines its appearance and runtime behavior based upon the type of container to which it belongs is provided. The container type corresponds to an implementation construct such as a class in C++ and Java, or a struct in C. This implementation construct is referred to as the classtype. The graphical component determines the classtype of its parent container at runtime and dynamically alters its appearance and behavior based upon a programmatic heuristic or a configuration file. For example, a smart graphical component placed inside of a container with a classtype of “desktop” may display descriptive text, however, the same component may not display the descriptive text when in a toolbar. Runtime behavior may also be determined based upon the classtype of the parent container. Component behavior resulting from user activation can also vary depending upon the parent container classtype.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of executing a container-aware graphical component on a computer system, said method comprising:
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identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component, wherein the identifying includes; retrieving a first classtype corresponding to a first parent object, the first parent object being the immediate parent of the graphical component; determining whether the first classtype is a recognized container class; retrieving, in response to the first classtype not being a recognized container class, a second classtype corresponding to a second parent object, the second parent object being a parent of the first parent object; determining whether the second classtype is a recognized container class; and assigning the classtype in response to the second classtype being a recognized container class; retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype; displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on a display device accessible from the computer system; receiving a request for the graphical component; and executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An information handling system comprising:
- one or more processors;
a memory area accessible by the processors; a nonvolatile storage device accessible by the processors; a display device accessible by the processors; an operating system executed by the processors for managing the information handling system; a virtual machine middleware application running on the operating system; a object handling tool for executing a container-aware graphical component, the object handling tool including; means for identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component; means for retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype; means for displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on the display device; means for receiving a request for the graphical component; and means for executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- one or more processors;
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16. A computer program product stored on a computer operable media for executing a container-aware graphical component on computer system, said computer program product comprising:
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means for identifying a classtype of a parent object corresponding to the graphical component; means for retrieving one or more display attributes and one or more behavior attributes based on the identified classtype; means for displaying, based upon the display attributes, a graphical image corresponding to the graphical component on a display device; means for receiving a request for the graphical component; means for executing, in response to the request, a program code selected from a plurality of program codes, the selection based upon the behavior attributes; means for booting one of a plurality of operating system platforms on the computer system; means for loading a virtual machine middleware application on the operating system platform, wherein the virtual machine middleware application is adapted to run platform-neutral applications; means for invoking a desktop shell application in the virtual machine middleware application, the desktop shell including a desktop window that includes one or more container windows; and means for receiving the graphical component from a server connected to the computer system over a computer network, wherein the displaying is performed within the desktop window and wherein the executing is performed by the virtual machine middleware application. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification