Dynamic conversion of object-oriented programs to tag-based procedural code

• US 7,194,729 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2003
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burke, Shawn P., Stone, Victor A.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAVIS, JOHN Q
• Application Number:
  US10/336,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20030106041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 717/136, 717/108
• US Class Current: 717/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source

Abstract

An HTML package of the Windows foundation classes framework allows Java developers to write Java code normally as if they were writing to any user interface framework. The WFC framework converts their coding into standard HTML for display on an Internet Explorer version 4.0 web browser, a selected browser or generic HTML if so indicated by the developer. The HTML generation process is replaceable with third party generators to specifically target selected browsers with differing capabilities. During code writing key value pairs are maintained in arrays and are used to generate styles and attributes, which are further used to generate HTML. Also, several states are used when the code is being written to manage modification and display of HTML directly on a browser. The states and movement between them are transparent to the programmer because the states are handled internally by the library.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having computer executable components for:

receiving an object, the object representing an element to be displayed by a browser, wherein the object is created by an object-oriented program and wherein the object comprises a key value pair;

managing at least three states of the object wherein the state indicates if the object is available on the browser; and

generating an HTML string from the object when the state indicates that the object is available to the browser.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the states indicates the object is not available on the browser.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the states indicates a peer of the object is available on the browser.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the states indicates a peer of the object is available on the browser and actions must be performed on the peer rather than the object.

5. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a first data field containing data representing an attribute for an element; and

a second data field containing data representing a style for the element wherein the object comprises the first and second data fields and wherein the object is created by an object-oriented program;

a third data field containing data representing a state, the state indicating if the element is displayed on a browser; and

wherein the data in the first data field and the data in the second data field are used to generate an HTML string to display the element on a browser necessitated by the state represented by the third data field.

6. A computerized system for generating HTML from an object:

an object, the object representing an element to be displayed by a browser wherein the object has associated with it an array of key value pairs, the key value pairs representing at least one attribute for the Java object and at least one style for the object; and

a generator, the generator providing a text string for an HTML representation of the object by a selected Internet web browser, wherein the string is generated from the attributes and styles stored in the array of key value pairs.

7. A computerized system for dynamically generating HTML from an object-oriented program, the computerized system comprising:

an object, the object representing an element to be displayed by a browser and the object having associated with it a state wherein the object comprises a key value pair and wherein the object is created by the object-oriented program; and

a generator, the generator providing a text string for an HTML representation of the object by a selected browser, wherein the text string is generated when the state indicates the object is available to a browser.

8. The computerized system of claim 7, further comprising a data structure for storing data representing styles and attributes associated with the object wherein the data stored in the data structure is used to generate the text string.

9. A method of generating HTML from a Java object, the method comprising:

receiving a Java object, the Java object representing a element to be displayed by a browser;

maintaining none, one or more attribute(s) for the Java object and none, one or more style(s) for the object in an array of key value pairs;

managing a state of the Java object wherein the state indicates if the Java object is available on a browser; and

generating an HTML string for the Java object string from the attributes and styles stored in the array of key value pairs when the state indicates that the Java object is available to the browser;

wherein the HTML string is displayable by an Internet Explorer brand browser.

10. A method of providing tag-formatted text for display by a browser on a web client, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a web client for a web page;

executing an objected oriented program in response to the request from the web client;

generating a tag-formatted string of text for an object created by the object-oriented program; and

transmitting the tag-formatted string to the web client wherein the tag-formatted string is tailored to the browser on the web client.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising maintaining at least two states for the object.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein one of the states indicates the object is not available to the browser on the web client.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein one of the states indicates the object is available to the browser on the web client and the attributes and styles are prevented from being changed.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the tag-formatted string of text is HTML.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the tag-formatted string of text is Dynamic HTML.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the tag-formatted string of text is XML.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the browser is an Internet Explorer brand web browser.

18. A method of generating tag-formatted text, the method comprising:

executing an objected oriented program in a command shell environment;

generating a tag-formatted string of text for an object created by the object-oriented program; and

storing the tag-formatted string on a computer readable medium.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the tag-formatted string of text is HTML.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the tag-formatted string of text is Dynamic HTML.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the tag-formatted string of text is XML.

22. A computerized system for generating HTML from an object, comprising:

an object, the object representing an element to be displayed by a browser wherein the object has associated with it an array of key value pairs, the key value pairs representing at least one attribute for the object and at least on style for the object; and

a generator, the generator providing a text string for an HTML representation of the object by a selected Internet web browser, wherein the string is generated from the attributes and styles stored in the array of key value pairs, and wherein the generator is replaceable by another generator targeted for another selected Internet web browser.

23. A method for generating tag-based code, comprising:

providing a browser wherein tag based code is executed and displayed;

associating a software object with the browser wherein the software object contains a key value pair;

generating a tag based representation of a style from the key value pairs; and

,

executing the tag based representations in the browser.

24. The method as recited in claim 23 wherein the tag-based code comprises HTML.

25. The method as recited in claim 23 wherein the tag-based code comprises XML.

26. The method as recited in claim 23 wherein the software object comprises a Java object.

27. A system of providing tag-formatted text for display by a browser on a web client, the method comprising:

means for receiving a requests for a web page;

a generator that executes an objected oriented program in response to the request from the web client and generates a tag-formatted string of text from an object created by the object oriented program; and

means for transmitting the tag-formatted string to the web client wherein the tag-formatted string is tailored to the browser on the web client.

28. The system as recited in claim 27 wherein the tag-formatted text comprises HTML.

29. The system as recited in claim 27 wherein the tag-formatted text comprises XML.

30. The system as recited in claim 27 wherein the object-oriented program comprises a Java program.

31. The system as recited in claim 27 wherein the Java program comprises Java byte-codes.