Mark-up language implementation of graphical or non-graphical user interfaces
First Claim
1. A method of implementing a user interface comprising:
- storing one or more description documents defining a plurality of types of at least one user interface and comprising definitions of elements of the at least one user interface;
storing a plurality of objects each comprising a renderer for rendering a different one of the elements;
forming a first renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any one type of the plurality of the types by loading into an interface-implementation engine (interactor) objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any one type;
rendering the selected user interface of the selected any one type by executing the first renderer;
forming a second renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any other type of the plurality of the types which is different from said any one type by loading into same said interactor objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any other type; and
rendering the selected user interface of the selected any other type by executing the second renderer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A user interface (132)—be it graphical (GUI) or telephony (TUI) to an application (120) is defined by stored interface and feature description documents (122,124) written in XML and JavaScript, so that the user interface and changes thereto can be effected without access to source code. Interface description documents define the appearance and the behavior of the user interface toward the user, while feature description documents define the interaction of the user interface with the interfaced-to application, both in conformity with a user-interface object model (310). Stored connector object plug-ins (126) define connector objects for rendering elements of feature description documents, and stored layout object plug-ins (128) define layout objects for rendering elements of interface description documents of one or more interfaces.
99 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of implementing a user interface comprising:
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storing one or more description documents defining a plurality of types of at least one user interface and comprising definitions of elements of the at least one user interface; storing a plurality of objects each comprising a renderer for rendering a different one of the elements; forming a first renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any one type of the plurality of the types by loading into an interface-implementation engine (interactor) objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any one type; rendering the selected user interface of the selected any one type by executing the first renderer; forming a second renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any other type of the plurality of the types which is different from said any one type by loading into same said interactor objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any other type; and rendering the selected user interface of the selected any other type by executing the second renderer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus for implementing a user interface, comprising:
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storage for storing (a) one or more description documents defining a plurality of types of at least one user interface and comprising definitions of elements of at least one user interface, and (b) a plurality of objects each comprising a renderer for rendering a different one of the elements; and a processor for connecting to the storage and (c) forming a first renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any one type of the plurality of the types by loading into an interface implementation engine (interactor) objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any one type, (d) rendering the selected user interface of the selected any one type by executing the renderer, (e) forming a second renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any other type of the plurality of the types which is different from said any one type by loading into same said interactor objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any other type, and (f) rendering the selected user interface of the selected any other type by executing the second renderer. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus for implementing a user interface comprising:
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means for storing one or more description documents defining a plurality of types of at least one user interface and comprising definitions of elements of the at least one user interface; means for storing a plurality of objects each comprising a renderer for rendering a different one of the elements; means for forming a first renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any one type of the plurality of the types by loading into an interface-implementation engine (interactor) objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any one type; means for rendering the selected user interface of the selected any one type by executing the first renderer; means for forming a second renderer of a selected user interface of a selected any other type of the plurality of the types which is different from said any one type by loading into same said interactor objects of the plurality of objects that correspond to the elements of at least one description document of the stored description documents that defines the selected user interface of the selected any other type, and means for rendering the selected user interface of the selected any other type by executing the second renderer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. A method comprising:
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storing description documents that define a user interface, comprised of interface elements, in terms of an object model, some of the description documents defining a first type of the user interface and others of the description documents defining a second type of the user interface; storing renderers each for rendering a different one of the interface elements, some of the renderers for rendering the first type of the user interface and others of the renderers for rendering the second type of the user interface; parsing the description documents of a selected either type of the user interface by an interface implementation engine (interactor) to identify the elements of the selected type of user interface; reflecting the identified elements into the object model by the interactor to generate an instance of the object model that represents the selected type of the user interface; downloading the renderers corresponding to the reflected elements into the interactor to create a renderer for the selected type of the user interface; and executing the renderer by the interactor to create the selected type of the user interface. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An arrangement comprising:
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description documents, stored in a computer readable-medium, that define a user interface, comprised of interface elements, in the terms of an object model, some of the description documents defining a first type of the user interface and others of the description documents defining a second type of the user interface; renderers, implemented in a computer, each for rendering a different one of the interface elements, some of the renderers for rendering the first type of the user interface and others of the renderers for rendering the second type of the user interface; and an interface implementation engine (interactor), implemented in a computer, for parsing the description documents of a selected either type of the user interface to identify the elements of the selected type of user interface, for reflecting the identified elements into the object model to generate an instance of the object model that represents the selected type of the user interface, for loading the renderers corresponding to the reflected elements into the interactor to create a renderer of the selected type of the user interface, and for executing the renderer to create the selected type of the user interface. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification