Visual programming environment providing synchronization between source code and graphical component objects

• US 7,370,315 B1
• Filed: 11/21/2000
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, Peter W., Kaler, Christopher G., Lovell, Martyn S.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kang; Insun
• Application Number:
  US09/717,680
• Time in Patent Office: 2,723 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-178, 717100-126, 707 1- 5, 707/10, 345/764, 345768-771, 345/856, 345/861, 715762-769, 715/703, 715/771
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/355 Round-trip engineering

Abstract

In an integrated development environment, there is a tight coupling between a design surface providing a visual representation of the various physical and logical entities in a software model and the underlying code structures that support the entities. The model can include varying combinations of a component model, a high level design whiteboard, or a physical model. Every object defined within the design surface is capable of being mapped directly to an underlying code structure. The model is a graphical representation of the actual code, thus providing two way updating, i.e., the model is updated when the programmer changes the code and vice versa.

Claims

1. A computerized system having a processor for software development comprising:

a source code editor to edit a source code module;

a graphical design surface to display a graphical object representing actual code of the source code module and provide integrated testing of the source code module, wherein the integrated testing includes load testing;

a change manager to manage versioning of the source code module;

an application datastore to store a previous version of the source code module; and

a package manager to provide an interface for highlighting a set of software modules to be grouped together as a package and further for receiving properties to be associated with the package,

wherein upon a change in the source code module, the change in the source code is immediately communicated to the graphical design surface and the graphical design surface is updated to reflect the change in the source code module, wherein the design surface displays the graphical object, the graphical object represents a database object, the design surface binds a particular database system to the database object, the database object further includes a database column, the source code module includes a variable, and the design surface binds the database column to the variable.

2. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein upon a change in the graphical design surface, the change in the graphical design surface is immediately communicated to the source code editor and the source code editor is updated to reflect the change in the graphical design surface.

3. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein a difference between the source code module and the previous version of the source code module is highlighted by source code editor.

4. The computerized system of claim 3, wherein the difference is highlighted using a squiggly line under the difference.

5. The computerized system of claim 3, wherein the difference is highlighted using a tooltip bar to indicate a date and an author of the difference.

6. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein a difference between the source code module and the previous version of the source code module is highlighted by the design surface.

7. The computerized system of claim 1, further comprising at least one compiler to compile the source code module into an object code format.

8. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the design surface binds the source code module to the at least one compiler.

9. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the binding is established through a drag-and-drop interface.

10. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the package manager receives a list of system identifiers, each of the system identifiers identifying a particular computer system, and wherein the package manager further provides an interface to determine the particular system to deploy the package to.

11. A computerized method for developing a software project, the method comprising:

creating a graphical object on a design surface, the graphical object representing actual code of a software module;

binding the graphical object to an application type;

generating source code particular to the application type;

maintaining versioning data of the software module;

storing a previous version of the software module;

receiving identification of a set of software modules to be grouped together as a package; and

receiving properties to be associated with the package,

wherein the design surface displays the graphical object, the graphical object represents a database object, the design surface binds a particular database system to the database object, the database object further includes a database column, the source code module includes a variable, and the design surface binds the database column to the variable, wherein the design surface further provides support for integrated testing of the software module, further wherein the integrated testing includes load testing.

12. The computerized method of claim 11, wherein the application type is a source code compiler.

13. The computerized method of claim 11, wherein the application type is a database application.

14. The computerized method of claim 11, wherein the application type is a source code interpreter.

15. The computerized method of claim 11, further comprising:

modifying the source code; and

refreshing the design surface to update the graphical object to reflect the modification to the source code.

16. The computerized method of claim 11, further comprising:

modifying the graphical object on the design surface; and

refreshing the source code to reflect the modification to the graphical object.

17. The computerized method of claim 11, further comprising reading a template having pre-configured software modules from a datastore.

18. A computer-storage medium having computer executable instructions for performing a method for developing a software project, the method comprising:

creating a graphical object on a design surface, the graphical object representing actual code of a software module;

binding the graphical object to an application type in response to a user input selecting an application type;

generating source code particular to the application type;

maintaining versioning data of the software module;

storing a previous version of the software module;

in response to a user input, creating a package populated with different software components;

receiving a user input identifying properties to be associated with the package;

in response to a user input, creating a deployment group comprising a collection of packages for deployment;

presenting a matrix of machines and defined deployment groups;

receiving a user input mapping a deployment group to a set of machines; and

storing the mapping of the deployment group to the set of machines,

wherein the design surface displays the graphical object, the graphical object represents a database object, the design surface binds a particular database system to the database object, the database object further includes a database column, the source code module includes a variable, and the design surface binds the database column to the variable, wherein the design surface is further operative to provide integrated testing of the software module, further wherein the integrated testing includes load testing.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the application type is a source code compiler.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the application type is a database application.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the application type is a source code interpreter.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

modifying the source code; and

refreshing the design surface to update the graphical object to reflect the modification to the source code.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

modifying the graphical object on the design surface; and

refreshing the source code to reflect the modification to the graphical object.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises reading a template having pre-configured software modules from a datastore.