Method for building component-software for execution in a standards-compliant programming environment

• US 7,574,692 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2004
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Adrian Herscu
• Original Assignee: Adrian Herscu
• Inventors: Herscu, Adrian
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr.; Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): MITCHELL, JASON D
• Application Number:
  US10/991,493
• Publication Number:
  US 20070256055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

Richer programming platforms mean easier application development. In order to achieve richer programming platforms, cooperation between lots of developers is necessary. The optimal situation is when developers can freely use each other'"'"'s software components, without central management. Traditional programming platforms (COM, XP-COM, Java2 and .NET) almost reached this point, excluding situations when components compatible with different programming platforms must be integrated into the same application. An additional problem of the traditional programming platforms is their dependency on some non-standard runtime support. In a Web-application scenario, it cannot be assumed that support for every traditional programming platform would be available on any client machine. Therefore, the need for a system and a method for building, deploying and running component-software in a standards-compliant programming environment.

Claims

1. A Method for processing an XML-based programming language and executing an application built from multiple executable components written in that XML- based programming language, wherein for sustaining the execution at run-time, requiring a programming platform supporting at least the following standard specifications:

a) the standard ECMAScript Language Specification as a means of executing instructions and providing volatile memory space;

b) the standard DOM Level 2 Traversal and Range Specification and the DOM Level 2 Core Specification as a means of programmatically accessing and manipulating parsed XML resources; and

c) the standard XSL Transformations as a means for transforming XML resources;

said processing comprises in run-time the following steps;

pre-storing in one or more repositories said multiple executable components of the application;

loading and initializing a set of runtime system libraries from said one or more repositories, including the loading of environment description and resources for said application, and framing the application;

upon necessity by the execution path of said running application, dynamically loading one or more of said pre-stored executable components from said one or more repositories;

transforming each of said loaded executable components from said XML-based programming language into multiple literals of the ECMAScript programming language by applying dedicated transformation rules;

binding and loading each of said transformed components'"'"' literals into an ECMAScript engine in order to make said components and said runtime system libraries programmatically available one to another;

monitoring the execution of each component in order to detect potential defects, potential performance bottlenecks, and said necessity to load additional components;

wherein said XML-based programming language is at least capable of describing the following main entities;

a package that contains the package name, version, debug flag, programming platform compatibility rules and package dependency rules of a predetermined and fixed set of entities and their resources;

a class that contains the class name, version, inherited class and supported interfaces of a predetermined and fixed set of field definitions and operation implementations;

an interface that contains the interface name, version, inherited interface, and a predetermined and fixed set of constant and operation definitions;

an environment that contains the environment name, version, startup class, startup parameters, debug flag and site root of said application, and a startup function.

2. The method of claim 1 for use in a client/server environment, wherein the said repositories are located at the server side, and said programming platform is located and operates at a client end to service user interface requests and to manage said application display.

3. The method of claim 1 for use in a client/server environment, wherein the said repositories are located at the server side, and said programming platform is also located and operates at the server side, to service remote client requests by accessing other local or remote data sources and by applying various computations on them.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said programming platform is located and operates at the client end, and is hosted by a Web browser.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said application runs using at least one of said pre-stored executable components.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said executable components is an opaque object described by a predetermined and fixed set of classes, accessible only through a predetermined and fixed set of connectors, each connector is described by an interface, whereas all said classes and interfaces are grouped into at least one package.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said initializing step designates one of said classes as a startup class to be loaded first from said one or more repositories, in order to launch said application.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising a mechanism for caching loaded executable components in order to avoid repeated loading of components.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said programming platform is connected to external systems that are defined by additional standard or non-standard specifications.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said programming platform provides an initializing mechanism for the purpose of preparing the environment required for the execution of the application by instantiating said startup class of said application.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said programming platform provides a loading mechanism for the purpose of loading said executable components.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said programming platform provides a class instantiation mechanism for the purpose of bringing said loaded executable components into their running state in order to enable their operation.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said programming platform provides a call interception mechanism for the purpose of monitoring each operation of said executable component in order to ensure meeting said operation definition and to calculate the average completion time.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said programming platform comprises a core, and wherein said core is described by said environment as a set of statically loaded libraries written in the ECMAScript programming language.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a life-cycle of said application comprises the following events:

bootstrapping said programming platform in order to begin said application working session; and

shutting down said programming platform in order to terminate said application working session.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said bootstrap process comprises the following steps:

loading said environment;

initializing the core of said programming platform by executing said startup function;

instantiating the startup class of said environment to form a startup object;

initializing said startup object by passing said startup parameters as defined by said environment.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said shutting down process comprises the disposal of said startup object.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said working session is confined by the initialization of said startup object and disposal events, while the handling of these events is application specific and includes any of the operations supported by the said programming platform itself and by systems externally connected to it.