Method for seamlessly crossing GUI toolkit boundaries

• US 7,614,005 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2005
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Feigenbaum, Barry Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhou; Ting
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZAHR, ASHRAF A
• Application Number:
  US11/109,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20060236268A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,659 Days
• Field of Search: 715853-854, 715/762, 717/107, 717136-137, 717/140, 717147-148
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and data processing system for facilitating the traversal of a hierarchy of GUI components containing components and/or containers from disparate GUI toolkits is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, auxiliary associative data structures relating parent components in one toolkit to children in another toolkit are defined. When examining a component to determine if it has children, an appropriate associative data structure is consulted to determine if that component has a child from a disparate toolkit. In accordance with this preferred embodiment, additional associative data structures are defined, which also record the reverse “child-parent” relationship, so as to allow the GUI component tree to be traversed in both directions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process of executable computer code, comprising:

providing, in a computer, a graphical user interface container object in a first graphical user interface toolkit, wherein the graphical user interface container object is incapable of recognizing containment relationships between the graphical user interface container object and any component objects from a second graphical user interface toolkit;

generating, in the computer, a graphical user interface component object in the second graphical user interface toolkit;

causing the graphical user interface component object to become contained by the graphical user interface container object; and

recording, in the computer, a containment relationship between the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object in a table that is external to the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object, wherein the table contains a plurality of entries, wherein each entry contains an identification of a container and an identification of a component, wherein the table defines a mapping between a plurality of components and a plurality of containers, wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit and the second graphical user interface toolkit define classes in an object-oriented programming language, and wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit is Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) and the second graphical user interface toolkit is the other of Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).

2. The process of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained components in the second graphical user interface toolkit.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein said determining includes searching for said containment relationship in the table.

4. The process of claim 3, further comprising:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained component objects in the first graphical user interface toolkit by executing a method associated with the graphical user interface container object.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein said containment relationship is a mapping from container to contained component and the method further comprises:

storing a second relationship in a second table, wherein the second relationship is a mapping from component to containing container.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the table is implemented as a hash table or as a tree.

7. A computer program product in a tangible and computer readable medium comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform actions that include:

providing a graphical user interface container object in a first graphical user interface toolkit, wherein the graphical user interface container object is incapable of recognizing containment relationships between the graphical user interface container object and any component objects from a second graphical user interface toolkit;

generating a graphical user interface component object in the second graphical user interface toolkit;

causing the graphical user interface component object to become contained by the graphical user interface container object; and

a containment relationship between the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object in a table that is external to the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object, wherein the table contains a plurality of entries, wherein each entry contains an identification of a container and an identification of a component, wherein the table defines a mapping between a plurality of components and a plurality of containers, wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit and the second graphical user interface toolkit define classes in an object-oriented programming language, and wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit is Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) and the second graphical user interface toolkit is the other of Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).

8. The computer program product of claim 7, comprising additional functional descriptive material that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to perform actions of:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained components in the second graphical user interface toolkit.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein said determining includes searching for said containment relationship in the table.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, comprising additional functional descriptive material that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to perform actions of:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained components in the first graphical user interface toolkit by executing a computer program product associated with the graphical user interface container object.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein said containment relationship is a mapping from container to contained component and the computer program product comprises additional functional descriptive material that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to perform actions of:

storing a second relationship in a second table, wherein the second relationship is a mapping from component to containing container.

12. A data processing system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one data store accessible to the at least one processor; and

a set of instructions in the at least one data store, wherein the at least one processor executes the set of instructions to perform actions of;

providing a graphical user interface container object in a first graphical user interface toolkit, wherein the graphical user interface container object is incapable of recognizing containment relationships between the graphical user interface container object and any component objects from a second graphical user interface toolkit;

generating a child graphical user interface component object in the second graphical user interface toolkit;

causing the graphical user interface component object to become contained by the graphical user interface container object; and

recording a containment relationship between the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object in a table external to the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object, wherein the table contains a plurality of entries, wherein each entry contains an identification of a container and an identification of a component, wherein the table defines a mapping between a plurality of components and a plurality of containers, wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit and the second graphical user interface toolkit define classes in an object-oriented programming language, and wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit is Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT and the second graphical user interface toolkit is the other of Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).

13. The data processing system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor executes the set of instructions to perform additional action(s) of:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained components in the second graphical user interface toolkit.

14. The data processing system of claim 13, wherein said determining includes searching for said containment relationship in the associative data structure.

15. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor executes the set of instructions to perform additional action(s) of:

determining if the graphical user interface container object is associated with one or more contained components in the first graphical user interface toolkit by executing computer code associated with the graphical user interface container object.

16. The data processing system of claim 12, wherein said relationship is a mapping from parent to child and the data processing system further comprises:

recording a second relationship in a second table, wherein the second relationship is a mapping from the graphical user interface component object to the graphical user interface container object.