Object models enabling hosting content in a plurality of environments

• US 7,707,593 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2005
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Alcazar, Mark A., Anderson, Christopher L., Goodwin, Margaret L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van H
• Application Number:
  US11/031,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20060090173A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/328, 719/319, 719/320, 719/329, 719/330
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

Software programming models are provided for supporting host-environment agnostic content that can be hosted in different hosting environments (e.g., browser or window) without needing to rewrite the content. The models comprise a host-environment abstraction wrapper that provides a transparent layer of abstraction between content and host-environment specific instructions. The host-environment abstraction wrapper supports the use of host-environment independent interaction instructions or declarative statements in content by invoking host-environment specific implementation details on behalf of the content. The host-environment independent interaction instructions represent particular interactions between some content and a hosting environment, but do not provide host-environment implementation instructions that are specific to any particular hosting environment.

Claims

1. At least one application program interface (API) embodied as one or more computer executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which when executed by at least one processing system in conjunction with at least one application program that issues at least one call on a host-environment object on behalf of content, enables the content to interact with a selected hosting environment, the at least one API comprising:

at least one interaction interface in the content for indicating at least one desired interaction with any one of a plurality of hosting environments, including a browser environment and a window environment, the interaction interface being expressed in at least one of either one or more programmatic language statements, one or more declarative language statements, one or more extensible application markup oriented language (XAML) statements, or any other computer language statements; and

at least one interaction expression in the at least one interaction interface for identifying the at least one desired interaction to the at least one application program without providing implementation instructions associated with any one of the plurality of hosting environments;

wherein the at least one application program comprises logic for identifying a selected hosting environment by examining a settings module associated with the at least one application program for referencing the host-environment object that is associated with the selected hosting environment for issuing the at least one call on, and for referencing an object interface that allows the at least one call on the host-environment object to be made on either a browser-environment object or a window-environment object that becomes available when the selected hosting environment is selected.

2. The API as set forth in claim 1 wherein the at least one interaction interface comprises at least one argument for enabling content specific information related to the at least one indicated interaction to be provided.

3. The API as set forth in claim 1 wherein the at least one call comprises at least one of either one or more method invocations, one or more event handler registrations, or one or more attribute value assignments.

4. The API as set forth in claim 1 wherein the host-environment object comprises at least one component for setting one or more properties in the selected hosting environment.

5. The API as set forth in claim 1 wherein the at least one application program comprises logic for referencing the host-environment object that represents either a browser environment object or a window environment object for issuing the at least one call on.

6. A computer-implemented method of communicating with at least one application program that issues at least one call on a host-environment object on behalf of content for enabling the content to interact with a selected hosting environment, the method comprising:

indicating, by a processor, in the content at least one desired interaction with any one of a plurality of hosting environments, wherein the hosting environments include a browser environment and a window environment; and

identifying the at least one desired interaction in the content without providing implementation instructions associated with the selected hosting environment;

wherein the at least one application program comprises logic for identifying a selected hosting environment by examining a settings module associated with the at least one application program and for referencing the host-environment object that is associated with the selected hosting environment for issuing the at least one call on,

wherein indicating and identifying the at least one desired interaction within the content are performed using at least one of either one or more programmatic language statements, one or more declarative language statements, one or more extensible application markup oriented language (XAML) statements, or any other computer language statements, and

wherein issuing at least one call on at least one environment object further comprises referencing an object interface that allows the at least one call on the host-environment object to be made on a browser environment object or a window environment object that becomes available when the selected hosting environment is selected.

7. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 6 wherein issuing at least one call on a host-environment object further comprises at least one of either invoking at least one method, registering at least one event handler, or assigning at least one value to at least one attribute.

8. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 6 wherein issuing at least one call on a host-environment object further comprises identifying the selected hosting environment and referencing the host-environment object that is associated with the selected hosting environment for issuing the at least one call on.

9. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 6 wherein issuing at least one call on a host-environment object further comprises referencing the host-environment object that represents either a browser-environment object or a window-environment object for issuing the at least one call on.

10. A computer system that communicates with an implementation module which accesses a host-environment module on behalf of content for enabling the content to interact with a selected hosting environment, the system comprising:

a memory that stores

an interaction interface module that indicates in the content at least one desired interaction with any one of a plurality of hosting environments, wherein the hosting environments include a browser environment and a window environment, and

an interaction expression module that identifies the at least one desired interaction in the content for the implementation module without providing implementation instructions associated with the any one of the plurality of hosting environments; and

a processor that processes the interaction interface module and the interaction expression module;

wherein the interaction interface module and the interaction expression module comprise at least one of either one or more programmatic language statements, one or more declarative language statements, one or more extensible application markup oriented language (XAML) statements, or any other computer language statements, and

wherein the implementation module identifies a selected hosting environment by examining a settings module associated with the implementation modules, references the host-environment module that is associated with the selected hosting environment, and references an object interface module that allows accessing the host-environment module by issuing at least one call on a browser environment module or a window environment module that becomes available when the selected hosting environment is selected.

11. The computer system as set forth in claim 10 wherein the implementation module accesses the host-environment module by issuing at least one call comprising at least one of either invoking at least one method, registering at least one event handler, or assigning at least one value to at least one attribute.

12. The computer system as set forth in claim 10 wherein the implementation module references the host-environment module that represents either a browser object or a window object.