Form skin and design time WYSIWYG for .net compact framework

• US 7,757,207 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2004
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yan, Xin, Amos, Keira L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang; Insun
• Application Number:
  US10/922,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,153 Days
• Field of Search: 717/105, 717/113, 717/125, 717/126, 717/134, 717/135, 717/138, 717/109, 715/763, 715/769, 345/650, 345/651, 703/4, 703/20, 703/21
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A WYSIWYG visual programming environment for programming applications for portable computer devices is provided. The developer selects a form skin based on the underlying portable computer device that the developer intends the application to execute on. The form skin appears to the developer as a graphic modeled after the actual device. The developer is able to drag and drop GUI elements onto the form, where they appear at approximately the same size and resolution as they would to the user of the actual device, regardless of the resolution used on the developer'"'"'s computing device. The developer is able to associate code with the GUI elements, as well as any softkeys that appear on the form skin. The developer is able to test the application by emulating the hardware of the portable device, and operating the device using the form skin. Through the form skin, the developer is able to see nearly exactly how the application will look and operate on the underlying portable device without having to leave the development environment.

Claims

1. A method for programming an application via a form skin within a development environment comprising a plurality of form skins, each form skin of the plurality of form skins corresponding to a different portable computer device on which the application will execute, the method comprising:

selecting a form skin representing a respective portable computer device on which the application is executable, wherein the selected form skin is modeled to represent a physical image of the respective portable computer device;

selecting a form skin orientation, wherein the form skin orientation is either a portrait mode or a landscape mode;

selecting one or more graphical user interface items from a list of graphical user interface items;

placing the one or more graphical user interface items into the selected form skin by dragging and dropping the selected one or more graphical user interface items to the selected form skin;

associating an application code with the one or more graphical user interface items placed into the form skin,

wherein the form skin comprises;

a form corresponding to a screen on the portable computer device, wherein the form is displayed on the development environment of a computing device appearing as the same size and resolution as the screen of the portable computer device; and

a skin corresponding to a body of the portable computer device, wherein the skin surrounds the form, and is displayed on the computing device appearing as the same size as the body of the portable computer device; and

testing the placed one or more graphical user interface items within the development environment, wherein the development environment, in response to the selecting and placing, enables filtering one or more messages that require a skin update or handling of a click event received from an operating system of the computing device and forwarding the one or more messages to a skin renderer object that determines if the skin update or handling of the click event is to be performed, renders, and displays a skin image based on the determination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein testing the placed one or more graphical user interface items comprises selecting a different form skin orientation and determining if the placed one or more graphical user interface items display correctly.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein testing the placed one or more graphical user interface items comprises selecting a different form skin and determining if the placed one or more graphical user interface items display correctly on the different form skin.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein placing the one or more graphical user interface items to the form skin comprises placing the one or more graphical user interface items into the form.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the form skin further comprises a softkey, wherein the softkey corresponds to an input on the body of the portable computer device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein associating the code with the one or more graphical user interface items further comprises associating the code with the softkey.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of graphical user interface items includes only items suitable for use on the portable computer device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more graphical user interface items appear similar to corresponding graphical user interface items on the portable computer device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of graphical user interface items is pre-selected by a manufacturer of the portable computer device.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the click event may comprise a Mouseclick message or a HitTest message.

11. A system for programming applications via a form skin, the system comprising:

a computing device, comprising a display and an input device;

a programming environment executing on the computing device;

a plurality of form skins, comprised within the programming environment, each form skin of the plurality of form skins corresponding to a different portable computer device on which the application will execute;

a plurality of graphical user interface objects, wherein the plurality of graphical user interface items are placed into the form skin by selecting and dragging the plurality of graphical user interface items, wherein each of the plurality of graphical user interface objects has an associated application code; and

a plurality of designer object components, each designer object component corresponding to a graphical user interface object,

wherein each of the plurality of form skins comprises;

a form, capable of receiving the graphical user interface objects, and corresponding to a screen of the portable computer, wherein the form appears as the same in size and resolution as the screen of the portable computer on the display of the computing device; and

a skin, corresponding to a body of the portable computer, wherein the skin appears as the same in size as the body of the portable computer on the display of the computing device; and

a SkinBehavior Object configured to filter one or more messages that require a skin update or handling of a click event received from an operating system of the computing device in response to the placing and forward the one or more messages to a SkinRenderer object wherein the SkinRenderer Object is configured to determine if the skin update or handling of the click event is to be performed, render and display a skin image based on the determination wherein the placed graphical user interface items are tested within the programming environment, wherein the plurality of form skins can be oriented in either portrait or landscape mode.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each form skin is supplied by a manufacturer of the corresponding portable computer.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each form skin is represented by an XML file and a graphics file.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the application code is edited by selecting the associated graphical user interface object.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of form skins further comprises a softkey, corresponding to an input of the portable computer device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each softkey has associated executable code.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the code is edited by selecting the associated softkey.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the graphical user interface objects correspond to graphical user interface objects supported by the portable computer device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of designer object components render the associated graphical user interface objects in the form to appear similar to the corresponding graphical user interface objects supported by the portable computer device.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising changing the appearance of a cursor when the cursor is passed over the softkey.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising a tooltip associated with each softkey.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising displaying the tooltip associated with the softkey when a cursor is passed over the softkey.

23. The system of claim 11, wherein the form skin is provided using the specifications of the portable computer device.