Enable ribbon reloading via a proxy add-in

• US 7,802,199 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Whitechapel, David Andrew, Shneerson, Misha
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; Nicholas E
• Application Number:
  US11/947,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20090144645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,026 Days
• Field of Search: 707/634
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for enabling ribbon re-loading through a proxy add-in. A ribbon proxy add-in is loaded that has ribbon customizations for a ribbon of a primary add-in. The primary add-in is also loaded. At a later point in time, the ribbon proxy add-in is unloaded and reloaded, which causes a host application to re-query the ribbon proxy add-in for the ribbon customizations. Since the ribbon proxy add-in points to the ribbon customizations of the primary add-in, the ribbon of the primary add-in is updated as a result.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium having

computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

loading a ribbon proxy add-in that has ribbon customizations for a ribbon of a primary add-in;

loading the primary add-in;

at a later point in time, unloading and reloading the ribbon proxy add-in, which causes a host application to re-query the ribbon proxy add-in for the ribbon customizations; and

since the ribbon proxy add-in points to the ribbon customizations of the primary add-in, updating the ribbon of the primary add-in as a result.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the ribbon proxy add-in is unloaded and reloaded when the primary add-in wants to make dynamic changes to the ribbon customizations of the ribbon.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the ribbon proxy add-in is unloaded and reloaded by the primary add-in.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the ribbon customizations are contained in a string.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 4, wherein the string is formatted in an XML format.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 4, wherein the reloading of the ribbon proxy add-in causes the string to be reloaded, thereby causing the ribbon to be updated as a result.

7. A method for loading a primary add-in and a ribbon proxy

add-in on host startup comprising the steps of:

discovering a ribbon proxy add-in;

obtaining user interface details for the ribbon proxy add-in, which points to user interface details for a primary add-in;

discovering a the primary add-in;

receiving an indication from the primary add-in that the primary add-in does not support a ribbon extensibility interface; and

updating a ribbon on a toolbar menu based upon the user interface details returned for the ribbon proxy add-in.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining user interface details for the ribbon proxy add-in step comprises calling a get custom user interface method associated with the ribbon proxy add-in.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user interface details for the ribbon proxy add-in are obtained in a string format.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the string format is an XML format.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining user interface details for the ribbon proxy add-in step comprises calling a method to retrieve the user interface details of the primary add-in.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the ribbon proxy add-in is queried for a ribbon extensibility interface after the ribbon proxy add-in is discovered to determine how to obtain the user interface details.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the ribbon on the toolbar menu is updated when a host application determines that a string containing the user interface details has been loaded.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining user interface details for the ribbon proxy add-in step comprises:

calling a get custom user interface method for the ribbon proxy add-in, which then in turn calls the get custom user interface method for the primary add-in, which returns the user interface details.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the calling of the get custom user interface method for the primary add-in causes an updated string to be returned with the user interface details.

16. A method for updating a primary add-in after host startup comprising the steps of:

determining that a primary add-in wants to change an associated ribbon on a toolbar menu;

fetching a ribbon proxy add-in;

requesting that a host application disconnect the ribbon proxy add-in;

requesting that the host application reconnect the ribbon proxy add-in; and

when the ribbon proxy add-in is reconnected by the host application, loading a customized string associated with the ribbon proxy add-in, thereby causing the associated ribbon to be updated on the toolbar menu.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the ribbon proxy add-in is fetched from an add-ins collection exposed by the host application.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the customized string is formatted as an XML string.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining step is initiated upon request by the primary add-in when the primary add-in decides that the change to the associated ribbon is desired.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein when the ribbon proxy add-in is reconnected, the host application calls a get custom user interface method of the ribbon proxy add-in, the get custom user interface method of the ribbon proxy add-in then fetches the primary add-in from an add-ins collection, and the get custom user interface method is then called for the primary add-in by the ribbon proxy add-in, which is what causes the customized string to be loaded.