System and method to facilitate design-time component discovery

• US 7,908,582 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burke, Shawn P., Pepin, Brian K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei; Zheng
• Application Number:
  US11/608,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083848A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A system and method for discovering the design time attributes of a component are provided. The invention includes a type descriptor that can access metadata associated with a component and report the metadata to a development tool. The invention further includes a custom type descriptor interface that can be implemented on a component in order to dynamically provide information regarding the component to the type descriptor. The invention further includes a type descriptor filter service interface that can be implemented by the development tool to facilitate filtering of design time information regarding components in order to simulate a run time environment. The invention further comprises methodologies and tools for facilitating application development.

Claims

1. In a computing environment comprising a processor operatively coupled to a memory, a computer-implemented method for discovering design time information concerning an instance of a component, the method comprising:

an act of a type descriptor receiving from a development tool a request for information regarding an instance of a component;

an act of the type descriptor discovering compile time information regarding the instance of the component from compiled metadata, wherein the complied metadata comprises metadata that was compiled into the component;

an act of the type descriptor determining that the component implements a custom type descriptor interface, wherein the custom type descriptor interface is adapted to monitor the instance of the component and to manipulate the compile time information before reporting to the type descriptor manipulated information regarding the instance of the component, wherein the manipulated information includes changes to the compile time information as the compile time information is dynamically changed by the instance of the component during design time;

an act of the custom type descriptor interface manipulating the compile time information to generate the manipulated information, wherein the manipulated information includes at least some changes to the compile time information that were dynamically changed by the instance of the component during design time, and wherein the manipulated information is different from the compile time information;

an act of the custom type descriptor interface reporting to the type descriptor the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component;

an act of the type descriptor storing the manipulated information in at least one component entry associated with the instance of the component;

an act of the type descriptor reporting the information regarding the instance of the component to the development tool by reporting at least some of the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the instance of the component comprises attributes of the instance of the component, the attributes including at least one of properties or events.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one component entry includes:

one or more reflected property descriptors, wherein each of the one or more reflected property descriptors stores a description of a property associated with the instance of the component, and wherein the one or more reflected property descriptors are used by the type descriptor to report descriptions of properties associated with the instance of the component to the development tool;

one or more reflected event descriptors, wherein each of the one or more reflected event descriptors stores a description of an event associated with the instance of the component, and wherein the one or more reflected event descriptors are used by the type descriptor to report descriptions of events associated with the instance of the component to the development tool; and

an attribute collection, wherein the attribute collection stores additional descriptive elements that modify types and members associated with the instance of the component, and wherein the attribute collection is used by the type descriptor to report the additional descriptive elements associated with the instance of the component to the development tool.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the property is selected from a name, attributes, component class that the property is associated with, or a type of the property.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the property the event is selected from a name, attributes, a component that the event is bound to, an event delegate, a type of the delegate, and whether the delegate is multicast.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the type descriptor refers to the at least one component entry associated with the instance of the component to report the information to the development tool.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

an act of determining that the instance of the component is owned by a container;

an act of the container determining that at least one other component owned by the container desires to modify the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component; and

an act of allowing the at least one other component to modify the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

an act of the type descriptor determining that the container implements a type descriptor filter service for the component, wherein the type descriptor filter service; and

an act of the type descriptor providing the manipulated information to the type descriptor filter service for the component;

an act of the type descriptor filter service modifying the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component; and

an act of the type descriptor filter service reporting to the type descriptor the manipulated information regarding the instance of the component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the manipulated information comprises at least one of adding attributes, removing attributes, and replacing attributes.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one component entry is stored in at least one of databases, tables, records, arrays, or lists.

11. One or more storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A computer-implemented system comprising a processor and one or more storage media operatively coupled to the processor, the one or more storage media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, implement the method of claim 1.