Persistence of inter-application communication patterns and behavior under user control

• US 7,930,364 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Roy-Chowdhury, Amber, Ramaswamy, Shankar
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore; Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack; Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US12/108,850
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 709/231, 709/248, 709/249, 715/735, 715741-747, 715/810, 715/811, 719/315, 719/316
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An end-user or administrator is allowed to couple portlets in a portal through user interface events taking place on the portal display itself. When the portal is displayed, if the user actuates a control corresponding to a property in a portlet, a menu of actions that can be performed with that data by other portlets is provided to the user. In addition to this “conventional” manner, an alternative manner of actuating the component is provided to the user such that if the user actuates the control in this alternative manner, the user is provided the option of making the chosen action “persistent,” so that the next time the control is actuated by the user, or the associated property is otherwise produced, the chosen action is performed automatically, without requiring the user to choose an action.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-recordable medium encode with functional descriptive material that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform actions of:

registering one or more portlet actions corresponding to a plurality of portlets within a portal infrastructure, wherein a first set of one or more of the plurality of portlets are providers of a particular property and wherein a second set of one or more of the plurality of portlets are consumers of the particular property; and

assembling a portal page for presentation in a browser, wherein the portal page includes interfaces from the plurality of portlets, and wherein assembling the portal page further comprises assembling a user interface control associated with the particular property, wherein the user interface control, when actuated in a particular manner of actuation by an end user, allows the end user to associate the particular property from one or more of the first set of portlets with at least one of the portlets from the second set of portlets such that an occurrence of a subsequent event associated with the particular property causes one or more portlet actions to be executed wherein the particular property is provided from one of the associated first set of portlets to the one or more associated second set of portlets.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the subsequent event associated with the particular property is a subsequent actuation of the user interface control.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, comprising additional functional descriptive material that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to perform additional actions of:

storing, in persistent storage, an association between the particular property and the at least one of the one or more portlet actions;

retrieving the association in response to an occurrence of an event associated with the particular property; and

executing the at least one of the one or more portlet actions in response to retrieving the association.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said particular manner of actuation includes concurrent keypress and pointing-device click events.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein assembling the portal page includes attaching client-side scripting code to the portal page such that execution of the client-side scripting code is triggered by said particular manner of actuation, and wherein the client-side scripting code is programmed to prompt the end user to specify whether the end user desires to associate one or more portlet actions with said particular property.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the client-side scripting code prompts the end user by displaying a dialog box.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, comprising additional functional descriptive material that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to perform additional actions of:

allowing the end user to disassociate said particular property from said at least one of the one or more portlet actions in response to a subsequent actuation of the user interface control.

8. A data processing system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by the processors;

a persistent storage accessible by the processors; and

a portlet management software tool executed by the processors, the portlet management tool including steps effective to;

register one or more portlet actions for one or more portlets within a portal infrastructure actions corresponding to a plurality of portlets within a portal infrastructure, wherein a first set of one or more of the plurality of portlets are providers of a particular property and wherein a second set of one or more of the plurality of portlets are consumers of the particular property; and

assemble a portal page for presentation in a browser, wherein the portal page includes interfaces from the plurality of portlets, and wherein assembling the portal page further comprises assembling a user interface control associated with the particular property, wherein the user interface control, when actuated in a particular manner of actuation by an end user, allows the end user to associate the particular property from one or more of the first set of portlets with at least one of the portlets from the second set of portlets such that an occurrence of a subsequent event associated with the particular property causes one or more portlet actions to be executed wherein the particular property is provided from the one or more associated first set of portlets to the one or more associated second set of portlets.

9. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the subsequent event associated with the particular property is a subsequent actuation of the user interface control.

10. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the portlet management tool further includes steps effective to:

store, in the persistent storage, an association between the particular property and the at least one of the one or more portlet actions;

retrieve the association in response to an occurrence of an event associated with the particular property; and

execute, by one of the processors, the at least one of the one or more portlet actions in response to retrieving the association.

11. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein said particular manner of actuation includes concurrent keypress and pointing-device click events.

12. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein assembling the portal page includes attaching client-side scripting code to the portal page such that execution of the client-side scripting code is triggered by said particular manner of actuation, and wherein the client-side scripting code is programmed to prompt the end user to specify whether the end user desires to associate one or more portlet actions with said particular property.

13. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the portlet management tool further includes steps effective to:

allow the end user to disassociate said particular property from said at least one of the one or more portlet actions in response to a subsequent actuation of the user interface control.