System and method for controlling user interface features of a web application
First Claim
1. A method of controlling user interface features of a web application, the method comprising the steps of:
- describing the web application using a presentation markup language that has been extended to include a collection of user interface control elements to create an extended presentation markup language, the web application description including a user interface control comprising a name element for associating the user interface control of the web application with a user interface control element of the collection of user interface control elements;
searching, in a document object model (DOM) of the web application, for user interface controls of the web application, each user interface control identified by a namespace associated with user interface control elements of the collection of user interface control elements included in the extended presentation markup language, the namespace including a prefix identifying the collection of user interface control elements as part of the extended presentation markup language and allowing a presentation markup language parser to identify them as part of the DOM;
for each located user interface control;
generating a function name for the located user interface control element following a predetermined naming convention comprising adding the prefix to a unique name associated with the located user interface control element;
calling a predetermined set of user interface control instructions associated with the located user interface control element using the generated function name, the predetermined set of user interface control instructions defining the behavior of the located user interface control element and comprising a first portion relating uniquely to the located user interface control element, a second portion commonly relating to multiple user interface control elements, and an attribute relating to a skin template controlling the display of the located user interface control; and
rendering the DOM of the web application described in the extended presentation markup language, including rendering the located user interface control of the web application based on at least the predetermined set of user interface control instructions.
15 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of controlling user interface features of a web application is provided. The system comprises a collection of user interface control elements, a collection of skin templates comprising extensible markup language based markup contained as children of a container element, and a collection of control element instructions for performing actions associated with the control elements. Each control element comprises a namespace, common attributes for defining graphical features of the control element and for associating the control element with the internal state of the core control element, other attributes for defining attributes that affect the intrinsic behavior of the control, and a skin template reference attribute for referencing a skin template. Each instruction is associated with a control element.
-
Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling user interface features of a web application, the method comprising the steps of:
-
describing the web application using a presentation markup language that has been extended to include a collection of user interface control elements to create an extended presentation markup language, the web application description including a user interface control comprising a name element for associating the user interface control of the web application with a user interface control element of the collection of user interface control elements; searching, in a document object model (DOM) of the web application, for user interface controls of the web application, each user interface control identified by a namespace associated with user interface control elements of the collection of user interface control elements included in the extended presentation markup language, the namespace including a prefix identifying the collection of user interface control elements as part of the extended presentation markup language and allowing a presentation markup language parser to identify them as part of the DOM; for each located user interface control; generating a function name for the located user interface control element following a predetermined naming convention comprising adding the prefix to a unique name associated with the located user interface control element; calling a predetermined set of user interface control instructions associated with the located user interface control element using the generated function name, the predetermined set of user interface control instructions defining the behavior of the located user interface control element and comprising a first portion relating uniquely to the located user interface control element, a second portion commonly relating to multiple user interface control elements, and an attribute relating to a skin template controlling the display of the located user interface control; and rendering the DOM of the web application described in the extended presentation markup language, including rendering the located user interface control of the web application based on at least the predetermined set of user interface control instructions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A system for controlling user interface features of a web application, the system comprising:
a collection of user interface control elements including a user interface control element associated with a user interface control identified in the web application, the user interface control comprising a name element for associating the user interface control of the web application with the user interface control element of the collection of user interface control elements, the web application described in a presentation markup language that has been extended to include the collection of user interface control elements to create an extended presentation markup language, each of the user interface control elements of the collection comprising; a namespace for associating the user interface control element with the user interface control of the web application, the namespace including a prefix for identifying the user interface control of the web application associated with the user interface control element as part of the extended presentation markup language and having names following a predetermined naming convention and allowing a parser to identify them as part of a document object model (DOM) of the web application; and a set of core attributes common to all of the user interface control elements in the collection of user interface control elements; a collection of skin templates, each of the skin templates associated with one of the user interface control elements through one of the core attributes of the user interface control elements, each of the skin templates describing how to display the user interface control element associated with the skin template, each of the skin templates described in the presentation markup language; the parser for parsing the web application described in the extended presentation markup language, the parser parsing the user interface control of the web application associated with the user interface control element into the DOM of the web application; a viewer for rendering the DOM of the web application described in the extended presentation markup language, including rendering the user interface control of the web application based on at least one of the skin templates associated with the user interface control elements, the viewer comprising a collection of user interface control instructions, each of the user interface control instructions associated with respective user interface control elements through a control function name, each of the control function names based on the namespace of the associated user interface control element, each of the user interface control instructions defining the behavior of the user interface control element to control user interface features of the web application; and an initialization function associated with the viewer for directing the processing of one or more control elements in the DOM of the web application, the initialization function comprising instructions for; traversing each node in the DOM of the web application searching for a node identified by the prefix of the namespace associated with the user interface control elements; generating a function name based on the namespace of the user interface control element of the identified node, the function name generated following a predetermined naming convention comprising adding the prefix to a unique name associated with the user interface control element of the identified node, the generated function name corresponding to one of the control function names; calling a predetermined set of user interface control instructions associated with the located user interface control element using the generated function name, the predetermined set of user interface control instructions defining the behavior of the located user interface control element and comprising a first portion relating uniquely to the located user interface control element, a second portion commonly relating to multiple user interface control elements, and an attribute relating to a predetermined skin template of the collection of skin templates for the user interface control; and causing the viewer to render the DOM of the web application described in the extended presentation markup language, including rendering the located user interface control of the web application based on at least the predetermined set of user interface control elements. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Specification