System and method for applying development patterns for component based applications

• US 8,132,149 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2009
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Shenfield, Michael, Goring, Bryan Richard, Mateescu, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Deng, Anna
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rampuria, Satish
• Application Number:
  US12/631,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 717107-109, 717/121, 717/122, 715/763, 715/764
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A computing device and method for coordinating the development of a client application including application components comprising one or more of at least one of a data component, a message component or a screen component, having corresponding component definitions, or a workflow component comprising a series of instructions. A first development pattern module configured for interaction with a development environment is provided by a computer user interface, the first development pattern module configured for selecting a first pattern from a plurality of patterns based on an application component type central to the client application, the first development pattern module for guiding a user interface with a plurality of predefined steps to coordinate a development of the application components through user input events via the user interface in accordance with the first pattern.

Claims

1. A designer tool for developing a client application comprising application components, the designer tool comprising:

a user facing module, executed in a computer processor, selected from a group consisting of an editor, a viewer, a wizard module, a dialog module and a combination thereof;

the editor module interacting with a user of the tool;

the viewer used to create and modify definitions of the application components, and relationships between the application components;

the wizard module assisting the operation of the editor and the viewer, and guiding the development of the client application, the wizard module being step-driven by the dialog after gathering information from the user of the tool via a user interface;

a data model selected from a group consisting of a design time data model, a runtime data model and a combination thereof, the design time data model representing a state of the client application under development, accepting a set of commands included in the user facing module that affect a state of the design time data model, and interacting with the user facing module by notifying user facing module when the state of the design time data model;

the runtime data model representing the state of an emulated application under development;

a service module selected from a group consisting of a model validator, an application generator, a build service, a skin manager, a backend connector, a localization service a deployment service, a security service and a combination thereof;

the model validator validating a representation of the client application by the design time data model;

the application generator collaborating with the design time data model to obtaining a content of the application components, the application generator further utilizing the model validator to check definitions of the application components and mapping description information;

the build service building the client application in a deployable form, the build service further preparing and packaging a resource bundle with the client application in the deployable form;

the skin manager loading visual elements defined by a screen component of the data model;

the backend connector building a suitable application message and data set for, and communicating with backend data sources;

the localization service supporting a build time localization of user visible strings and creating the resource bundle file;

a deployment service deploying the client application; and

a security service signing the client application;

wherein the user facing module observes and responds to changes in the data model of the client application and wherein the service module provides facilities to the user facing module.

2. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the designer tool is executed in a computer processor.

3. The designer tool according to claim 1, further comprising a user interface layer including the user facing module, a model layer including the data model and a service layer including the service.

4. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the editor module is a graphical editor providing an edit space for draw objects or a text editor implementing line based text editing.

5. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the viewer is a resource viewers or a graphical editing framework viewer providing an edit space to view objects.

6. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the user facing module triggers validation actions on the design time data model.

7. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the design time data model defines an item selected from the group consisting of:

a data component definition, a global variable definition, a message component definition, a resource definition, a screen component definition, a script, a style definition, a backend data source mapping descriptor, and a combination thereof.

8. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the design time data model sends events to the user facing module in response to changes in the design time data model.

9. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the runtime data model notifies the user facing module with changes made to runtime data model.

10. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the model validator checks the representation of the client application by the design time data model is in line with the backend data source presentation of messaging operations.

11. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the model validator checks a consistency of parameters and field level mappings of the application components, or screen control mappings and screen refresh messages of a screen component.

12. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the model validator validates the design time data model'"'"'s representation of messaging relationships of the backend data source.

13. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein a generation process of the application generator is started through a generate application interface accessed by the developer using the user interface.

14. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the build service provides generates a manifest file a jar file of the client application in the deployable form.

15. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the skin manager instantiates a new environment for construct the screen elements according to the screen component of the data model.

16. The designer tool according to claim 1, wherein the backend connector generates appropriate messaging component and data component sets the client application.