System and method for generating component based applications

• US 8,407,666 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2010
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• 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, DeBruin, David
• Primary Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US12/885,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20110023013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 918 Days
• Field of Search: 717106-108, 717/120, 717/121
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57

Abstract

A system and method for generating an application based on a first component having definitions expressed in a structured definition language and a second component having a series of instructions. The component applications comprise data components, presentation components, and message components, which are written in XML code. The component applications further comprise workflow components which are written in a subset of ECMAScript, and are augmented with the XML code. The components define the processing on a device runtime environment of messages communicated over a network between the device and a datasource. The system and method have a data model for providing a persistent state of the application including the component definitions and the series of instructions. The system and method also have a code module for obtaining the components from the data model and for generating a first application element including code representing the component definitions. The system and method also have a mappings module for obtaining datasource mapping information from the data model and for generating a second application element including mapping file descriptors corresponding to the datasource mapping information, the mapping information for use in communication of the messages between the device runtime environment and the datasource. The system and method also have a resource module for collecting application resources and for generating a third application element including the resources, wherein the application elements are subsequently packaged as a deployable form of the application.

Claims

1. A method for generating a client application configured to communicate over a network between an electronic device and a data source, the method comprising:

providing a data model representing a state of the client application, the client application including application components comprising one or more of a data component, a message component and a screen component, each of the data component, the message component and the screen component having corresponding component definitions;

obtaining the application components from the data model and generating a first application element including code representing the component definitions, expressed in a structured definition language, and a series of instructions;

obtaining data source mapping information from the data model and generating a second application element including mapping file descriptors corresponding to the data source mapping information, the mapping file descriptors for use by a server to mediate communication of messages between the electronic device and the data source; and

collecting application resources of the client application and for generating a third application element, wherein the first application element, the second application element and third application element are subsequently packaged as the deployable form of the client application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing message mapping information of the data source to the data model using a backend connector coupled to the data source.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the backend connector performs one or more of:

connecting to a selected backend data source;

providing an interface for accessing a description of the selected backend data source; and

providing for the identification of notification services configured for pushing notifications over the network to the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data source is a Web service or an SQL database and the description of the selected backend data source includes messages, operations and data type descriptions.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking workflow integrity of the workflow component.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking consistency of parameters and field level mappings of the application components.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking consistency of screen control mappings of the screen component.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising validating the data model representation of data source messaging relationships.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising optimizing field ordering of the component definitions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the component definitions include script for inclusion with the generated code.

11. A system for generating a client application configured to communicate over a network between an electronic device and a data source, the system comprising:

a computer processor;

a data model representing a state of the client application, the 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;

a code module for obtaining the application components from the data model and for generating a first application element including code representing the component definitions, expressed in a structured definition language, and the series of instructions;

a mappings module for obtaining data source mapping information from the data model and for generating a second application element including mapping file descriptors corresponding to the data source mapping information, the mapping file descriptors for use by a server to mediate communication of messages between the electronic device and the data source; and

a resource module for collecting application resources of the client application and for generating a third application element, wherein the first application element, the second application element and third application element are subsequently packaged as the deployable form of the client application.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a backend connector for providing message mapping information of the data source to the data model.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the backend connector performs one or more of:

connecting to a selected backend data source;

providing an interface for accessing a description of the selected backend data source; and

providing for the identification of notification services configured for pushing notifications over the network to the electronic device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the data source is a Web service or an SQL database and the description of the selected backend data source includes messages, operations and data type descriptions.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the application resources are selected from the group comprising:

static dependencies including images, sound bytes, and media; and

localization information for each language supported by the client application.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising a validator module for confirming a data model representation of application messages is consistent with a data source presentation of messaging operations.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the validator module performs one or more of:

checking workflow integrity of a workflow component;

checking consistency of parameters and field level mappings of the application components;

checking consistency of screen control mappings of the screen component;

checking consistency of screen refresh messages of the screen component;

confirming a presence of message duplications in the message component;

confirming a presence of data duplications in the application components; and

validating the data model representation of data source messaging relationships.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising a generator module for optimizing field ordering of the component definitions.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the component definitions include script for inclusion with the generated code.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the data model contains model constituents selected from the group consisting of:

data component definitions;

global variable definitions;

message component definitions;

resource definitions;

screen component definitions;

scripts;

style definitions; and

mapping descriptors of the data source.