Method of hosting a first application in a second application

• US 8,763,009 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2011
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Degirmenci, Ozcan, Zeller, Mark Jeremy, Larimore, Stefan I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, H S
• Assistant Examiner(s): RONI, SYED A
• Application Number:
  US13/088,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A method of hosting a first application (e.g., a virtual application) inside a second application (e.g., a control displayed by a web browser). The method includes executing the first application inside a runtime environment generated at least in part by a runtime engine. The executing first application calls user interface functions that when executed inside the runtime environment generate a first user interface. The runtime engine captures these calls, generates messages comprising information associated with the captured calls, and forwards the messages to a user interface manager that is a separate application from the runtime engine. The user interface manager receives the messages, translates the information associated with the captured calls into instructions for the second application, and sends the instructions to the second application. The control receives the instructions sent by the user interface manager, and displays a second user interface for the first application based on the instructions.

Claims

1. A computer executable method for use with a first application, second application, and a virtual runtime engine, both the virtual runtime engine and the second application executing on a host operating system that is executing on a computing device, the first application being configured to generate a first user interface, the second application displaying a second user interface, the second user interface being different from the first user interface, the method comprising:

initiating, by the computing device, execution of the first application by the virtual runtime engine, the virtual runtime engine comprising a plurality of hooks, the first application comprising one or more threads, and the virtual runtime engine comprising a corresponding hook procedure for each of the one or more threads, each hook procedure being executable by a corresponding one of the hooks, the corresponding hook being configured to monitor the thread for user interface messages created by the first application, the corresponding hook triggering the execution of the corresponding hook procedure whenever the corresponding hook detects a user interface message has been generated by the thread, when executed, the corresponding hook procedure providing an indication to a third application executing on the computing device that a user interface message has been generated;

receiving, by the third application executing on the computing device, an indication that a user interface message has been generated by the first application, the user interface message comprising instructions to generate or modify the first user interface, neither the first application nor the host operating system generating or displaying the first user interface;

generating, by the third application executing on the computing device, at least one user interface command for the second user interface, the at least one user interface command being generated based on the indication that the user interface message had been generated by the first application; and

sending, by the third application executing on the computing device, the at least one user interface command to the second application, the at least one user interface command being configured to cause the second application to modify the second user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading, by the computing device, the first application from a server over the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing an initialization process comprising loading a configuration file;

if execution of the first application is not initiated in a shell, initiating execution of the first application in a suspended state thereby suspending execution of the first application; and

ending the suspension of the execution of the first application after the initialization process has completed.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising after receiving the indication that the user interface message has been generated by the first application:

identifying one or more of a plurality of listeners configured to generate a user interface command for the user interface message, each of the plurality of listeners comprising at least one condition and at least one action; and

for each listener identified, determining whether the at least one condition is satisfied, and if the at least one condition is satisfied, performing the at least one action of the listener, the at least one action generating one or more user interface commands.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

loading at least one configuration file comprising configuration information for the plurality of listeners; and

configuring the plurality of listeners based on the configuration information.

6. The method of claim 1 for use with the first application being a virtual application, the virtual application having generated the user interface message and the virtual runtime engine having captured the user interface message, the capturing preventing the first application and the host operating system from generating or modifying the first user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a handle to the second user interface; and

using the handle to send the at least one user interface command to the second application.

8. The method of claim 1 for use with the first application being executed by the virtual runtime engine inside a runtime environment, the method further comprising:

generating at least one message identifying a call to an application programming interface function of the runtime environment;

sending the at least one message to the virtual runtime engine, the virtual runtime engine being configured to call to the application programming interface function of the runtime environment.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application is a virtual application,

the second application is a web browser comprising a control configured to display the second user interface, and

the user interface message comprises a call to one or more windowing functions operable to display or modify at least one window of a first user interface.

10. A computer executable method performed by a runtime engine executing on a host operating system implemented on a computing device, the runtime engine being configured to provide at least a portion of a runtime environment, the method comprising:

executing, on the computing device, an application inside the runtime environment provided at least in part by the runtime engine, the application being configured to instruct the runtime environment to generate a first user interface when executing, the application comprising one or more threads;

setting up a corresponding hook procedure, by a management process executing on the computing device, for each of the one or more threads of the application, each corresponding hook procedure being executable by a corresponding hook configured to monitor the thread for user interface messages generated by the executing application, the corresponding hook triggering the execution of the corresponding hook procedure whenever the corresponding hook detects a user interface message, when executed, the corresponding hook procedure captures the user interface messages generated by the executing application, the user interface message including instructions to the runtime environment to generate or modify the first user interface, the capturing of the user interface message preventing the generation and modification of the first user interface by the first application and the host operating system;

sending, by the management process executing on the computing device, the captured user interface message to an external process executing on the computing device, the external process being configured to generate a second user interface different from the first user interface, both the external process and the second user interface executing outside the portion of the runtime environment provided by the runtime engine;

receiving, by the management process executing on the computing device, one or more application programming messages from the external process in response to having sent the captured user interface message to the external process; and

calling, by the management process executing on the computing device, inside the runtime environment, one or more application programming interfaces associated with a first portion of the one or more application programming messages.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more application programming messages are received over a named-pipe connection between the runtime engine and the external process.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the external process is a user interface manager of a virtual process manager configured to download the application from a server over the Internet and initiate execution of the application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the virtual process manager is configured to render the second user interface in a control displayed by a webpage displayed by a web browser.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the control of the second user interface comprises contents of one or more windows.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first portion of the one or more application programming messages comprises fewer than all of the one or more application programming messages, and the method further comprises:

sending at least one user interface message to the external process for each application programming message not in the first portion of the one or more application programming messages.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

comparing the captured user interface message to a list of user interface messages, and sending, by the management process executing on the computing device, the captured user interface message to the external process only if the captured user interface message is on the list of user interface messages.

17. A computer executable method comprising:

executing an application inside a runtime environment generated at least in part by a runtime engine, the runtime engine comprising a plurality of hooks, the application comprising one or more threads and calling user interface functions that when executed inside the runtime environment generate a first user interface, the runtime engine comprising a hook procedure for each of the one or more threads, each hook procedure being executable by a corresponding one of the hooks, the corresponding hook being configured to monitor the corresponding thread for calls to the user interface functions, the corresponding hook triggering the execution of the hook procedure whenever the corresponding hook detects that one of the user interface functions has been called by the corresponding thread, when executed, the hook procedure generates a message comprising information associated with the call that triggered execution of the hook procedure, the runtime engine forwarding the message to a user interface manager, the user interface manager being a separate application from the runtime engine;

receiving the message at the user interface manager, the user interface manager translating the information associated with the call into instructions for a control displayed by a web browser, and sending the instructions to the control; and

receiving, at the control, the instructions sent by the user interface manager, the control displaying a second user interface for the application based on the instructions.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

at the user interface manager, generating a call to an application programming interface, generating an application programming message comprising information associated with the call to the application programming interface, and sending the application programming message to the runtime engine; and

at the runtime engine, receiving the application programming message, and calling the application programming interface associated with the information in the application programming message.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

downloading the application from a server over the Internet.