User interface framework

• US 8,959,123 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xcerion AB
• Original Assignee: Xcerion AB
• Inventors: Arthursson, Daniel, Bristav, Marcus
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US12/240,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20090171974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,332 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/809
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45529 Embedded in an application, e.g. JavaScript in a Web browser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Generally described, the present invention is directed to a network operating system that provides more effective ways of leveraging the connectivity of computer networks. In one embodiment, an XML virtual machine is implemented that accepts high-level application code written in an XML programming language as input. Functionality is provided to interpret or translate the application code written in an XML programming language into code that is suitable for execution across computer platforms. Moreover, the XML virtual machine supports the Model View Controller (MVC) design paradigm that facilitates true data abstraction from applications to a common data model. Multi-instance applications, with each instance potentially supporting multiple views, may be created and executed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for initializing an application'"'"'s user interface components, the method comprising:

connecting, by a computing device, an application view defined in semantic application logic to events generated when a user interacts with a visual display of the computing device, wherein connecting the application view to events generated when a user interacts with a visual display of the computing device includes;

registering a listener on a document object model (DOM) object used by a Web browser to render the application view; and

inserting a unique identifier in the DOM object to associate a graphical element with the runtime object;

using, by the computing device, the semantic application logic to render graphical elements of at least one user interface component, wherein to render the graphical elements of the at least one user interface component includes;

transforming the semantic application logic into a format for parsing and rendering;

rendering, by a rendering component used by a client-side component executed by the computing device, graphical elements of the at least one user interface component; and

presenting, by the visual display of the computing device, the rendered graphical elements of the at least one user interface component;

instantiating, by the client-side component executed by the computing device, a runtime object that provides computational logic of the user interface component, wherein the semantic application logic used to visually render the at least one user interface component is defined independently from the computational logic of the runtime object and can be modified to change the visual rendering of the at least one user interface component without affecting functions of the runtime object; and

initializing, by the computing device, the computational logic of the runtime object on the visual rendering of the at least one user interface component.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving notice of a user-generated event;

identifying a unique identifier associated with the event from the DOM object; and

notifying the runtime object activated by the user-generated event.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein connecting an application view to events generated when a user interacts with a visual display of a computing device includes utilizing a data type recognizer to determine that a document contains an application'"'"'s user interface logic.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein connecting an application view to events generated when a user interacts with a visual display of a computing device includes determining if a previously created dialog still maintained in memory was reassigned to the application view.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the computational logic of the user interface component is defined in a programming language that is different from the semantic application logic which is defined in accordance with an XML schema.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein rendering by a rendering component used by a client-side component includes accessing the native graphics primitives of a computing device without using the resources of a Web Browser.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein initializing the computational logic of the runtime object includes setting default states of the user interface component utilizing a method defined in accordance with component APIs without having an application provide any source or script code.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising binding the user interface component to a document in a data model.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein rendering by a rendering component used by a client-side component includes utilizing rendering functionality of a Web browser.

20. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the format for parsing and rendering by a rendering component is an HTML-based format.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform actions for visually rendering a user interface component, the actions comprising:

in a document containing a description of an application'"'"'s view logic, inserting an XLink that points to view logic associated with the user interface component, wherein the XLink includes logic that defines a condition for activating the XLink, and wherein the inserted XLink provides the application with sufficient information to obtain the view logic associated with the user interface component without exposing information to a client computing device that would require a separate permission check to access data stored at a network file system;

rendering the application'"'"'s view logic without activating the XLink;

in response to an executing application causing the condition for activating the XLink to be satisfied, obtaining the view logic associated with the user interface component; and

using the logic obtained when the XLink is activated to render the user interface component.

10. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the application'"'"'s view logic represented in the document is rendered when the application is launched and the user interface component is rendered on demand when accessed by a user.

11. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the XLink is inserted as an element in an XML document and provides a bidirectional link between two documents.

12. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the view logic referenced in the XLink is not currently stored on a local computing device and obtaining the view logic associated with the user interface component includes loading a document using a channel that abstracts communications with a network service.

13. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the view logic referenced in the XLink provides an XML semantic description of the visual layout of the user interface component that does not have any source or script code.

14. A computing device operative to render an application view and initialize an application'"'"'s user interface components, comprising:

a processor;

a memory having computer-executable modules for visually rendering an application view and initializing computational logic of the user interface component, comprising;

a graphical rendering module operative to render graphical elements on a computer display associated with the computing device and receive notice of user-generated events, wherein to render graphical elements includes transforming semantic application logic into a format for parsing and rendering by a rendering component executed by the computing device and presented by the computer display associated with the computing device;

at least one user interface component associated with semantic application logic used to visually render the user interface component on the computer display and an independently defined runtime object that provides the computational logic to satisfy user-generated events, wherein the semantic application logic used to visually render the at least one user interface component can be modified to change the visual rendering of the at least one user interface component without affecting functions of the runtime object; and

a view module configured to connect graphical elements rendered by the graphical rendering module with computational logic provided by the runtime object, wherein connecting graphical elements with the computational logic includes;

registering a listener on a document object model (DOM) object used by a Web browser to render a graphical element; and

inserting a unique identifier in the DOM object to associate the graphical element with the runtime object.

15. The computing device as recited in claim 14, wherein the graphical rendering module is a Web Browser and wherein to render graphical elements on a computer display includes performing a transform of XML-formatted data to an HTML format.

16. The computing device as recited in claim 14, wherein the graphical rendering module utilizes native graphics primitives provided by a machine operating system without using the resources of a Web Browser.

17. The computing device as recited in claim 14, further comprising a binding module for binding data set on the user interface component to a location in a data model identified by an XPath expression.

18. The computing device as recited in claim 14, wherein the runtime object is further configured to add a rule for interpreting content in the data model to a rule handler.