Communicating events or data between application components

• US 9,135,091 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2009
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pettit, Bradley R., Schuler, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): CAO, DIEM K
• Application Number:
  US12/418,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20100257540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,356 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318, 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

This document describes tools capable of communicating events or event data between application components. These tools allow an application component to communicate an event and event data to another application component even if the two application components are in separate layers or do not exist at the same time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at an event dispatching module, an event from a first application component executed by a client device, the event including data that is associated with the event;

communicating, from the event dispatching module, a notification of the event to a second application component without the data that is associated with the event, the second application component executed by the client device;

communicating, from the event dispatching module, the data to an event-data store that maintains the data for access by the second application component; and

allowing a third application component to fetch the data in the event-data store without receiving a notification of the event, the third application component executed by the client device and configured to bind to the event-data store that is associated with the event.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the event-data store is set to expire at a specific date/time, after a specific duration, when the first application component exits, or when a computing device on which the event-data store is located restarts.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second and third application components exist within a different layer than the first application component.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the different layers isolate the first application component from the second and third application components and prevent the first application component from communicating events to the second and third application components.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third application components are components of different applications.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the third application component is not in existence at the time that the event is received.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third application components are not aware of each other'"'"'s existence.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the second application component, a registration to receive a notification of the event.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second application component is configured to perform an action upon receiving the notification of the event.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first application component is configured to attach the data to the event in a query portion of a Uniform Resource Identifier.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first application component is configured to attach the data to the event through a data container declared within the first application component.

12. An apparatus comprising:

at least a memory and a processor configured to utilize instructions in the memory to implement;

an event-dispatching module;

an event-data store;

a first application component; and

a second application component that is initiated after the first application component exits, and

the event-dispatching module capable of;

receiving an event from the first application component, the event including data that is associated with the event;

communicating a notification of the event to the second application component without the data that is associated with the event; and

communicating the data to the event-data store; and

the event-data store capable of;

receiving, from the event-dispatching module, the data associated with the event;

maintaining the data for access by the second application component;

allowing a third application component to bind to the event-data store associated with the event and directly fetch the data from the event-data store without receiving a notification of the event; and

the first application component, the second application component, and the third application component executed by a client device.

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the first application component is not in existence at the time that the third application component fetches the data.

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the first, second, and third application components exist within different layers.

15. The apparatus as recited in claim 14, wherein the different layers isolate the first, second, and third application components and prevent the first, second, and third application components from communicating events between each other.

16. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the first and second application components are components of the same application.

17. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the event-dispatching module is further capable of receiving, from the second application component, a registration to receive a notification of the event.

18. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the second application component is configured to perform an action upon receiving the notification of the event.

19. One or more tangible computer-readable media other than a signal per se, the one or more tangible computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving, from an application component executed by the computing device, a registration to receive notifications of a predefined application-specific event;

receiving, at an event dispatching module, the predefined application-specific event from another application component executed by the computing device, the predefined application-specific event including data that is associated with the predefined application-specific event, the other application component communicating with the application component through the event dispatching module;

communicating, from the event dispatching module, a notification of the predefined application-specific event to the application component without the data that is associated with the predefined application-specific event;

communicating, from the event dispatching module, the data to an event-data store that maintains the data for access by the application component, the application component being configured to access the data maintained in the event-data store upon receiving the notification of the predefined application-specific event, the event-data store configured to maintain the data for access by an application component different than the application component or the other application component, the different application component executed by the computing device;

fetching, by the different application component, the data from the event data store, the different application component configured to bind to the event-data store to fetch the data without receiving a notification of the predefined application-specific event; and

isolating the application component, the other application component, and the different application component into respective layers, the respective layers preventing direct communication of events or data between the application component, the other application component, and the different application component.