Embedded application communication

• US 9,141,450 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2009
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Daumling, Michael, Berdahl, Eric, Sandman, James G. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kraft, Shih-Wei
• Application Number:
  US12/547,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20130167157A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,219 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for embedded application communication. In one aspect, a method includes providing a first Application Programming Interface (API) in the host application, where the first API is configured to interact with a virtual machine object model of the virtual machine to allow the host application to set and get properties of one or more first class instances residing in a virtual machine memory space, and to invoke methods on the first class instances, and providing a second API in the virtual machine configured to interact with a host application object model in the host application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

exposing, by a processor, a host application object model to a program embedded in a virtual machine embedded in a host application by registering callback functions or methods in a first Application Programming Interface (API), wherein the first API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the host application object model, and the callback functions or methods registered in the first API allowing the embedded program to;

create one or more class instances in a host application memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a first class instance that resides in the host application memory space; and

invoke methods on the first class instance;

exposing, by the processor, a virtual machine object model, which is associated with the embedded program and different from the host application object model, to the host application by registering functions or methods in a second API, wherein the second API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the virtual machine object model, and the functions or methods registered in the second API allowing the host application to;

create one or more class instances in a virtual machine memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a second class instance residing in the virtual machine memory space; and

invoke methods on the second class instance with a pointer reference;

using, by the processor, different models of object lifetime for the host application and the embedded program such that a lifetime of a host object and an embedded object associated with the host object are not linked;

transferring, by the processor, data between the host application and the embedded program through the first and second APIs, the first and second APIs not performing encoding or decoding of the data;

using the second API to invoke a method on a class instance in the virtual machine from the host application or using the first API to invoke a method on a class instance in the host application from the virtual machine; and

the callback functions registered in the first API and the functions registered in the second API using pointer references to objects, and the pointer references are passed as atoms between objects used by the host application and the embedded program, without being de-referenced.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein an object model specifies how class instances are stored in a memory space and semantic properties of the class instances.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein creating an object in the virtual memory space comprises downcasting a pointer for an object in the host application memory space to a subclass in the virtual machine object model having a same class name as a corresponding class of the object in the host application memory space.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the second API is further configured to allow the host application to control a lifespan of a class instance in the virtual machine.

5. The computer-implemented of claim 1 wherein the first API is further configured to allow the virtual machine to send events to the host application and wherein the second API is further configured to allow the host application to receive events from the virtual machine.

6. A system comprising:

a computer-readable storage device including a computer program product;

one or more processors configured to interact with the storage device and execute the program product to perform operations comprising;

exposing a host application object model to a program embedded in a virtual machine embedded in a host application by registering callback functions or methods in a first Application Programming Interface (API), wherein the first API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the host application object model, and the callback functions or methods registered in the first API allowing the embedded program to;

create class instances in a host application memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a first class instance that resides in the host application memory space; and

invoke methods on the first class instance;

exposing a virtual machine object model, which is associated with the embedded program and different from the host application object model, to the host application by registering functions or methods in a second API, wherein the second API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the virtual machine object model, and the functions or methods registered in the second API allowing the host application to;

create one or more class instances in a virtual machine memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a second class instance residing in the virtual machine memory space; and

invoke methods on the second class instance with a pointer reference;

using different models of object lifetime for the host application and the embedded program such that a lifetime of a host object and an embedded object associated with the host object are not linked;

transferring data between the host application and the embedded program through the first and second APIs, the first and second APIs not performing encoding or decoding of the data;

using the second API to invoke a method on a class instance in the virtual machine from the host application or using the first API to invoke a method on a class instance in the host application from the virtual machine; and

the callback functions registered in the first API and the functions registered in the second API using pointer references to objects, and the pointer references are passed as atoms between objects used by the host application and the embedded program, without being de-referenced.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein an object model specifies how class instances are stored in a memory space and semantic properties of the class instances.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the functions or methods registered in the second API allows the host application to further perform operations comprising:

instantiating an object in the host application memory space that references an associated object in the virtual machine memory space; and

invoking a method on the object in the host application memory space to retrieve a property from the associated object in the virtual machine memory space; and

wherein the callback functions or methods registered in the first API allows the embedded program to further perform operations comprising;

instantiating an object in the virtual machine memory space that references an associated object in the host application memory space; and

invoking a method on the object in the virtual machine memory space to retrieve a property from the associated object in the host application memory space.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein creating an object in the virtual memory space comprises downcasting a pointer for an object in the host application memory space to a subclass in the virtual machine object model having a same class name as a corresponding class of the object in the host application memory space.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the second API is further configured to allow the host application to control a lifespan of a class instance in the virtual machine.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device encoding a computer program product that causes data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

exposing, by a processor, a host application object model to a program embedded in a virtual machine embedded in a host application by registering callback functions or methods in a first Application Programming Interface (API), wherein the first API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the host application object model, and the callback functions or methods registered in the first API allowing the embedded program to;

create class instances in a host application memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a first class instance that resides in the host application memory space; and

invoke methods on the first class instance;

retrieve an object from the host application memory space comprising;

using a pointer reference to the object; and

passing, without de-referencing, the pointer reference between the embedded program and the host application memory space;

exposing, by the processor, a virtual machine object model, which is associated with the embedded program and different from the host application object model, to the host application by registering functions or methods in a second API, wherein the second API is configured to provide access to a name space that encompasses class names in the virtual machine object model, and the functions or methods registered in the second API allowing the host application to;

create one or more class instances in a virtual machine memory space, the class instances being objects;

set and get properties of a second class instance residing in the virtual machine memory space; and

invoke methods on the second class instance with a pointer reference; and

retrieve an object from the virtual machine memory space comprising;

using a pointer reference to the object; and

passing, without de-referencing, the pointer reference between the host application and the virtual machine memory space;

using, by the processor, different models of object lifetime for the host application and the embedded program such that a lifetime of a host object and an embedded object associated with the host object are not linked;

transferring, by the processor, data between the host application and the embedded program through the first and second APIs, the first and second APIs not performing encoding or decoding of the data;

using the second API to invoke a method on a class instance in the virtual machine from the host application or using the first API to invoke a method on a class instance in the host application from the virtual machine; and

the callback functions registered in the first API and the functions registered in the second API using pointer references to objects, and the pointer references are passed as atoms between objects used by the host application and the embedded program, without being de-referenced.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the functions or methods registered in the second API allows the host application to further perform operations comprising:

instantiating an object in the host application memory space that references an associated object in the virtual machine memory space; and

invoking a method on the object in the host application memory space to retrieve a property from the associated object in the virtual machine memory space; and

wherein the callback functions or methods registered in the first API allows the embedded program to further perform operations comprising;

instantiating an object in the virtual machine memory space that references an associated object in the host application memory space; and

invoking a method on the object in the virtual machine memory space to retrieve a property from the associated object in the host application memory space.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein creating an object in the virtual memory space comprises downcasting a pointer for an object in the host application memory space to a subclass in the virtual machine object model having a same class name as a corresponding class of the object in the host application memory space.