Template-driven data access

• US 9,323,504 B1
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kinast, Seth Bradon, Austgen, Cameron Dailey, Shekhar, Shashank, Lau, Teresa Shuk Kwan, Crosley, Jay Austin, Pistolet, Oleg Oleg, Raju, Gurinder, Eerpini, Satish Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US14/219,978
• Time in Patent Office: 769 Days
• Field of Search: 717/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven

Abstract

Template-driven data access is enabled. A collection of data model component identifiers that are accessible for use by view developers may be established. View developers may specify views of the data model with a view description language and may utilize accessible data model component identifiers to reference data model components that may be rendered in the views. The views may be in accordance with a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. In contrast to a conventional MVC architecture, changes to a view do not require changes to a corresponding controller. For example, view developers may create, update, modify and delete views independent of the activity of controller developers. In accordance with at least one embodiment, there is a universal controller for views specified with the view specification language and/or utilizing the predefined collection of accessible data model component identifiers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for template-driven data access, comprising:

maintaining, by a computer system, a predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers;

receiving a view specification of a data model view including a data model component identifier of the predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers;

requesting a data model component corresponding to the data model component identifier, wherein the view specification is created by a view developer independent of knowledge of a data model component storage location corresponding to the data model component;

subsequent to receiving the data model component, generating, by the computer system, the data model view based at least in part on the view specification and the data model component; and

providing the data model view for presentation to a user.

2. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a map from the predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers to a dynamic collection of data model component storage locations;

receiving the request for the data model component corresponding to the data model component identifier;

determining a particular data model component storage location corresponding to the requested data model component based at least in part on the map and the data model component identifier; and

providing the data model component from the determined particular data model component storage location.

3. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 1, wherein:

the method further comprises parsing the view specification to detect the data model component identifier of the predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers; and

the data model component is requested responsive to detection of the data model component identifier in the view specification during the parsing.

4. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 1,

the method further comprises maintaining a data model including a first collection of data model components corresponding to the predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers and a second collection of data model components that do not have corresponding identifiers in the predefined collection of valid data model component identifiers;

and

requests for data model components in the second collection are inhibited.

5. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the data model view specified by the view specification is in accordance with a model-view-controller (MVC) computing application architecture.

6. A computer-implemented method for template-driven data access, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a specification of a view of a data model, the specification including a data model component identifier of a predefined collection of data model component identifiers, wherein the specification is created by a view developer independent of knowledge of a data model component storage location corresponding to a data model component;

generating, by the computer system, the view based at least in part on the specification and the data model component corresponding to the data model component identifier; and

providing the view for presentation.

7. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the specification includes one or more elements of a view description language and the view description language incorporates the predefined collection of data model component identifiers.

8. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 7, wherein the view comprises a hypertext document and the view description language comprises a hypertext markup language.

9. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 6, wherein generating the view comprises substituting one or more values of the data model component for the data model component identifier.

10. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 9, wherein a presentation of the view comprises a plurality of visual presentation regions, the specification of the view associates the data model component identifier with one or more visual presentation regions of the plurality of visual presentation regions and, upon presentation, the one or more values of the data model component are presented in the one or more visual presentation regions associated with the data model component identifier.

11. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 6, wherein, upon presentation, the view is incorporated into an interactive user interface.

12. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 6, further comprising maintaining a map from the predefined collection of data model component identifiers to a dynamic collection of data model component storage locations, and wherein generating the view includes generating based at least in part on the map.

13. A computer-implemented method for template-driven data access, comprising:

specifying, at a first computer system, a view of a data model with a view description language including utilizing a data model component identifier of a predefined collection of data model component identifiers to reference a corresponding component of the data model independent of a data storage location of the corresponding component of the data model, wherein the view description language is created by a view developer independent of knowledge of the data storage location; and

configuring a second computer system to at least provide the view for presentation to a user at least in part by providing the specification of the view to the second computer system.

14. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 13, further comprising reconfiguring the second computer system at least provide an updated view for presentation to the user at least in part by providing an updated specification of the view to the second computer system.

15. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 13, wherein:

the view of the data model is in accordance with a model-view-controller (MVC) computing application architecture; and

the one or more computers systems are configured to collectively at least provide the view for presentation independent of specifying a corresponding controller of the data model.

16. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 15, wherein the second computer system is further configured to provide a plurality of different views for presentation based at least in part on a corresponding plurality of different view specifications written with the view description language and utilizing a universal controller.

17. A computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 13, wherein:

the second computer system comprises a multi-tenant computer system configured at least to provide a plurality of different views associated with a plurality of different tenants of the multi-tenant computer system, individual tenants having different access to data stored in accordance with the data model; and

specifying individual views of the data model with the view description language is independent of an associated tenant.

18. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media storing computer-executable instructions that configure one or more computers to, at least:

receive a request for a view of a data model, the view defined at least in part by a view specification written in a view description language and including a set of data model component identifiers selected from a predefined collection of data model component identifiers, wherein the view specification is created by a view developer independent of knowledge of data model component storage locations corresponding data model components;

establish a rendering data pool suited to contain particular data model components corresponding to the set of data model component identifiers;

obtain a copy of the particular data model components and storing the copy in the rendering data pool;

generate the view based at least in part on the view specification and the copy of the particular data model components stored in the rendering data pool; and

provide the view for presentation.

19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 18, wherein the request for the view is one of a plurality of requests for views of the data model, the plurality of requests occur with respect to a session of interaction with a user interface and the one or more computers are further configured to determine accessibility of the particular data model components based at least in part on one or more attributes of the session.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 18, wherein different rendering data pools are established responsive to different requests for views of the data model.

21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 18, wherein the rendering data pool is established responsive to receiving the request for the view and the copy of the particular data model components is stored in the rendering data pool prior to completing generation of the view.

22. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 18, wherein obtaining a copy of the particular data model components comprises sending requests for individual data model components to a controller.

23. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 22, wherein the requests corresponding to individual data model components are sent during parsing of the view specification and responsive to detection of data model component identifiers.

24. One or more non-transitory computer-readable data storage media in accordance with claim 22, wherein the requests for individual data model components are sent from a first computing environment to a second computing environment, the second computing environment having a higher level of security with respect to the first computing environment.