TRANSPARENT INTEGRATION OF APPLICATION COMPONENTS

• US 20090228896A1
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria, Van Gogh, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 9,454,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4484 Executing subprograms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

Differing implementations associated with components of dissimilar execution environments are mediated to facilitate component integration. A host is provided to facilitate native interaction with foreign components by translating between native and foreign communications. Policies can be specified by either or both of a native and foreign component that control interaction.

Claims

1. An application interaction system, comprising:

an interface component that interacts with a first and second application component executable by different execution environments or different versions of the same environment; and

a translation component that translates communications from a first to second protocol to facilitate interaction between the first and second application components.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a marshalling component that facilitates communication between the execution environments.

3. The system of claim 2, comprising a host component that enables integration of the second application into the first.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a construction component that constructs a host for the second component.

5. The system of claim 3, further comprising a component that spawns an execution environment for the second application component within the first.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising an alert component that provides an alert when the execution environment is fully loaded.

7. The system of claim 3, the host component enables nested integration of multiple application components.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that controls communication as a function of a policy associated with the first and/or second application components.

9. The system of claim 1, the first application component is at least a portion of a client application and the second application component is web based.

10. The system of claim 1, the second application component is a user interface.

11. A method of application extension, comprising:

receiving an interface into a native execution framework; and

interacting transparently with an application component of a different execution framework from within an application of the native execution framework utilizing the interface.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising configuring the interface to load the application component.

13. The method of claim 12, configuring the interface to load a web application component.

14. The method of claim 13, interacting with the web application component from within a client application.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising exposing a web application component application programming interface (API) as a client application API.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising exposing a client application API as a web application API.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising marshalling programmatic constructs between the execution frameworks.

18. A control integration system, comprising:

a means for acquiring native control communication and/or foreign control communication; and

a means for translating between the native and foreign control communication to enable a foreign control to be transparently integrated within a native application, the native application and foreign control are executable by different execution engines or different versions of the same engine.

19. The system of claim 18, the native application is a rich client application and the foreign control is web based.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising a means to control access of one or both of the native application and the foreign control to each other.