Window Server Event Taps

• US 20110035760A1
• Filed: 09/23/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Paquette, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/329
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Methods, devices and an associated application programming interface are described that permits a user to register event tap routines (“ETRs”) with an application such as, for example, a window server application. Event tap routines permit events such as human interface device events to be processed at multiple points and in a manner not provided during normal window server operations. Event tap routines may effect passive or active event responses. Passive ETRs may merely record the occurrence of an event or the time between successive events without modifying or altering the event'"'"'s processing sequence within a window server. Active ETRs, on the other hand, effect some programmatic response to an event. For example, active ETRs may modify the state of an event, delete the event, create one or more additional events or cause the event to be processed “out of sequence” by the window server application.

Claims

1. A programmable processing device including:

a processor;

a window server application executing on the processor;

a user interface event application programming interface (API) to the window server application, the API comprising;

a function allowing a user to register each of a plurality of event processing routines within the window server application, wherein each event processing routine—

is registered at a specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps within the window server application,

is associated with a specified user interface event type,

is not associated with a specific application being presented by the window server application, and

is invoked for execution by the window server application when a first event of the associated user interface event type is received by the window server application at the specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps prior to notifying one or more applications being presented by the window server application that the specified user interface event type was received by the window server application.

2. The programmable processing device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the registered event processing routines comprises a passive callback function.

3. The programmable processing device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the registered event processing routines comprises an active callback function.

4. The programmable processing device of claim 3, further comprising a set of functions to permit the active callback function to modify the first event that caused the active callback function to be invoked.

5. The programmable processing device of claim 4, wherein the set of functions to modify comprise functions to change a type attribute associated with the first event that caused the active callback function to be invoked.

6. The programmable processing device of claim 4, wherein the set of functions to modify comprise functions to delete the first event that caused the active callback function to be invoked.

7. The programmable processing device of claim 4, wherein the set of functions to modify comprise functions to create one or more additional events associated with the first event that caused the active callback function to be invoked.

8. The programmable processing device of claim 1, wherein the window server application comprises two or more cooperatively executing applications.

9. The programmable processing device of claim 1, wherein the specified user interface event type comprises one of a human interface device event, a session event, an annotated session event or a connection event.

10. A storage device comprising instructions stored thereon and readable by a programmable control device, the instructions embodying a user interface event application programming interface (API) to a window server application, the API comprising:

a function allowing a user to register each of a plurality of event processing routines within the window server application, wherein each event processing routine—

is registered at a specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps within the window server application,

is associated with a specified user interface event type,

is not associated with a specific application being presented by the window server application, and

is invoked for execution by the window server application when a first event of the associated user interface event type is received by the window server application at the specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps prior to notifying one or more applications being presented by the window server application that the specified user interface event type was received by the window server application.

11. A computer system, comprising:

a display device;

one or more input devices;

a processor operatively coupled to the display and input devices; and

memory operatively coupled to the processor, input and display devices, said memory adapted to store instructions embodying a user interface event application programming interface (API) to a window server application, the API comprising;

a function allowing a user to register each of a plurality of event processing routines within the window server application, wherein each event processing routine—

is registered at a specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps within the window server application,

is associated with a specified user interface event type,

is not associated with a specific application being presented by the window server application, and

is invoked for execution by the window server application when a first event of the associated user interface event type is received by the window server application at the specified one of a plurality of user interface event taps prior to notifying one or more applications being presented by the window server application that the specified user interface event type was received by the window server application.

12. A computer event processing method, the method comprising:

receiving a first event at a registered event processing routine executing on a programmable control device wherein the first event is targeted for a first application;

identifying the first event as belonging to at least one of a plurality of event types;

determining the first event is associated with an event processing routine;

causing the event processing routine to process the first event without regard to the first application;

receiving a result event from the event processing routine; and

providing the result event for delivery to the first application,

wherein the acts of receiving an event, identifying, determining, causing and receiving a result event are performed by the programmable control device prior to providing the result event for delivery to the first application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first application comprises a user-level application.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of receiving a first event comprises receiving a plurality of events, and wherein the acts of identifying, determining, causing, receiving and delivering are performed for each of the plurality of events.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of causing comprises asynchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of causing comprises synchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a modified version of the first event.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a null event.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving an event having a type that is different from the first event.

20. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform the acts set forth in claim 12.

21. A user interface event processing method performed by a programmable control device, the method comprising:

receiving a user interface event from an operating system controlling a programmable control device, the user interface event targeted for a first application;

identifying the user interface event as belonging to at least one of a plurality of user interface event types;

determining the user interface event is associated with an event processing routine;

causing the event processing routine to process the user interface event without regard to the first application;

receiving a result from the event processing routine; and

dispatching the result to the first application.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving a user interface event is performed by a window server application.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first application comprises a user-level application.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of identifying comprises identifying the user interface event as belonging to one or more of the following event types:

human interface device, session, annotated session and connection.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the user interface event is selected from the group consisting of:

keyboard keystroke, mouse action, touch pad action, tablet action, scroll wheel action, display cursor update, display brightness action, volume control action, computer system power switch action, computer system timer action, computer system sleep action, computer system resume action, application suspend action and application resume action events.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the session, annotated session and connection user interface event types are each associated with a single user login session.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the user interface events are associated with all user login sessions.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of causing comprises asynchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the act of asynchronously invoking comprises:

invoking a data recording user-level event processing routine; and

repeating the acts of identifying, determining and causing to the received user interface event.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of causing comprises synchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the act of synchronously invoking comprises invoking an event processing routine to perform one or more user interface related actions based on the received user interface event.

32. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving a result comprises receiving a modified version of the user interface event.

33. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving a result comprises receiving a null user interface event.

34. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving a result comprises receiving a user interface event having a type different from that received from the operating system.

35. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving a result comprises receiving a plurality of user interface events.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein one of the received plurality of user interface events is a first type of user interface event and another one of the received plurality of user interface events is a different type of user interface event.

37. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform the acts set forth in claim 21.

38. A user interface event processing method performed by a programmable control device, the method comprising:

receiving a user interface event from an operating system controlling the programmable control device, the user interface event associated with a window, the window associated with a first application;

identifying the user interface event as belonging to at least one of a plurality of registered user interface event types;

determining the user interface event is associated with an event processing routine;

causing the associated event processing routine to execute without regard to the first application;

receiving a result event from the event processing routine; and

delivering the result event to the window.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of receiving a user interface event is performed by a window server application.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the associated window comprises a window associated with a user-level application.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of identifying comprises identifying the user interface event as belonging to one or more of the following event types:

human interface device, session, annotated session and connection.

42. The method of claim 38, wherein the user interface event is selected from the group consisting of:

keyboard keystroke, mouse action, touch pad action, tablet action, scroll wheel action, display cursor update, display brightness action, volume control action, computer system power switch action, computer system timer action, computer system sleep action, computer system resume action, application suspend action and application resume action events.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein the session, annotated session and connection user interface event types are each associated with a single user login session.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the user interface events are associated with all user login sessions.

45. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of causing comprises asynchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the act of asynchronously invoking comprises:

invoking a data recording user-level event processing routine; and

repeating the acts of identifying, determining and causing to the received user interface event.

47. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of causing comprises synchronously invoking the determined event processing routine.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the act of synchronously invoking comprises invoking an event processing routine to perform one or more user interface related actions based on the received user interface event.

49. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a modified version of the user interface event.

50. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a null user interface event.

51. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a user interface event having a type different from that received from the operating system.

52. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of receiving a result event comprises receiving a plurality of user interface events.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein one of the received plurality of user interface events is a first type of user interface event and another one of the received plurality of user interface events is a different type of user interface event.

54. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform the acts set forth in claim 38.

55. An event processing method, the method comprising:

receiving a first event targeted for an application;

associating the first event with a plurality of event types;

associating at least one event processing routing with each of the plurality of event types;

causing at least said one event processing routine to process the first event, without regard to the application, to generate a second event; and

delivering the second event to the application.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the application comprises a user level application.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein the application comprises an operating system level application.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein the acts of receiving, associating, causing and delivering are performed by a second application.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the second application comprises an event manager application.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein the second application comprises a window server application.

61. The method of claim 55, wherein the plurality of event types comprise two or more of the following event types:

human interface device event, a session event, an annotated session event and a connection event.

62. The method of claim 55, wherein the act of causing generates a second event that is substantially the same as the first event.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the second event comprises a time-stamped version of the first event.

64. The method of claim 55, wherein the act of causing generates a second event that is substantially different from the first event.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the second event is associated with one or more event types not associated with the first event.

66. The method of claim 64, wherein the second event is targeted for a second application.

67. The method of claim 64, wherein the second event comprises a plurality of events.

68. The method of claim 64, wherein the second event comprises the NULL event.

69. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform the acts set forth in claim 55.