System and method for issuing a message to a program

• US 7,716,676 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2002
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tharp, Edward W., Reynar, Jeffrey C., Jones, Brian M., Sawicki, Marcin
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Li B
• Application Number:
  US10/183,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20030237049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,877 Days
• Field of Search: 719/313, 719/318, 715/234, 715/235, 715/237, 715/530, 715/513
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Described is a mechanism for issuing an event notification message, from a first program to a second program, to indicate that an action occurred within the first program, where the event notification message includes a parameter that indicates that the action is one of a group of possible actions. More specifically, in an application configured to edit documents created with the eXtensible Markup Language XML, the occurrence of an XML-related action causes the event notification message to be issued. The XML-related action may be either an XML-related move action, an XML-related insert action, or an XML-related delete action. In this way, a single event notification message can be used to indicate the occurrence of three different types of actions while editing an XML document.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for issuing a notification from a first program to a second program, the instructions comprising:

a notification issuer configured as part of the first program to issue an event notification in response to determining that an event occurred, the event being associated with action performed by the first program on an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document, irrespective of a type of the action, wherein the event notification comprises a data structure, the data structure comprising;

an identifier field indicating that the data structure represents an occurrence of the action performed on the XML document by the first program,

a first parameter field identifying a current selection within the XML document,

a second parameter field identifying a first XML node associated with the event and contained within an XML namespace not native to the first program, wherein the first XML node corresponds to a first associated node within which the current selection existed when performance of the action began,

a third parameter field identifying a second XML node associated with the event, wherein the second XML node corresponds to a second associated node within which the current selection will exist after the action has been performed, and

a fourth parameter field identifying a type of the event that occurred, wherein the type of the event is selected from one of a plurality of event types; and

a single event handler, associated with the second program, configured to receive the event notification irrespective of which of a plurality of actions caused the event notification to be sent, wherein the first parameter, the second parameter, the third parameter, and the fourth parameter are included in the event notification received by the second program in response to a state change caused by at least one of the plurality of actions and used to provide supplemental functionality to the first program when the at least one of the plurality of actions occurs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of event types are selected from a group comprising an XML-related move action, an XML-related insert action, and an XML-related delete action.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the XML-related move action comprises moving the current selection from the first XML node to the second XML node.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the XML-related move action comprises moving the current selection from content that does not have an associated XML node to the second XML node.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the XML-related move action comprises moving the current selection from the first XML node to content that does not have an associated XML node.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the XML-related insert action comprises causing the current selection to be within the second XML node.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the XML-related delete action comprises deleting the first XML node such that the current selection that was within the first XML node becomes within the second XML node.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data structure is configured to be passed from the first program to the second program when performance of the action is initiated, and wherein the first parameter, the second parameter, the third parameter, and the fourth parameter fields are configured to elicit from the second program another action responsive to the single event.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable components comprising:

a first program for editing a document that includes a plurality of Extensible Markup Language (XML) nodes, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of XML nodes include content;

a notification issuer configured as part of the first program to issue a single event notification in response to determining that an event occurred, the event being associated with an action performed by the first program on a corresponding node containing an XML namespace not native to the first program, wherein the single event notification is irrespective of a type of the action and comprises a plurality of parameters, the plurality of parameters comprising;

a first parameter identifying the first XML node associated with the XML-related action,

a second parameter identifying a second XML node associated with the XML-related action, and

a third parameter identifying one of a plurality of action types that corresponds to the XML-related action; and

a second program configured to receive the single event notification and to handle the single event notification with an event handler, the event handler including computer-executable instructions for receiving the single event notification at the event handler regardless of which of a plurality of action types caused the single event notification to be issued and responding to each of the plurality of action types, wherein the second program uses the single event notification to provide supplemental functionality to the first program.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the event handler further includes computer-executable instructions for responding to each of the plurality of action types, and wherein the response includes causing a third program to perform a further action that is different from the performed action.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related move action corresponding to moving a current selection from content that does not have an associated XML node to within an XML node.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related move action corresponding to moving a current selection from within an XML node to content that does not have an associated XML node.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related move action corresponding to moving a current selection from within one XML node to within another XML node.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related insert action corresponding to inserting an XML node around content within the document.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related delete action corresponding to deleting an XML node from the document.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of action types comprise an XML-related move action, an XML-related insert action, and an XML-related move action.

17. A computer-readable storage medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for issuing a message from a first program to a second program, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

issuing by a notification issuer configured as part of the first program, from the first program to the second program, an event notification in response to determining that an event associated with a single Extensible Markup Language (XML) related action occurred on a first XML node contained within an XML namespace not native to the first program related to the first program, the event notification being irrespective of a type of the action and having a plurality of parameters, the plurality of parameters comprising;

a first parameter identifying the first XML node associated with the XML-related action,

a second parameter identifying a second XML node associated with the XML-related action, and

a third parameter identifying one of a plurality of action types that corresponds to the XML-related action;

wherein the second program uses the event notification to provide supplemental functionality to the first program; and

receiving the event notification comprising the plurality of parameters, by the second program from the first program, wherein the second program is configured to receive the event notification by a single event handler irrespective of which of the plurality of action types caused the event message to be sent and respond to the received event notification by providing supplemental functionality to the first program.

18. A method for issuing an event notification from a first program to a second program, the method comprising:

determining, in the first program, an occurrence of an action for editing a document, the document including Extensible Markup Language (XML) nodes contained in a plurality of XML namespaces;

selecting a type of action from a plurality of action types, the selected type of action correlated to the determined action;

in response to the occurred action, irrespective of the type of action, issuing an event notification, by a notification issuer configured as part of the first program, from the first program to a second program, the event notification including a first parameter field identifying a first XML node contained within one of the plurality of XML namespaces not native to the first program and associated with the action, a second parameter field identifying a second XML node associated with the action, and a third parameter field identifying the selected type of the action and used by the second program to provide supplemental functionality to the first program; and

receiving, by the second program, the event notification, wherein the second program comprises a single event handler configured to receive the event notification irrespective of which of the plurality of action types caused the event notification to be issued.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the selected type of action comprises a delete action type if the determined action includes a deletion of at least one of XML nodes from the document.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the selected type of action comprises an XML-related insert action type if the determined action includes an insertion of at least one of XML nodes around content within the document.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the selected type of action comprises an XML-related move action type if the determined action includes at least one from a set of:

movement of a current selection from content that does not have an associated XML node to within at least one of XML nodes, movement of the current selection from within the at least one of XML nodes to content that does not have an associated XML node, and movement of the current selection from within a first one of the XML nodes to within a second one of the XML nodes.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the second program includes a ‘

macro’

application that provides automated functionality in the first program.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the supplemental functionality includes providing a user interface to invoke a process external to the first program.