System and method for unified visualization of two-tiered applications

• US 8,006,224 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Bateman, Cameron, Shenfield, Michael, Fritsch, Brindusa, Goring, Bryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao; Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith; Cheneca
• Application Number:
  US11/106,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20060236302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

An application generation environment coordinates development of component-based two-tiered applications using a unifying data model comprising an interconnected model of objects. The data model unifies the two-tiered application to present a single logical application for visualization and for programming using a graphical user interface. The data model transparently programs tiers of the application in response to user input to program the single logical application. Application components are generated for execution within a two-tiered execution environment such as a client device (e.g. a wireless mobile device) and a gateway server providing a stateful proxy with which to access services or a remote data source via a network. The application components may by generated with marks to denote portions thereof for execution within the respective tiers of the two-tiered execution environment.

Claims

1. A method for programming a two-tiered application comprising:

providing a unifying data structure defining a unifying data model for programming application components for a first tier and a second tier of the two-tiered application, the unifying data structure comprising information for differentiating behavior defined by a first type of application component logic as belonging to the first tier and for differentiating behavior defined by a second type of application component logic as belonging to the second tier;

providing an application development tool having a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) for accepting input to program the two-tiered application as a single logical application in accordance with the unifying data model;

receiving input via the GUI to program the single logical application, the input having programming instructions that are not differentiated according to types of application component logic;

differentiating between a first set of programming instructions according to the first type of application component logic and a second set of programming instructions according to the second type of application component logic, using the unifying data model; and

automatically programming an application component of the two-tiered application in accordance with the single logical application by automatically differentiating a first portion of the application component corresponding to the first set of programming instructions as belonging to the first tier and a second portion of the application component corresponding to the second set of programming instructions as belonging to the second tier.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the unifying data model determines which of said tiers of the two-tiered application is programmed in response to the input.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 comprising generating the application components for deploying for execution in a two-tiered execution environment, said generating providing marks for marking portions of said application components in accordance with the differentiation of the first and second portions of the application component by the unifying data model.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 comprising deploying said application components to said two-tiered execution environment in response to said marks.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 comprising executing said application components by said two-tiered execution environment in response to said marks.

6. The method as claimed in claim 3 wherein generating the application components comprises expressing said application components in accordance with a structured definition language.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first tier of the two-tiered application defines a client for execution on a mobile device runtime environment and the second tier of the two-tiered application is for execution on a server runtime environment providing a stateful proxy with which to access a data source via a network.

8. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising program code means executable on a computer having a programmable processor for implementing the method as claimed in claim 1.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the unifying data structure further comprises information for bridging between the first and the second types of application component logic. with a structured definition language.

10. A system for programming a two-tiered application, the system comprising:

a processor and a memory storing instructions and data to configure the processor to provide;

a modeling module for defining application components for each tier of the two-tiered application in accordance with a unifying data model for programming application components for a first tier and a second tier of the two-tiered application, the unifying data model being defined by a unifying data structure comprising information for differentiating behavior defined by a first type of application component logic as belonging to the first tier and for differentiating behavior defined by a second type of application component logic as belonging to the second tier; and

a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) for accepting input to program the two-tiered application as a single logical application in accordance with the unifying data model, the input having programming instructions that are not differentiated according to types of application component logic;

wherein said unifying data model automatically programs application components of the two-tiered application in accordance with the single logical application and the unifying data model by differentiating between a first set of programming instructions according to the first type of application component logic and a second set of programming instructions according to the second type of application component logic, and by automatically differentiating a first portion of the application component corresponding to the first set of programming instructions as belonging to the first tier and a second portion of the application component corresponding to the second set of programming instructions as belonging to the second tier.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10 comprising a serialization module for expressing the application components of the application in accordance with the unifying data model for execution in a two-tiered execution environment.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the serialization module is configured to express the application components with marks for marking portions of the application components for execution on respective tiers of the two-tired execution environment in accordance with the differentiation by the unifying data model.

13. The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the system comprises an integrated development environment tool platform.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the integrated development environment tool platform comprises an Eclipse platform.

15. The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the unifying data model conforms to the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and the serialization module is configured to express the model in accordance with the EMF.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the unifying data structure further comprises information for bridging between the first and the second types of application component logic.