Interactive server side components

• US 8,112,502 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2008
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Helmut Emmelmann
• Original Assignee: Helmut Emmelmann
• Inventors: Emmelmann, Helmut
• Primary Examiner(s): Osman, Ramy M
• Application Number:
  US12/218,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20090019111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/203, 715/234, 715/714, 715/236, 717/111, 345/764
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/315 Object-oriented languages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Server side internet applications are created by placing interactive server side components (ISSC'"'"'s) on internet pages. ISSC'"'"'s encapsulate dynamic page functions including processing of user responses on the server and thus can be reused, which drastically reduces programming effort. The ISSC technique remembers information (in form of an ISSC object) about each ISSC during dynamic page generation on the server. Then, it generates HTML code in a way such that the ISSC event is sent to the server using a conventional HTTP GET or POST request. On the server, the event is then passed to the corresponding ISSC object. All components work without disturbing each other, even when nested or combined. A browser based editor can also be used to place ISSC'"'"'s on pages and to modify their properties. During dynamic page generation, scripts and handles are embedded into the page that permit editing of the page itself.

Claims

1. A system for processing requests from a first software program having instructions for generating requests for at least one generated document and for displaying the generated documents on a display device comprising:

a plurality of components implemented using a set of classes stored on a computer, the implementation of each component comprising one class of the set of classes and each class of the set of classes having a first method including computer-implemented instructions for execution on the computer to process at least a portion of data contained in a request, and

a page generator program running on the computer having;

first instructions for, upon receiving the request, selecting from a data store of the computer an object of a class in the set of classes based on portions of the data, and calling the first method of the object, and

second instructions for generating a generated document after executing the first instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, the page generator program further comprising:

instructions to repeat the first instructions for multiple portions of the data in the request, then executing the second instructions.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

third instructions to create a set of objects each of a class in the set of classes for the components upon a first request, and

using first instructions to select the object as one of said set of objects upon a subsequent request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the classes in the first set of classes have a second method, said second method generating browser code.

6. The system of claim 1, including at least one first component which includes instructions to generate browser code.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein multiple functional instances of the first component appear on the generated document.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

instructions for incorporating more than one instance of the first component into the generated document.

9. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

instructions for including unique identifiers into names for multiple instances of the first component.

10. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

instructions for storing a data object of a class in the set of classes for each instance of the first component.

11. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

program instructions for excluding the first component from the generated document.

12. The system of claim 11, the page generator program further comprising:

instructions for calling first methods of only those first components that were contained on a previously generated document.

13. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

instructions for, upon receiving a request, checking whether a component instance was contained on a previously generated document.

44. The system of claim 3 further comprising instructions to

upon the first request assign unique identifiers to the objects in the set of objects and to embed the unique identifiers into the generated document,

and wherein upon the subsequent request the first instructions select the object by finding the object using one of the unique identifiers contained in the data.

4. A system for processing requests from a first software program having instructions for generating a request for a generated document and for displaying the generated document on a display device, comprising:

a plurality of components implemented using a set of classes stored on a computer each with a first method for execution on the computer to check portions of data in a request, and

a page generator program comprising;

first instructions running on the computer for, upon receiving the request, calling the first method of an object stored in a data store of the computer, the object belonging to of one of the classes representing a component selected using portions of data in the request, and

second instructions running on the computer for, based on an output of the first method, deciding about further processing of data in the request, and

third instructions running on the computer for generating the generated document after executing the first and second instructions.

41. The system of claim 4 further comprising

a client computer connected to the computer using a data network,

the first software program running on the client computer sending requests to the computer via the data network, receiving the generated document via the data network and displaying the generated document on the display device connected to the client computer.

42. A system for processing requests as in claim 4, further comprising:

instructions to perform the first instructions repeatedly for various portions of the data, then executing the third instructions.

43. A system for processing requests as in claim 42, further comprising:

instructions for suppressing further processing in case any of the first methods called delivers an error.

14. A method for processing requests and displaying documents, wherein a first software program includes instructions for generating a request for a generated document and for displaying the generated document on a display device, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request containing data from the first software program,

based on at least a portion of the data, a computer executing instructions for selecting a component from a plurality of components by selecting an object from a set of objects stored in a data store of the computer, whereby implementation of each of the plurality of components includes a class having a first method for processing a portion of the data, and each object in the set of objects belongs to one of these classes,

the computer calling and executing the first method of the first object of the selected component, and

generating a generated document after the calling step, and

the first software program displaying the generated document on a display device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

repeating the selecting and calling steps, then executing the generating step.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising

creating objects of one of the classes for at least two components on a first request, and

whereby the selecting step selects one of said objects on a subsequent request.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

calling a second method of objects of the plurality of components denoted on document templates, wherein the second method generates browser code.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

repeating the step of calling the second methods of components denoted inside a loop on a document template.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

selectively calling the second methods of components denoted inside a conditional on a document template.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein a method of a second component includes steps to control how often to insert one of the plurality of components which is denoted inside the second component on the document template into the generated document.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein a method of a third component includes steps to control whether to insert one of the plurality of components which is denoted inside the third component on the document template into the generated document.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

calling a third method of objects of a fourth component to generate browser code whereby the fourth component is one of the plurality of components.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

dynamically deciding how many instances of the fourth component are generated into the generated document.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

including unique identifiers into names of html elements.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

storing data objects for each instance of the fourth component.

26. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

upon receiving a request and based on the data, checking whether an instance of one fifth component of the plurality of components was contained on a previously generated document, and if so, calling the first method of the fifth component.

27. A system for processing requests from a first software program having instructions for generating requests for at least one generated document and for displaying the generated document on a display device, comprising:

a plurality of components implemented using a set of classes residing in a data store of a computer, the implementation of each component including one class of the set of classes and each class in the set of classes having a first method for execution on the computer to process at least a portion of data contained in a request,

a plurality of document templates residing in the data store having components denoted thereon, and each component denoted on at least one document template, and

a page generator program running on the computer comprising;

first instructions for, upon receiving a request, calling the first method of an object of a class in the set of classes, and

second instructions for generating a generated document from a document template after executing the first instructions.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein each class in the set of classes has a second method, said second method generating browser code.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

third instructions for repeating the second method to include multiple instances of a first component into the generated document.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

fourth instructions for, upon receiving an initial request, creating a first object of a class in the set of classes for each instance of the first component, and

the first instructions, upon receiving a subsequent request, calling the first method of the first object of the correct instance of the first component.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the first component is denoted inside a loop on the document template.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein a second component is denoted inside a conditional portion of the document template.

33. The system of claim 27, the page generator program further comprising:

instructions to suppress calling of the first method for components not contained on a document generated on a previous request of the first software program.

34. The system of claim 27, wherein tag syntax is used to denote the components on the document templates, and whereby a tag name identifies a class from the set of classes.

35. The system of claim 27, wherein a third component is denoted inside a fourth component on a document template.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein an implementation scheme for the fourth component includes logic to decide how often to insert the first component into the generated document.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein an implementation scheme for the fourth component includes logic to decide whether to insert the first component into the generated document.

38. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

an editor program operable within the first software program and having instructions for inserting, deleting, and modifying the components on the document templates.

39. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

an editor program having instructions for inserting, deleting, and modifying the components on the document templates wherein the appearance of the components is similar during editing and run-time, except for editing features.

40. The system of claim 27 further comprising

a client computer connected to the computer using a data network,

the first software program running on the client computer sending requests to the computer via the data network, receiving the generated document via the data network and displaying the generated document on the display device connected to the client computer.