Interactive design environments to visually model, debug and execute resource oriented programs

• US 8,533,666 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shukla, Dharma K., Bhandarkar, Aditya G., Guo, Shelly, Parasnis, Abhay, Amiga, Ori M., Endres, Raymond E., Moore, George M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam, Tuan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zheng
• Application Number:
  US12/253,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,789 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

In scenarios involving a data set accessible through a protocol, operations sets may be formulated for performing various operations on the data set, and may be expressed as resource scripts according to a scripting language. However, such resource scripts may be difficult to design due to the complicated aspects of the interaction, such as asynchrony, network transport, the syntax of the scripting language, and the details of the protocol. A design environment may be devised to facilitate designers in generating resource scripts, e.g., through the manipulation of visual elements. The design environment may abstract the lower-level working details of the resource scripts, and may allow designers to focus on the logical designing of the operations set. The design environment may then automatically generate the resource script from the operations set in accordance with the constraints of the script language and the protocol.

Claims

1. A method of generating a resource script applicable to a data set, the method comprising:

displaying a design environment comprising elements respectively corresponding to an operation within an operations set of a script language, the operations set comprising;

at least one data set instruction affecting the data set, and

at least one flow control instruction configured to alter an execution flow of the resource script;

upon receiving input selecting an element, adding to the operations set the operation corresponding to the selected element; and

upon receiving input requesting generating of the resource script for execution by a host;

among at least two wire protocols, selecting a wire protocol that is supported by the host; and

generating the resource script specifying respective operations of the operations set according to a verb of the wire protocol supported by the host.

2. The method of claim 1, the data set comprising at least one resource represented in a deployable computing environment hosted by the host.

3. The method of claim 1, the displaying comprising at least one of:

displaying within a browser a design environment hosted on an application host, and

displaying on a device a design environment hosted on the device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving input relocating an operation in the operations set to a destination location, relocating the operation in the operations set.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving input selecting an operation in the operations set, displaying at least one property of the operation; and

upon receiving input configuring at least one property of the operation, configuring the at least one property of the operation.

6. The method of claim 5,

the properties of at least one operation comprising:

a request property relating to a request to apply the verb of the protocol to the data set, and

a response property relating to a response generated by applying the verb of the wire protocol to the data set.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

upon receiving input data-binding a property of a first operation to a property of a second operation, configuring the property of the first operation to data-bind to the property of the second operation.

8. The method of claim 5, comprising:

upon receiving input data-binding a property of an operation to an aspect of the host, configuring the property of the operation to data-bind to the aspect of the host.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating the operations of the operations set according to the script language.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

upon validating the operations of the operations set, displaying a valid operations set indicator within the design environment; and

upon failing to validate at least one invalid operation of the operations set, displaying an invalid operation indicator for the at least one invalid operation of the operations set within the design environment.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving input requesting execution of the resource script, presenting at least two execution contexts; and

upon receiving input choosing a selected execution context, executing the resource script on a script processor according to the selected execution context.

12. The method of claim 11:

the data set accessible through a remote host according to the protocol;

the selected execution context comprising a local execution context; and

the executing comprising;

executing the resource script on a local script processor configured to;

for respective data set operations, issue the corresponding verb of the protocol to the remote host, and

for respective flow control operations, alter an execution flow of the resource script.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

upon receiving input setting a breakpoint at an operation, associating a breakpoint with the operation;

upon executing the operation associated with the breakpoint;

breaking the executing of the resource script, and

upon receiving input requesting resuming the executing of the resource script, resuming the executing of the resource script.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

upon receiving input selecting a property of an executing resource script, displaying the property of the executing resource script within the design environment.

15. The method of claim 11,

the executing comprising:

serializing the resource script according to the wire protocol supported by the host; and

sending the resource script serialized according to the wire protocol to a script processor on the host.

16. The method of claim 1, the wire protocol selected from a wire protocol set comprising:

a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) wire protocol;

an Atom wire protocol; and

a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) wire protocol.

17. A system for generating a resource script applicable to a data set, the system comprising:

a design environment displaying component configured to display a design environment comprising elements respectively corresponding to an operation of a script language, the operations comprising;

at least one data set instruction affecting the data set, and

at least one flow control instruction configured to alter an execution flow of the resource script;

an operations set building component configured to, upon receiving a selection of at least one element in the design environment, add to the operations set the operation corresponding to the selected element; and

a resource script generating component configured to, upon receiving a request to generate the resource script for execution by a host;

among at least two wire protocols, selecting a wire protocol that is supported by the host; and

generate the resource script specifying respective operations of the operations set according to a verb of the wire protocol supported by the host.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

an operations set validating component configured to;

validate the operations of the operations set according to the script language;

upon validating the operations of the operations set, display a valid operations set indicator within the design environment; and

upon failing to validate at least one invalid operation of the operations set, display an invalid operation indicator for the at least one invalid operation of the operations set within the design environment.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a resource script executing component configured to;

upon receiving input requesting executing of the resource script, present at least two execution contexts; and

upon receiving input choosing a selected execution context, execute the resource script on a script processor according to the selected execution context.

20. A method of generating a resource script applicable to a data set comprising at least one resource represented in a deployable computing environment hosted by a host and accessible according to a wire protocol, the method comprising:

displaying a design environment comprising elements respectively corresponding to an operation of a script language, the operations comprising;

at least one data set instruction affecting the data set, and

at least one flow control instruction configured to alter an execution flow of the resource script;

displaying the operations of an operations set within the design environment;

upon receiving input selecting an element, adding to the operations set an operation corresponding to the selected element;

upon receiving input relocating an operation in the operations set to a destination location, relocating the operation in the operations set;

upon receiving input selecting an operation in the operations set, displaying at least one property of the operation;

upon receiving input configuring at least one property of the operation, configuring the at least one property of the operation;

upon receiving input setting a breakpoint at an operation, associating a breakpoint with the operation;

validating the operations of the operations set according to the script language;

upon validating the operations of the operations set, displaying a valid operations set indicator within the design environment; and

upon failing to validate at least one invalid operation of the operations set, displaying an invalid operation indicator for the at least one invalid operation of the operations set within the design environment;

upon receiving input requesting generating of the resource script for execution by a host;

among at least two wire protocols, identifying a wire protocol that is supported by the host, and

generating the resource script specifying respective operations of the operations set according to a verb of the wire protocol that is supported by the host;

upon receiving input requesting execution of the resource script, presenting at least two execution contexts;

upon receiving input selecting a local execution context;

executing the resource script on a local script processor configured to;

for respective data set operations, issue the corresponding verb of the protocol to the host, and

for respective flow control operations, alter an execution flow of the resource script;

upon executing an operation associated with a breakpoint;

breaking the executing of the resource script, and

upon receiving input requesting resuming the executing of the resource script, resuming the executing of the resource script; and

upon receiving input selecting a property of an executing resource script, displaying the property of the executing resource script within the design environment; and

upon receiving input selecting a host execution context;

selecting a wire protocol that is supported by the host,

serializing the resource script according to the wire protocol, and

sending the resource script serialized according to the wire protocol to a script processor on the host.