Method of hosting a first application in a second application

A computer executable method for use with a virtual application and a web browser, the virtual application being executable by a virtual runtime engine and configured to call windowing functions each operable to display or modify at least one window of a first user interface, the first user interface being displayed by the virtual runtime engine, the virtual runtime engine being configured to capture calls to the windowing functions and generate user interface messages based on the captured calls, the capturing of the calls preventing the virtual runtime engine from displaying or modifying the first user interface, the virtual runtime engine executing within a host operating system, the web browser displaying a web page comprising a control configured to display content, the method comprising:

• receiving, by the user interface manager executing on at least one computing device, at least one of the user interface messages generated by the virtual runtime engine, the virtual application being encapsulated from the host operating system by the virtual runtime engine, the at least one user interface message identifying a particular one of the windowing functions operable to display or modify a particular window of the first user interface;
• generating, by the user interface manager, at least one user interface command for the control displayed by the web page, the at least one user interface command being generated based on the particular windowing function;
• and
• sending, by the user interface manager, the at least one user interface command to the control, the at least one user interface command being configured to cause the control to display or modify the content displayed by the control.

A computer executable method performed by a runtime engine configured to provide at least a portion of a runtime environment, the method comprising:

• executing, by the runtime engine, an application inside the runtime environment provided at least in part by the runtime engine, the runtime engine executing in a host operating system, the runtime environment encapsulating the application from the host operating system, the application being configured to instruct the runtime environment to generate a first user interface when executing;
• capturing, by the runtime engine, user interface messages generated by the executing application thereby preventing the executing application from generating the first user interface, the user interface messages including instructions to the runtime environment to modify the first user interface;
• sending, by the runtime engine, at least a portion of the captured user interface messages to an external process configured to generate a second user interface different from the first user interface, both the external process and the second user interface executing outside the runtime environment provided at least in part by the runtime engine;
• receiving, by the runtime engine, one or more application programming messages from the external process in response to having sent the portion of the captured user interface messages to the external process;
• and
• calling, by the runtime engine, one or more application programming interfaces associated with a first portion of the one or more application programming messages.

A method of hosting a first application in a second application, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a user interface manager, a request from the second application to execute the first application;
• sending, by the user interface manager, a command to a runtime engine to execute the first application inside a runtime environment generated at least in part by the runtime engine, the runtime engine executing the first application in response to the command, the runtime engine executing in a host operating system, the first application being encapsulated from the host operating system by the runtime environment, the first application calling user interface functions configured to cause the runtime engine to generate a first user interface, the runtime engine capturing the calls to the user interface functions, generating messages comprising information associated with the captured calls, and forwarding the messages to the user interface manager;
• receiving, by the user interface manager, the messages;
• translating, by the user interface manager, the information associated with the captured calls into instructions for the second application;
• and
• sending, by the user interface manager, the instructions to the second application, the second application displaying a second user interface for the first application based on the instructions and making the first application appear as if the first application is executing inside the second application.