Touch application programming interfaces

A method of operating a touch computing apparatus having an interaction service positioned logically between an operating system and an application, the method comprising:

• in the interaction service, at a beginning of a touch interaction associated with an object in a user interface to the application, requesting interaction calls from the application for handling at least a subsequent portion of the touch interaction, wherein the interaction calls include information that defines responses to touch interactions with the object;
• in the interaction service, receiving, from the application the interaction calls through an application programming interface to the interaction service;
• identifying interaction classes to attach to the object based on the information in the interaction calls;
• in the interaction service, attaching the interaction classes to the object in the user interface of the application;
• in the interaction service, in response to the subsequent portion of the touch interaction, calling one or more of the interaction classes to affect one or more responses by the object;
• and
• in the interaction service, at an end of the touch interaction, calling back to the application with an updated state of the object that reflects that one or more responses by the object.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media;
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
• at a beginning of a touch interaction associated with an object in a user interface to an application, request interaction calls from the application for handling at least a subsequent portion of the touch interaction, wherein the interaction calls include information that defines responses to touch interactions with the object;
• receive, from the application, the interaction calls through an application programming interface to an interaction service;
• identify interaction classes to attach to the object based on the information in the interaction calls;
• attach the interaction classes to the object in the user interface of the application;
• in response to the subsequent portion of the touch interaction, call one or more of the interaction classes to affect one or more responses by the object;
• and
• at an end of the touch interaction, call back to the application with an updated state of the object that reflects the one or more responses by the object.