US 5,596,702 AGranted

Method and system for dynamically sharing user interface displays among a plurality of application program

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsJoan E. Stucka, Richard Wiss

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Abstract

There is provided a system and method for the dynamic sharing of user interfaces and portions of user interfaces. A user interface server coupled to applications, a display object store, and a window management system. The user interface server allows an application developer to provide an application with a user interface that is independent of any particular window management system. The user interface server provides applications with the ability to dynamically load user interfaces from the display object store and to attach any sub-hierarchy of a user interface, stored in the display object store, to a previously loaded user interface. The sub-hierarchy can be attached at any point which is consistent with parent-child relationships for components.

In a data processing system including computing means, memory means, display means, and input means interconnected by a system bus, a subsystem for the dynamic sharing of user interfaces, said subsystem comprising:

a display object store stored in the memory means, said display object store containing a plurality of user interfaces, wherein each user interface display includes a plurality of hierarchically related user interface components and each of said user interfaces being identified by a user interface identifier;
a plurality of applications stored in the memory means, each application requiring the display of a user interface;
a window management system, stored in the memory means, for rendering user interfaces on the display means;
a user interface server stored in the memory means, the user interface server comprising:
control means for executing a received command from an application;
first command interface means for receiving said received command and associated data, wherein the received command is one of a first set of commands;
second command interface means for formulating and sending one or more rendering commands to the window management system in response to a received command, wherein the rendering command is one of a second set of commands;
and
third command interface means for causing the retrieval of user interfaces from the display object store in response to a received command;
wherein a first application issues a load command from the first set of commands, the load command having a user interface identifier, the user interface server receiving the load command through the first command interface means, in response to receiving the load command the control means retrieving the user interface identified by the user interface identifier from the display object store through the third interface means, the control means then loading the user interface into a working memory area;
and wherein said first application issues one or more modify commands from the first command set wherein each modify command specifies a user interface component resource identifier and a new resource value, the user interface server receiving each modify command from the first command interface means, in response to receiving the modify command the control means locates the user interface component resource in the working memory area associated with the issuing application as specified by the user interface component resource identifier, the control means then setting the value of the resource in working memory the new resource value.

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Abstract

Claims6