Method and system for representing and accessing data for computer software applications

A method for defining an application for execution, wherein the application includes a graphical user interface and a functional component, the method comprising:

• accessing a custom tag library, wherein the custom tag library includes one or more tags each designating an XPath operation;
• defining a JavaServer Page (JSP) to represent at least a portion of the graphical user interface;
• and
• including in the defined JSP at least one of the tags to enable interaction between the graphical user interface and the functional component.

A method for defining a user interface for interacting with a functional component of an application written in Java, the method comprising:

• accessing a custom tag library, wherein the custom tag library includes one or more tags each designating an XPath operation;
• and
• providing one or more instructions defining a user interface, wherein the one or more instructions provide for interaction between the user interface and the functional component,
• wherein the one or more instructions do not include Java language.

A method for accessing data represented by a document object model (DOM) in a system including a custom tag library wherein each tag designates an XPath operation, the method comprising:

• receiving an instruction to access data, wherein the instruction includes a tag associated with the custom tag library;
• determining an action based on the included tag;
• determining a target data on which the determined action is to be performed by parsing the instruction to obtain an XPath operation indicating the target data;
• and
• performing the determined action on the target data.

A method for designing a user interface for an application, wherein the application includes data represented by a document object model, the method comprising:

• receiving information about contents of the document object model;
• and
• defining a user interface including one or more custom tags for accessing the contents of the document object model,
• wherein the custom tags facilitate accessing the contents of the document object model by permitting use of XPath operations to access data.

A method for designing a user interface for an application, wherein the application includes data represented by a document object model, the method comprising:

• receiving information about contents of the document object model;
• and
• defining a user interface including one or more custom tags for accessing the contents of the document object model,
• wherein the custom tags facilitate accessing the contents of the document object model by permitting use of XPath syntax.

A system for implementing an application including a user interface defined by a JavaServer Page (JSP), wherein the JSP includes custom tags each designating an XPath operation, the system comprising:

• a JSP module for executing instructions in a user interface definition;
• a custom tag library for resolving a custom tag included in the instructions in the user interface definition;
• and
• a tag handler,
• wherein the tag handler parses the custom tag included in the instructions and evaluates the XPath operation based on the custom tag.

A system for implementing an application including a user interface defined by a script, wherein the defined script includes custom tags each designating an XPath operation for accessing data, the system comprising:

• a script module for executing instructions in a user interface definition;
• a custom tag library for resolving a custom tag included in the instructions in the user interface definition;
• and
• a tag handler,
• wherein the tag handler parses the custom tag included in the instructions and evaluates the XPath operation for accessing data based on the custom tag.