Method for seamlessly crossing GUI toolkit boundaries

A computer program product in a tangible and computer readable medium comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform actions that include:

• providing a graphical user interface container object in a first graphical user interface toolkit, wherein the graphical user interface container object is incapable of recognizing containment relationships between the graphical user interface container object and any component objects from a second graphical user interface toolkit;
• generating a graphical user interface component object in the second graphical user interface toolkit;
• causing the graphical user interface component object to become contained by the graphical user interface container object;
• and
• a containment relationship between the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object in a table that is external to the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object, wherein the table contains a plurality of entries, wherein each entry contains an identification of a container and an identification of a component, wherein the table defines a mapping between a plurality of components and a plurality of containers, wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit and the second graphical user interface toolkit define classes in an object-oriented programming language, and wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit is Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) and the second graphical user interface toolkit is the other of Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).

A data processing system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• at least one data store accessible to the at least one processor;
• and
• a set of instructions in the at least one data store, wherein the at least one processor executes the set of instructions to perform actions of:
• providing a graphical user interface container object in a first graphical user interface toolkit, wherein the graphical user interface container object is incapable of recognizing containment relationships between the graphical user interface container object and any component objects from a second graphical user interface toolkit;
• generating a child graphical user interface component object in the second graphical user interface toolkit;
• causing the graphical user interface component object to become contained by the graphical user interface container object;
• and
• recording a containment relationship between the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object in a table external to the graphical user interface container object and the graphical user interface component object, wherein the table contains a plurality of entries, wherein each entry contains an identification of a container and an identification of a component, wherein the table defines a mapping between a plurality of components and a plurality of containers, wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit and the second graphical user interface toolkit define classes in an object-oriented programming language, and wherein the first graphical user interface toolkit is Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT and the second graphical user interface toolkit is the other of Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) or Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).