JP2009283010A - Declarative mechanism for defining hierarchy of objects - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for defining objects declaredly. <P>SOLUTION: The present invention comprises a step for mapping a URL in the location of a definition file having at least one name space to an xmlns attribute of a route tag or a mapping tag, a step for setting a tag name to a class name in at least one name space, and a step for setting an attribute of the tag to a property name in the case that the object has property setting. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to a method and system for declaratively creating a hierarchy of objects and object types.

  Markup languages are generally easy to create and understand. An extensible markup language, commonly known as XML, is one of the most common markup languages used today. XML is a format designed to carry structured information to the Web. This is a web-based language for electronic data exchange. XML is an open technical standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards body responsible for maintaining and promoting hypertext markup language (HTML) and other web-related standards.

  XML is part of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that maintains the structurally important aspect of separation by context while eliminating unnecessary functionality. The XML document format embeds its contents in a tag representing its structure. XML also provides the ability to express document grammar rules. These two features allow automatic separation of data and metadata, allowing a general tool to check an XML document against its grammar.

  XML is designed for system integration. XML provides a structural representation of data that is widely implemented and known to be easy to deploy. Information marked by the presence of a tag is called an element. Mark up information with matching start and end tags. Elements can be further described by adding name-value pairs called attributes. An XML element can declare its associated data to be any desired data element. For example, the element can be a retail price, a book title, or the like. Currently, XML is applied to grammar-based representations of application data (business documents, EDI messages, etc.), application user interfaces, XHTML, and other grammars with a fixed set of tags.

  These grammar-based representations are limited in that they lack the ability to easily extend a fixed set of tags to create new types of XML elements. In addition, as the computer industry steadily transitions to object-oriented programming, XML is no longer fully representing extensible component objects. These objects can be reused by other software programs, and new objects can be easily extended from existing objects. As a result, programmers often create object hierarchies programmatically in a programming language rather than declaratively. Object hierarchies must be created in a programming language whenever they are used.

  Those skilled in the art have missed systems that provide programmers with the ability to declaratively create object and type hierarchies with program logic.

  The present invention is directed to a mechanism for declaratively defining a hierarchy of objects in a markup language. These objects include Microsoft. There are objects such as NET framework common language runtime types. In conventional methods of implementing items such as user interfaces, items need to be created synchronously. For very large items, item loading may be limited by time. The present invention provides the user with the ability to create objects in a hierarchy (ie tree) synchronously or asynchronously.

  The markup language is XML based. Objects are written in a markup language based on mapping. The mapping includes a URL attribute that defines the location of the definition file having the assembly and namespace in which the object class is specified. Tag names in markup language are mapped to class names. Tag attributes are mapped to class properties and events associated with the tag. Attributes that are not mapped directly to a class are defined by definition tags. Definition tags are also used to add programming code to a page.

  The present invention further includes a method for analyzing a markup language to create a hierarchy of objects. The definition file is used to determine where the object class is located so that the class to which the tag is mapped is searched by the mechanism of the present invention. Once the class is determined, the attribute name is searched in the property and event sections of the class. An instance of an object of the class is created. Attributes can be specified using complex properties.

  The present invention provides the ability to create items such as user interfaces, vector graphics, and documents synchronously or asynchronously using a markup language. Documents include fixed format documents and adaptive-flow documents. A fixed format document is a document that explicitly defines the number of pages and the position of an object on each page in a device independent manner. An adaptive flow document is a document that can automatically be reattached and reposition objects on each page each time the page size is changed.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of example embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows the example of the computer system in which this invention exists. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the example of the environment which this invention can operate | move. FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a mapping between a markup language and the example environment of FIG. FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating steps for analyzing a markup file according to the present invention.

  The features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims, but the invention, and its objects and advantages, can best be understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. .

  The present invention provides a mechanism that allows a user to specify a hierarchy of objects and program logic behind the hierarchy of objects in an XML-based markup language. This provides the ability to describe the object model in XML. One result is from Microsoft. It is possible to access an extensible class such as a class in the common language runtime (CLR) of Net Framework in XML. The number of classes at CLR continues to increase. This means that the XML representation of the object model is increasing dynamically. As described herein, this mechanism provides the direct mapping of XML tags to CLR objects and the ability to represent related code in markup. Using this mechanism, fixed format documents, adaptive flow documents, vector graphics, application user interfaces and controls, and any combination of the above can be created with XML markup.

  Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements, the invention is illustrated as being implemented in a suitable computing environment. Although not required, the invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a personal computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in other computer system configurations including handheld devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. I understand. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in local and remote memory storage devices.

  FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment 100 on which the invention may be implemented. The computing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Neither should the computing system environment 100 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the example operating environment (reference numeral 100). Absent.

  The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and / or configurations suitable for use with the present invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, There are microprocessor-based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments including any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

  The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

  With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 110. The components of the computer 110 include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 120, a system memory 130, and a system bus 121 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 120. The system bus 121 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Examples of such architectures include, but are not limited to, an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, an MCA (Micro Channel Architecture) bus, an EISA (Enhanced ISA) bus, and a VESA (Video Electronics Standard bus). There are also known PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) buses.

  Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. Computer-readable media can include, by way of example and not limitation, computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technique for storing information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data. Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage device, magnetic cassette, magnetic tape, Such as a magnetic disk storage device or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to store desired information and that is accessible from computer 110. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism. This includes any information delivery medium. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. Examples of communication media include, but are not limited to, wired media such as wired networks, direct wired connections, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media. Any combination of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

  The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and / or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132. A BIOS (basic input / output system) 133 includes a basic routine that assists in transferring information between elements in the computer 110 such as during startup, and is generally stored in the ROM 131. The RAM 132 typically includes data and / or program modules that are directly accessible from and / or currently being processed by the processing unit 120. FIG. 1 shows, by way of example and not limitation, an operating system 134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137.

  The computer 110 may also include other removable / non-removable, volatile / nonvolatile computer storage media. For example only, FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disk drive 141 that reads from or writes to a non-removable nonvolatile magnetic medium, a magnetic disk drive 151 that reads from or writes to a removable nonvolatile magnetic disk 152, and a CD-ROM, An optical disk drive 155 is shown that reads from or writes to a removable non-volatile optical disk 156, such as another optical medium. Other removable / non-removable, volatile / nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in examples of operating environments include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tapes, semiconductor RAM And semiconductor ROM. The hard disk drive 141 is generally connected to the system bus 121 via a non-removable memory interface such as the interface 140, and the magnetic disk drive 151 and the optical disk drive 155 are generally connected to the system bus 121 via a removable memory interface such as the interface 150. .

  The drive described above and shown in FIG. 1 and its associated computer storage media provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data of the computer 110. In FIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive 141 is illustrated as storing operating system 144, application programs 145, other program modules 146, and program data 147. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137. Operating system 144, application program 145, other program modules 146, and program data 147 are numbered differently here to indicate that they are at least different copies. A user may enter commands and information into the computer 110 through input devices such as a keyboard 162 and pointing device 161, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, and the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 120 via a user input interface 160 coupled to the system bus, but other interfaces and buses such as parallel ports, game ports, universal serial bus (USB), etc. You may connect by structure. A monitor 191 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface, such as a video interface 190. In addition to the monitor, the computer can also include other peripheral output devices such as a speaker 197 and a printer 196 that can be connected via an output peripheral interface 195 or the like.

  Computer 110 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be another personal computer, server, router, network PC, peer device, or other common network node and generally includes many or all of the elements described above in connection with the personal computer 110, although 1 shows only the memory storage device 181. The logical connections shown in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 171 and a wide area network (WAN) 173, but may include other networks. Such networking environments are very common in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet.

  When used in a LAN networking environment, the personal computer 110 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. The modem 172 can be internal or external and can be connected to the system bus 121 via the user input interface 160 or other suitable mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules shown in connection with the personal computer 110, or portions thereof, can be stored in a remote memory storage device. FIG. 1 illustrates, by way of example and not limitation, the remote application program 185 as residing on the memory device 181. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.

  In the description that follows, the invention will be described with reference to acts and symbolic illustrations of operations that are performed by one or more computers, unless indicated otherwise. Thus, it will be appreciated that such operations and operations, which may be said to be performed by a computer, involve the manipulation of electrical signals representing structured forms of data by computer processing units. This operation converts the data or maintains the data in several places in the computer's memory system, thereby reconfiguring the computer as otherwise well understood by those skilled in the art, otherwise its operation Is changed. The data structure in which data is maintained is a physical location in memory that has specific characteristics defined in the form of the data. However, although the present invention is described in the above context, those skilled in the art can understand that various operations and operations described below can be performed by hardware, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

  As shown above,. In the present invention, an extensible class in the CLR of the NET Framework can be accessed in XML. Although not necessary, to better understand the benefits provided by the present invention. An overview of the NET framework can be useful. Here, referring to FIG. The NET framework 200 includes a CLR 202, a framework class library 204, a user interface 206, and web services and applications 208. . The NET framework is present in the machine's operating system, such as operating system 134.

  User interface 206 and web services and applications 208 provide general input / output including file access, XML support, and services. These publish HTTP-to-HTML web technologies and services and provide user interface elements for building web pages and / or traditional Windows®-based user interfaces. Publish NET and many other services.

  The CLR 202 is responsible for managing memory, starting and stopping threads and processes, and enforcing security policies. It provides a common type system that provides the concept of data types independent of programming languages, which allows various programming languages. Data and code can be shared in the Net framework. The CLR 202 also has a JIT compiler (just-in-time) that converts and optimizes MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) code so that a specific machine executes natively on the system processor of the machine. .

  The framework class library contains several classes. One class defines operations (methods, events, or properties) that an object can perform and defines values (fields) that hold the state of the object. A class generally has a definition and an implementation, but can have one or more members that do not have an implementation. The common type system defines how types are declared, used, and managed at runtime. . The NET framework type uses a dot syntax naming scheme including a hierarchy. This technique groups related types into namespaces so that they can be searched and referenced more easily. The first part of the full name up to the rightmost dot is the namespace name. The last part of the name is the type name. For example, System. Collections. ArrayList is available from System. It represents an ArrayList type belonging to the Collections namespace. System. A collection type can be used to manipulate a collection of objects. When classes are organized in this way, it is easier to understand the purpose of the namespace and what class functions it contains. For example, System. Web. Services tells that the class provides some web function service. Similarly, System. Windows (registered trademark). Shapes is easy to determine to provide shape services. In addition to logically grouping classes into unified classes that are easy to grasp, namespaces are extensible in that users can derive their own namespaces from existing ones. For example, System. Web. UI. ACMECorp is available from System. Web. It can be derived from the UI and can provide custom UI elements. The framework namespace provides the “system” or basic functions and services needed to build and operate the solution.

  In the following description, the present invention will be described using xaml terminology to distinguish features of the present invention from XML. Referring now to FIG. 3, the present invention provides a direct mapping of CLR concept 300 to XML 310. Namespace 302 is retrieved via xmlns declaration 312 using a CLR concept called reflection. Class 304 maps directly to XML tag 314. Properties 306 and events 308 map directly to attributes 316. The user can use this mapping to specify a hierarchical tree of any CLR object in the XML markup file.

  The xaml file has the extension. It is an xml file with xaml and media type application / xaml + xml. An xaml file typically has one root tag that specifies a namespace using the xmlns attribute. No specific root tag is required, thereby allowing the user to have different CLR-related tags as roots. Namespaces can be specified with other types of tags.

  Use the default set of namespaces. In one embodiment, five namespaces are used. These namespaces are System. (With element classes). Windows (registered trademark), System. (Having control element classes such as buttons, panels, and text panels). Windows (registered trademark). Controls, System. (With a class of document-centric text rendering elements). Windows (registered trademark). Documents, System. (With class of Windows® Vector Graphics element). Windows (registered trademark). Shapes, and System. (With classes that build block elements such as scroll viewers). Windows (registered trademark). Controls. Atoms, specified in the xmlns declaration. Other namespaces may be used and the default set is configurable depending on the application.

  As described above, tags in xaml files generally map to CLR objects. A tag can be an element, complex property, definition, or resource. Elements are CLR objects that are typically instantiated during runtime and form a hierarchy of objects. These elements remain in the hierarchy. Some elements are instantiated only when needed. The elements are. It is expressed in capital letters to conform to the NET framework. In one embodiment, there are five main sets of elements. These are Panel, Control, DocumentElement, Shape, and Decorator. Panel is used to define how the elements are arranged on the page. Examples of Panel include TextPanel, DockPanel, Canvas, FlowPanel, and Table. Control provides an interactive experience. Examples of Control include Button, RadioButton, and ListBox. DocumentElement is used to render the flowed text and format it. These elements can be placed in any element that can contain other elements. Examples of DocumentElement include Paragraph, Section, Bold, and Italic. Shape is an element of Vector Graphic. Examples of Shape include Ellipse, Line, and Path. A Decorator is similar to a Panel element, except that it can have only one child. Examples of Decorators are Border and Glow.

  Use a complex property tag to set the property within the parent tag. This will be described in detail below. During runtime, complex property tags do not exist as an element in the hierarchical tree. Definition tags are used to add code to a page and define resources. The definition tag is identified as <def: xyz> in the xaml page or in the components of the xaml page. In this case, xyz is an item to be defined. For example, <def: Code> is used to add code to the page, and <def: Resources> defines one or more reusable resources. The tag displayed within the <def: Resources> tag can be mapped to any element or any CLR object. Resource tags simply provide the ability to reuse a tree of objects that specify the tree as a resource. A definition tag can also be defined as an xmlns attribute within another tag.

  As described above, attributes map to properties and events associated with the class. Because some attributes are not associated with a true CLR class, definition tags are also used to distinguish these attributes from attributes that map to properties or events. The following table summarizes these attributes.

  Having described the xmlns attribute from the basic namespace, the class name to the tag name, the property and event to attribute mapping, and the predefined attributes, the steps performed by the present invention when analyzing the xml file will be described. The parser of the present invention, hereinafter referred to as the xaml parser, determines from the root tag which CLR assembly and namespace to search to find the tag. Examples of route tags are of the following format:

  The xaml parser looks for the namespace definition file in the URL directory specified by the xmlns attribute. For example, in the example of the above root tag, the xaml parser searches for a definition file at http://microsoft.com/xaml/2004/xmlns.definition.

For scenarios where the namespace definition is not in the xmlns position, in one embodiment <? Mapping? > Use tags. For custom components built into an assembly, the tag is
<? Mapping xmlns = "foo" Namespace = "ACME.Widgets" Assembly = "acme"?> In a namespace where xmlns points to a site that is controlled by another entity for which the user provides an implementation (eg, w3c.org), the tag is
<? Mapping xmlns = "http://www.w3c.org/2000/svg"
The format is xmlnsdefinition = "http://www.acme.com/svg/2000/xmlns.definition?> The namespace uses the format xmlns: foo = http: //www.ACME/foo Which defines the namespace “foo”. As mentioned above, the namespace can also be specified with another type of tag. For example, the namespace is specified by the following MyCoolButton tag.

  The namespace definition file provides a list of assembly names and their installation paths, and CLR namespaces. An example of a definition file is as follows.

  When the xaml parser encounters a new xmlns definition file, the definition file is fetched and stored locally.

  When the parser encounters a tag, it uses the tag's xmlns and its xmlns xmlns definition file to determine which CLR class the tag references. For example, if the tag is <Text xmlns = “...”>, the parser searches for a class called text in the namespace provided in the definition file. The parser searches the assembly and namespace in the order specified in its definition file. If it finds a match, the parser instantiates an object of the class.

Attributes in the xaml tag are used in one of two ways. It can either set properties or attach event handlers. For example, the xaml parser has the following tag
<Button Text = "OK" Background = "Red" Click = "RunHandler" ID = "bl">
As a class called Button with text, background, and click properties and / or events. The parser searches for text, background, and click names in the properties section of the Button class. If the name is not in the properties section, the parser looks for the name in the event section.

  In the above example, the parser determines that Text and Background are properties and Click is an event. A text character string “OK” is set. For properties and events that are more complex than text string settings, an object that converts to and from a string is created using a CLR converter. For example, the property Background is determined to be a CLR type Paint. A character string “Red” is converted into an object of type Paint using a CLR type converter of type Paint. This character string is set as the value of the background color of Button. Similarly, the Click event is linked to the RunHandler method, and the ID property is set to b1.

Properties can be set as simple attributes, complex properties with string values, or complex properties with objects as values. A simple attribute is of the form <Button Background = “Blue” />. In this case, “Blue” is interpreted by calling a type converter that knows how to convert a string to an object of type Paint (a type of Background property). This then needs to be set as the value of the Button Background property. If the attribute value starts with ^* , the attribute does not specify a literal value and instead sets a value equal to a newly instantiated object or an existing object.

  Composite properties with string values are of the form:

<Button>
<Button.Background> Blue </Button.Background>
</ Button>

A tag that contains a period indicates that the tag is a reference to a property. When the parser finds a tag that begins with the tag name of the parent tag followed by a period (eg, “Button” in the “Button.Background” tag), the name after the period (eg, “Bacground” in the “Button.Background” tag) Search for the property specified by In this case, “Blue” needs to be interpreted by calling a type converter that knows how to convert a string to an object of type Paint (Background property type). This then needs to be set as the value of the Button Background property.

Properties from other classes can also be declared in tags. For example,
<TextBox Button.Background = "Blue">
The tag of the attribute Button. Indicates that Background is mapped to a different class than the TextBox class. The parser finds a period and sets the property specified by the name after that period (eg, “Bacground” in the “Button.Background” tag) within the class (eg, “Button”) specified by the name before the period. Search for.

  A composite property that contains an object as a value is of the form:

  In this case, a CLR HorizonGradient object is created and then set as the value of the Botton Background property.

  Using complex property syntax doesn't just provide an object for the value. For example, an animation or a bind to some data can be achieved as follows.

  In these cases, the tags are used to provide the Animation or Bind with the ability to set up an appropriate system for providing features. For example, after creating an Animation object, the xamml parser queries the object to see if it implements an interface called IAApplyValue. If implemented, the xaml parser will have ColorAnimationObject. Call ApplyValue (elementReference, BackgroundPropertyID). The ColorAnimationObject then connects to the Animation. If the object does not support an instance, the xamml parser sets Button's Background property to ColorAnimationObject.

As described above, if an attribute value starts with ^* , this attribute is set to a value equal to a newly instantiated object or an existing object. xaml parser, looking for the name of the back of the ^*, look for the CLR type of the name of the back of the ^*. For example, in the <Button Background = " ^* HorizontalGradient (Start = Red End = Blue)"> tag, the parser determines the name before the parenthesis (ie, HorizontalGradient) and the current name established by the previous xmlns setting Search for the CLR type in space. The parser treats the item after the parenthesis as an attribute and value (eg, start is an attribute and red is the value of that attribute). Other examples of using the " ^* " escape character are as follows: In all these cases, the value is set once. No expressions or joins are set to maintain the relationship between this property and some object. Forward references are possible. During tree creation, if the referenced object does not already exist, setting its properties is delayed until it appears or until the tree is completely created.

The programming language is. It can be associated with two locations on the xaml page. These locations are. in the xaml file and the associated code-behind file. Code-behind files are generally. It has the same name as the xaml file and is appended with a common extension for programming languages. For example,. xaml. cs is C #,. xaml. vb is VB,. xaml. js is used in the case of Jscript. The namespace of xmlns: def = “Definition” is added to the root element to use the tags necessary to add code to the page. The user selects the programming language associated with the xaml page by adding a def: Language attribute to the root element of the page. For example, the following tag shows how definitions and language attributes are added to the root element. <DockPanel xmlns = "http://microsoft.com/xaml/2005" xmlns: def = "Definition" xmlns: Language = "C #">
In order to add code in an xaml file that contains “>”, “<” and / or “&” characters, a CDATA section defined in XML is required in the <def: Code> section. An example of this is shown below (in this example, the included code does not use the “<”, “>”, or “&” characters, so CDATA parentheses are not required):

  A source attribute is used to specify a code in a code-beside file. The source attribute provides a URI to the code behind of the xaml file. The URI can be relative or absolute. An example of specifying a URI and a simple code-beside file is shown below.

  A simple code-beside file is as follows.

  The xaml parser supports a feature called ILiterContent. For objects that implement IliteralContent, the xamml parser treats the tag of the object as a character string and does not parse the tag. For example, if the Public object of the Public class implements IliteralContent, whenever the xamml parser encounters the tag <FooObject> “I am a string” </ FooObject>, the parser creates an instance of FooObject and <FooOj> (E.g., “I am a string”) is passed to the newly created FooObject.

In short, the following rules are used when parsing the root tag that an element / object contains directly. Referring to FIG. 4, if the tag has an xmlns attribute that specifies a schema location, a definition file having an assembly / namespace associated with the xmlns attribute is located locally and stored (step 400). The assembly / namespace is typically searched using the schema URL in the document root tag or mapping tag. If the tag is an element tag, the parser looks for the class of that name in the appropriate set of assemblies / namespaces based on the xml namespace in which the element is specified, and an instance of an object of that class is an instance (Step 402). If the class name is not found, the xaml parser checks whether the containing parent has a property with that name. If it is a property of the containing element, the xamml parser parses the contents of the tag using complex property rules. If the tag is an attribute tag, the property or event associated with the attribute is set (step 404). If the attribute value starts with ^* , the attribute does not specify a literal value, but instead sets a value equal to a newly instantiated object or an existing object. The tag may have a tag that is used to set properties on the parent tag. A tag is a complex property. If the tag is a composite property, the composite rule is followed (step 406). These rules are shown below. The xaml parser determines whether the composite property is a string. If the content is a string, the xaml parser calls the type converter for the appropriate type of the property being set. If the content of the parent tag is another tag, the xaml parser instantiates relative to the object. After instantiating the object, the xaml parser sets it to the parent object as the property value. If the tag's xmlns is “def:”, the xamml parser uses a set of built-in meanings (a set of build in means), as will be described later (step 408). The next tag in the file is analyzed (step 410), and steps 400-408 are repeated for each tag until the xaml parser detects the end root tag of the xaml file.

  It can be seen from the above that the present invention provides a mechanism by which an object model can be represented in an XML based file using markup tags. Using this ability to represent object models as markup tags, vector graphics, fixed format documents, adaptive flow documents, and application UIs can be created. Such vector graphics, fixed format documents, adaptive flow documents, and application UIs can be created asynchronously or synchronously. This has the advantage that these items can be built from markup to create a tree of objects.

  A fixed format document is a document that explicitly defines the number and size of document pages and the position of objects on each page in a manner that does not depend on a predetermined device. This provides the user with the ability to create and share documents in a format that renders the same page regardless of the implementation system used to display the document. In one embodiment, one of the fixed format document root tags is <FixedPanel> and the page is specified using the <Fixed Page> tag. Several types of elements can be used within a fixed page. These elements include text, vector graphics, and images. External resources such as fonts and shared images are specified. Tags used for text provide the user with precise control over individual character glyphs and the position of character glyphs. Other tags provide the user with control over how text, vector graphics, and images are combined into a page. The xaml parser recognizes fixed format document tags. Any other type. Like the xaml file, the parser determines the CLR namespace and class associated with the tag, calls the tag's type converter in the xaml file, and renders the fixed format document.

  There is no predetermined page size for adaptive flow documents. The set of text, images, DocumentElements, and other objects in the adaptive flow document is flushed or rearranged on the page to fit various page widths. For example, a page rendered in a window on a display screen may have different widths on different display screens, depending on the computing system being used, or user preferences. The printed pages have different widths depending on the page size. For example, a line of text becomes shorter as the page becomes narrower, which causes the text to flow or rearrange additional words down the page in a cascaded order from the text line to the text line. Is done. Attributes are used to specify user preferences for how the adaptive flow document is displayed.

  The xaml parser passes these attributes to the object's CLR converter to create the document. An object can create an unpaged or paged presentation. In presentations without page numbers, a single page with no bottom is displayed on the display screen using controls such as a vertical scroll bar. In a presentation with page numbers, the document content is divided into segments based on the page height, and each page is displayed separately on the display screen using controls such as a next button and a previous button. Other attributes determine the column width and number of columns on the page, the size of all text elements, the spacing between text lines, the size and position of all images and graphics, and the margin width and width between columns. Also, the user creating the document has columns, text size and line spacing, image size and position, margin and column width, and other page or text parameters so that the user can read it optimally for the page size. It is also possible to specify by attribute whether or not to be automatically adjusted. The xaml parser parses the adaptive flow document's tags, determines the CLR namespace and class associated with the tag, and invokes the type converter for the object specified in the xaml file to render the adaptive flow document.

  In view of the many possible embodiments in which the principles of the present invention may be applied, the embodiments described herein in connection with the drawings are merely exemplary and are intended to limit the scope of the invention. It should be understood that it should not be considered. For example, it should be understood that elements of example embodiments illustrated in software may be implemented in hardware and vice versa, or that the example embodiments may be modified in configuration and detail without departing from the spirit of the invention. It will be understood by a contractor. Accordingly, the invention described herein contemplates all embodiments that may be included within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims (12)

A computer readable medium storing a markup language data structure comprising:
A first field containing data mapped to a programming language class;
And a second data field containing data mapped to one of the class properties and events.   A third field including data indicating a uniform resource locator (URL) for retrieving a definition file having at least one assembly and at least one namespace to interpret the first field and the second field; The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising: If the second data field has a ^* character, the second data field has a value equal to one of a newly instantiated object and an existing referenced object during the process of the data structure. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium is set as follows.   The second data field stores a composite property, and when the second data field is a text string, a type converter is called when the second data field is processed. The computer readable medium of claim 1.   If the second data field is another tag, when the second data field is processed, a class based on the name of the other tag is searched and an object of the class based on the name of the other tag 5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein is instantiated and the object is set in the tag as a property value. A method for declaratively defining an object,
Mapping a URL of a definition file having at least one namespace to an xmlns attribute of one of a root tag and a mapping tag;
Setting a tag name to a class name in the at least one namespace;
If the object has a property setting, the method includes: setting an attribute of the tag in a property name.   The method of claim 6, further comprising setting an attribute of the tag to an event name if the object has a defined event.   The method of claim 6, further comprising defining a definition tag that adds one of the programming codes to the page and resource.   The step of defining a definition tag for adding one of the programming codes to the page and the resource comprises setting a def: Code element to add the programming code to the page. 9. The method according to 8.   The method of claim 6, further comprising defining a definition tag that adds an attribute that is not associated with a class.   11. The step of defining a definition tag that adds an attribute not associated with a class includes setting a def: Language attribute to specify a language to be used for code compilation. the method of.   Expressing attributes as a first section and a second section separated by a period, the first section is set to a class name corresponding to the class in which one of the property and event is defined, and the second section The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of setting the section to the name of one of the property and the event.

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