Convertible runtime graphical user interface

Abstract

Method to change Graphical User Interface that support runtime modification of the application's GUI without access to the application source code and/or needs no recompilation/restart of the application executable. This method allows the end-user to make runtime modifications of a widget's attributes and/or runtime conversion of widgets into different types of widgets

1 . A method of managing graphical user interfaces associated with application programs operable on a computing device having a visual display device and a user input device for controlling a pointer on said display device, said graphical user interfaces having a plurality of windows containing widgets for visualization and manipulation of application program data (variables and/or callback functions).  
     
     
         2 . A method of  claim 1 , comprising the usage of dynamic links (connections) between said data and their corresponding representations (widgets) in the graphical user interface.  
     
     
         3 . A method of  claim 2 , comprising the possibilities to create new, remove or replace existing said dynamic links.  
     
     
         4 . A method of  claim 1 , comprising the possibilities for GUI modification during an execution of said application programs.  
     
     
         5 . A method of  claim 4 , comprising the default said dynamic links for newly implemented said data.  
     
     
         6 . A method of  claim 4 , comprising the change of default attributes for widgets used by said dynamic links.  
     
     
         7 . A method of  claim 4 , comprising read/write procedures for previously established said dynamic links and/or the widget attributes.  
     
     
         8 . A method of  claim 4 , comprising the replacement of a widget in said dynamic link by another widget from a predefined list.  
     
     
         9 . A method of  claim 8 , wherein said predefined list is constructed according to the type of data associated with the said dynamic link.  
     
     
         10 . A method of  claim 4 , wherein the GUI's element (widget) representing an integer editable limited value can be converted into the slider type element (widget).  
     
     
         11 . A method of  claim 1 , comprising the recording/replaying functionality for user's interaction with convertible GUI.  
     
     
         12 . A method of  claim 11 , wherein a prerecorded sequence of said user's interaction for any initial state of GUI can be replayed for any new (converted) state of the same GUI.  
     
     
         13 . A method of  claim 1 , comprising the support of widget library, designed to work with the said dynamic links.  
     
     
         14 . A method of  claim 6 , comprising the automatic recalculation of coordinates and sizes for widget during resizing of its parent widget.  
     
     
         15 . A method of  claim 8 , comprising the automatic rule based conversion of attributes of replaced widget.  
     
     
         16 . A method of  claim 15 , comprising the customization of rules for said rule based conversion of attributes of replaced widget.  
     
     
         17 . A method of  claim 13 , comprising the run time creation of new and modification of existing widgets including their associations with the callback functions.