System and method for building mixed mode execution environment for component applications

Abstract

A device runtime environment is provided for execution on a computing device. The device runtime environment provides an intelligent container for an application at runtime and comprises a plurality of services in communication with each other. The plurality of services a data manager, a screen manager, a communication service and a script interpreter. The data manager manages data components of the application including manipulation and persistence in a database of the data components. The screen manager managing screen components of the application and renders an output for display on a screen of the computing device. The communication service sends messages to external resources and receives and manages messages sent from external resources in accordance with corresponding message components.

1 . A wireless communication device comprising:
 a memory for storing instructions; and   a processor for executing the instructions stored in memory, when executed by the processor the instructions configuring the wireless device to provide:
 a runtime environment for executing an application definition defined declaratively in a plurality of component definitions, the runtime environment coordinating communication between a plurality of runtime environment components comprising:
 an application container for hosting an internal model of the application defined declaratively, the internal model comprising:
 a data model of one or more data types defined in the application defined declaratively; 
 a screen model of one or more screen definitions defined in the application defined declaratively; and 
 a message model of one or more messages defined in the application defined declaratively; 
 
 a screen manager to render an application screen based on the screen model; 
 a communication service to transmit and receive messages to and from an external computer based on the communication model; and 
 a data manager for manipulating the data model to store application data. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the internal model of the application is created when the application definition is loaded onto the wireless communication device. 
     
     
         3 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein creation of the internal model of the application is delayed until a request to execute the application is received. 
     
     
         4 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the application further comprises one or more portions expressed in a script language and wherein the runtime environment further comprises a script interpreter for interpreting the script portions of the application. 
     
     
         5 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the data manager further manipulates the data model to create, update and delete data. 
     
     
         6 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the runtime environment further comprises a user interface (UI) service for providing visualization of the screen representation in a native UI framework of the portable communication device and wherein the screen manager further handles modeling of conditional controls and layouts expressed in the application definition, and continuously updates the screen model based on events received from the UI service. 
     
     
         7 . The wireless communication device as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the application definition is expressed in extensible mark-up language (XML). 
     
     
         8 . A method of executing an application on a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored in memory, the instructions implementing the method comprising:
 receiving at a runtime environment an application definition defined declaratively in a plurality of component definitions;   creating an internal model of the application hosted in an application container including:
 creating a data model of one or more data types defined in the application defined declaratively; 
 creating a screen model of one or more screen definitions defined in the application defined declaratively; and 
 creating a message model of one or more messages defined in the application defined declaratively; 
   manipulating the data model using a data manager of the runtime environment to store application data;   transmitting and receiving messages using a communication service to and from an external computer based on the communication model; and
 rendering an application screen using a screen manager based on the screen model. 
   
     
     
         9 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the internal model of the application is created when the application definition is loaded onto the wireless communication device. 
     
     
         10 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein creating the internal model of the application is delayed until a request to execute the application is received. 
     
     
         11 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , further comprising interpreting using a script interpreter of the runtime environment one or more portions of the application expressed in a script language. 
     
     
         12 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , further comprising creating, updating and deleting data using the data manager to manipulate the data model. 
     
     
         13 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , further comprising:
 providing visualization of the screen representation in a native user interface (UI) framework of the portable communication device using a UI service;   modeling conditional controls and layouts expressed in the application definition using the screen manager; and   updating the screen model based on events received from the UI service using the screen manager.   
     
     
         14 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the application definition is expressed in extensible mark-up language (XML).