Task completion through inter-application communication

Abstract

Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems for facilitating task completion through inter-application communication and/or for registering a target application for contextually aware task execution are provided. That is, a current application may display content comprising an entity (e.g., a mapping application may display a restaurant entity). One or more actions capable of being performed on the entity may be exposed (e.g., a reserve table action). Responsive to selection of an action, one or more target applications capable of performing the action on the entity may be presented. Responsive to selection of a target application, contextual information for the entity and/or the action may be passed to the target application so that the target application may be launched in a contextually relevant state to facilitate completion of a task. For example, a dinning application may be launched to a table reservation form for the restaurant entity.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for facilitating task completion through inter-application communication, comprising:
 a task execution component configured to:
 identify an entity comprised within content of a current application; 
 expose an action capable of being performed on the entity; 
 responsive to a selection of the action:
 determine a user intent to accomplish a task based upon an entity context associated with the entity and an action context associated with the action; and 
 present a target application capable of performing the action on the entity; and 
 
 responsive to selection of the target application:
 pass the entity context and the action context to the target application so that the target application is launched according to the entity context and the action context to facilitate completion of the task. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component comprising an operating system user interface. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , the operating system user interface comprising a share charm. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , the action embedded within the current application. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 dynamically identify the action based upon the entity; and   present the action.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , at least one of the current application or the target application comprising at least one of a web browser, a marketplace application available for download, a cloud application, or a locally installed application. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 determine that the target application is capable of performing the action on the entity based upon a data contract between the task execution component and the target application specifying that the target application supports the action and the entity.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 launch the target application within an overlay interface displayed side-by-side with the current application.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 utilize an operating system communication model to pass the entity context and the action context to the target application.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , comprising:
 an analysis component configured to:
 generate an entry within an entity action log, the entry specifying that the action was performed on the entity by the target application; and 
 expose the entity action log to a third party application. 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , comprising:
 a contract component configured to:
 generate a data contract between the task completion component and the third party application, the data contract specifying that the third party application supports performance of the action on the entity. 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 receive a back command associated with the target application; and   transition display of the target application to at least one of the current application or a task interface comprising one or more target applications capable of performing the action on the entity.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , the task execution component configured to:
 responsive to the selection of the action:
 present a task interface comprising one or more target applications capable of performing the action on the entity based upon one or more target applications having data contracts specifying support for the action and the entity. 
   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , comprising:
 a definition component configured to:
 generate an entity definition for the entity used to generate the entity context, the entity definition comprising one or more entity parameters defining the entity, an entity parameter specifying that the action is capable of being performed on the entity; and 
 generate an action definition for the action used to generate the action context, the action definition comprising one or more action parameters defining the action, an action parameter specifying information used to perform the action. 
   
     
     
         15 . A method for facilitating task completion through inter-application communication, comprising:
 identifying an entity comprised within content of a current application;   exposing an action capable of being performed on the entity;   responsive to a selection of the action:
 determining a user intent to accomplish a task based upon an entity context associated with the entity and an action context associated with the action; and 
 presenting a target application capable of performing the action on the entity; and 
   responsive to selection of the target application:
 passing the entity context and the action context to the target application so that the target application is launched according to the entity context and the action context to facilitate completion of the task. 
   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , the presenting a target application comprising:
 determining that the target application is capable of performing the action on the entity based upon a data contract between a task execution component and the target application specifying that the target application supports the action and the entity.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , the passing the entity context and the action context comprising:
 utilizing an operating system communication model to pass the entity context and the action context to the target application.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising:
 generating an entry within an entity action log, the entry specifying that the action was performed on the entity by the target application;   exposing the entity action log to a third party application; and   generating a data contract between a task completion component and the third party application, the data contract specifying that the third party application supports performance of the action on the entity.   
     
     
         19 . A method for registering a target application for contextually aware task execution, comprising:
 receiving a registration request to establish a data contract with a target application, the registration request comprising an entity and an action supported by the target application;   generating the data contract with the target application, the data contract specifying that the target application is capable of performing the action on the entity;   maintaining an entity definition for the entity, the entity definition comprising one or more entity parameters defining the entity, an entity parameter specifying that the action is capable of being performed on the entity; and   maintaining an action definition for the action, the action definition comprising one or more action parameters defining the action, an action parameter specifying information used to perform the action.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , comprising:
 identifying the entity comprised within content of a current application;   specifying values for at least one entity parameter within the entity definition based upon contextual information of the entity derived from the current application to generate an entity context;   exposing the action capable of being performed on the entity;   responsive to a selection of the action:
 specifying values for at least one action parameter within the action definition based upon contextual information derived from the current application to generate an action context; and 
 presenting the target application capable of performing the action on the entity; and 
   responsive to selection of the target application:
 passing the entity context and the action context to the target application so that the target application is launched according to the entity context and the action context to complete a task.