COMPOSITION MODEL FOR COMPONENTS OF A USER INTERFACE FRAMEWORK FOR WEB APPLICATIONS
Various embodiments of systems and methods for a composition model for components of a user interface framework for Web applications are described. The methods include a loosely coupled method and a tightly coupled method for composing components in a UI framework. The loosely coupled method includes triggering a navigation pipe from an out-port of a first component to an in-port of a second component and defining a context mapping between a first set of parameters of the out-port of the first component and a second set of parameters of the in-port of the second component. The tightly coupled method includes exposing a binding reference from the first component to the second component and specifying a first data model entity from the first component to be bound to a second data model entity of the second component via a binding contract.
1 . An article of manufacture including a computer readable storage medium to tangibly store instructions, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:
trigger a coupling method between a first user interface component and a second user interface component;
if the triggered coupling method is a loosely coupled method:
trigger a navigation from an out-port of the first user interface component to an in-port of the second user interface component;
receive a context mapping between a first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component and a second set of parameters of the in-port of the second user interface component;
expose a business data logic in a declarative way to a data flow between the first user interface component and the second user interface component; and
send the data flow from the first user interface component to the second user interface component.
2 . The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:
if the triggered coupling method is a tightly coupled method:
expose a binding reference from the first user interface component to the second user interface component; and
select a first data model entity from the first user interface component to be bound to a second data model entity of the second user interface component via a binding contract.
3 . The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:
receive a global event notification from the first user interface component;
determine a plurality of user interface components registered to a subscription module, wherein the plurality of user interface components are listening for notifications from the first user interface component; and
invoke the plurality of registered user interface components to execute the data flow.
4 . The article of manufacture of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of user interface components are registered to the subscription module via in-ports.
5 . The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the in-port and the out-port reference a port type definition that describes a plurality of parameters.
6 . The article of manufacture of claim 5 , wherein receiving the context mapping between the first set of parameters and the second set of parameters comprises:
if the out-port of the first user interface component and the in-port of the second user interface component reference the same port type definition, map the first set of parameters to the second set of parameters directly; and
if the out-port of the first user interface component and the in-port of the second user interface component reference a different port type definition, map the first set of parameters to the second set of parameters based on an additional predefined configuration data list.
7 . The article of manufacture of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:
dynamically retrieve a set of user interface components which in-port parameters match the first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component based on the port type definition.
8 . A computerized method comprising:
triggering a coupling method between a first user interface component and a second user interface component in a user interface framework;
if the triggered coupling method is a loosely coupled method:
triggering a navigation pipe from an out-port of the first user interface component to an in-port of the second user interface component;
receiving a context mapping between a first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component and a second set of parameters of the in-port of the second user interface component;
exposing a business data logic in a declarative way to a data flow between the first user interface component and the second user interface component; and
sending the data flow from the first user interface component to the second user interface component.
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
if the triggered coupling method is a tightly coupled method:
exposing a binding reference from the first user interface component to the second user interface component; and
specifying a first data model entity from the first user interface component to be bound to a second data model entity of the second user interface component via a binding contract.
10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a global event notification from the first user interface component;
determining a plurality of user interface components registered to a subscription module, wherein the plurality of user interface components are listening for notifications from the first user interface component; and
invoking the plurality of registered user interface components to execute the data flow.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of user interface components are registered to the subscription module via in-ports.
12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the in-port and the out-port reference a port type definition that describes a plurality of parameters.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving the context mapping comprises:
if the out-port of the first user interface component and the in-port of the second user interface component reference the same port type definition, mapping directly the first set of parameters to the second set of parameters; and
if the out-port of the first user interface component and the in-port of the second user interface component reference a different port type definition, mapping the first set of parameters to the second set of parameters based on an additional configuration data.
14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
dynamically retrieving a set of user interface components which in-port parameters match the first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component based on the port type definition.
15 . A computing system comprising:
a database storage unit for storing a plurality of user interface components;
a user interface runtime framework in communication with the database storage unit, the user interface runtime framework to:
trigger a coupling method between a first user interface component and a second user interface component in a user interface framework;
if the triggered coupling method is a loosely coupled method:
trigger a navigation pipe from an out-port of the first user interface component to an in-port of the second user interface component;
receive a context mapping between a first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component and a second set of parameters of the in-port of the second user interface component;
expose a business data logic in a declarative way to a data flow between the first user interface component and the second user interface component; and
send the data flow from the first user interface component to the second user interface component.
16 . The computing system of claim 15 , further comprising:
a subscription module that listens for events from the first user interface component; and
a subset of user interface components from the plurality of user interface components registered to the subscription module waiting to be invoked upon an event.
17 . The computing system of claim 16 , wherein the subset of user interface components are registered to the subscription module via in-ports.
18 . The computing system of claim 15 , wherein the in-port and the out-port reference a port type definition that describes a plurality of parameters.
19 . The computing system of claim 15 , wherein if the triggered coupling method is a tightly coupled method:
expose a binding reference from the first user interface component to the second user interface component; and
specify a first data model entity from the first user interface component to be bound to a second data model entity of the second user interface component via a binding contract.
20 . The computing system of claim 18 , wherein the user interface runtime framework dynamically retrieves a set of user interface components from the plurality of user interface components which in-port parameters match the first set of parameters of the out-port of the first user interface component based on the port type definition.