Computer program code and method for delivering external data to a process running on a virtual machine

1. A method for retrieving and manipulating attribute information of a target process executed by a virtual machine, the method comprising:

determining, with a first component executing within the virtual machine, whether an interface window has been opened by the target process;

hooking, if the window is determined to have been opened, into a first application program that is executing the virtual machine with an application programming interface (API) to retrieve the attribute information from the target process;

determining, with the API, a communication address based on an operating system identifier that is common to the target process and the first component and the API;

communicating the attribute information from the API to the determined communication address of the first component, wherein the attribute information uniquely identifies the target process;

parsing, with the first component, the received attribute information to obtain a window identifier of the target process;

determining, with the first component, which of a plurality of windows has a window identifier corresponding to that of the target process;

generating, with the first component, a component tree for the window determined to have a window identifier matching that of the target process using the received attribute information; and

providing a single-sign-on application, executing outside the virtual machine, communication access with the target process using the generated component tree.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the single-sign-on application cooperates with the target process to authenticate a user's access to the target process.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the single-sign-on application tests processes executing on the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine is a Java virtual machine®.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the API is a Java Accessibility API®.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the API is executing outside the virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the API is executing inside the virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and API are parts of a larger component.

9. A method for retrieving and manipulating attribute information of a target process executed by a virtual machine, the method comprising:

determining, with a first component executing within the virtual machine, whether an interface window has been opened by the target process; and

hooking, if the window is determined to have been opened, into a first application program that is executing the virtual machine with an application programming interface (API) to retrieve the attribute information from the target process;

determining, with the API, a communication address based on an operating system identifier that is common to the target process and the first component and the API; and

communicating the attribute information from the API to the determined communication address of the first component, wherein the attribute information uniquely identifies the target process and wherein the attribute information allows a single sign-on application to cooperate with the target process to authenticate user's access to the target process.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

parsing, with the first component, the received attribute information to obtain a window identifier of the target process; and

determining, with the first component, which of a plurality of windows has a window identifier corresponding to that of the target process.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

generating, with the first component, a component tree for the window determined to have a window identifier matching that of the target process using the received attribute information; and

providing a second application program, executing outside the virtual machine, communication access with the target process using the generated component tree.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second application program tests processes executing on the virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the virtual machine is a Java virtual machine®.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the API is a Java Accessibility API®.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the API is executing outside the virtual machine.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first component and the API are parts of a larger component.