Dynamic configurable menu using self-describing applications

摘要

A menu application provides an integrated interface for launching multiple mobile applications from a dynamically configurable menu. Each of the mobile applications is associated with a servlet that provides the application's menu data to the menu application. The servlet may query design-time data and application run-time data to generate the menu data for the application. Additionally, the set of applications included by the menu application in a menu list may be based on a user authorization level, such that the menu list only includes applications that the user is authorized to access.

主权项

1. A method for generating an interface on a mobile device, the method comprising:
obtaining a list of mobile applications, the mobile applications being located on an application server; selecting one of the mobile applications on the list of mobile applications; accessing a servlet associated with the selected mobile application to request menu data associated with the selected mobile application; obtaining the menu data of the selected mobile application from the servlet, wherein the menu data includes design-time configuration information pertaining to a design-time version of a menu item and run-time configuration information pertaining to a run-time version of the menu item; determining the configuration of the menu item at run-time by combining the design-time configuration information and the run-time configuration information, wherein determining the configuration of the menu item at run-time comprises modifying the configuration of the menu item in response to the run-time information taking precedence over the design-time information; generating the menu item; adding the menu item to a menu list; and sending the menu list to the device to generate at least a portion of a display.