DECLARATIVE MECHANISM FOR DEFINING A HIERARCHY OF OBJECTS

摘要

Described is a method and data structure that enables an object to be specified declaratively within a markup document. The markup document may be XML-based (310). In accordance with the invention, the object is written based on a mapping. The mapping includes a URL attribute (316) for defining et location for a definition file having assemblies and namespaces (302) where classes (304) are specified. The class name (304) is mapped to the markup document (310) as a tag name (314). Properties (306) and events (308) of a class (304) are mapped to attributes (316) of the tag (314) associated with the class (304). The method further includes a method to parse the markup language (310) to create a hierarchy of objects. Attributes (316) that do not map directly to a class (304) are defined with a definition tag. The definition tag is also used to add programming code to a page.