| 摘要 |
<p>The present invention simplifies the development of a client side application for a client-server application, wherein such a client side application typically runs on multiple clients having drastically different platform characteristics. To simplify the development process of a client side application, the present invention a) provides a programming model as a guide for code development, and b) supports a software component at each client machine's system level for asset management. The programming model guides the coding development of the client side application in a standardized and systematic manner. It also allows the developers to write codes that are platform-independent. Asset management is automated by a client system level software component (called the Asset Manager) running on each client's side. The Asset Manager of each client is tailored specifically for maximizing the capability of the client machine platform. Moreover, the Asset Manager of each client enables the development of client platform-independent code. In addition, the design of the Asset Manager via data type factories allows extensibility of media asset types; a new asset data type can easily be supported by simply adding a new data type factory to the Asset Manager without rewriting existing code. Finally, the Asset Manager uses a central location called the Asset Store to store assets shared by different client side applications, thus facilitating the speed of switching among these applications.</p> |
