Tangram for Internet Explorer

Tangram for Internet ExplorerTangram is a plug-in technology that separates the UI architecture of the software system from the software system ", the UI of the software system can be independent from the design of the software system to a certain extent. In the design process, other software components, such as COM and ,. NET components can naturally be integrated into the target software system in the form of plug-ins. ...... Tangram for Internet Explorer is the result of the combination of Tangram technology and Internet Explorer. In terms of representation, Tangram for Internet Explorer is equivalent to adding a UI Layer Between the main framework form of IE and the HTML display view (Browser view), which is different from other new technologies such as WPF, WPF displays the content in the general, while Tangram for IE displays the content in the parallel space of the view, which is equivalent to re-establishing the framework in the main framework, in general, the browsing View is equivalent to a "View" in the new framework ". As shown in the following figure: (browsers in the general sense) If a browser is displayed in the general sense, the browser view occupies the user area of the entire browser, for example, an Internet Explorer runtime instance is displayed after it is combined with Tangram technology:

The browsing View is usually used as a "View" in the new framework"

Newly Added UI Layer Between the subject of the IE framework and the browser View

(We can see that a UI Layer is inserted between the browsing view and the main framework.) In general, IE usually displays the browsed target within the browsing view, this has formed a very popular "B/S" application model. The popular Web technologies are basically developed around this type of development. Currently, there are several important RIA frameworks, for example, Microsoft's WPF and Adobe's "Flex" are mostly used in browsers. Internet Explorer is the most basic browser framework provided by Microsoft. Microsoft provided the extension technology for Internet Explorer as early as IE4.0 in 1997, this allows developers to provide IE with their own toolbar and javaserbar objects. Microsoft provides IE with its own extended objects which are usually represented as such objects, that is, Band objects, the Band object is called "sidebar" in other browser frameworks. Many popular browser frameworks, such as FireFox and Maxthon, provide a wide range of Extension Technologies Based on "sidebar". In fact, in this regard, Microsoft should be the first development interface provided, but it is not popular in IE. On the contrary, Microsoft has become a key feature of other browser frameworks, the reason is that the barrier for developing IE javaserbar is too high, so many developers are discouraged. The starting point of Tangram is from here. The first key feature of Tangram for IE is to provide an extremely flexible assumerbar "production" System for IE (that is, the lateral bar in other browsers) you can provide additional UI for IE to make up for the UI expressiveness of the IE default framework, in general, the assumerbar provided by IE is shown in the menu: (activation menu items list IE's javaserbar in general) generally, the development of IE's assumerbar requires a good COM technology, in addition, the vast majority of javaserbar is developed based on the C ++ framework. Because the interfaces are complex, even skilled C ++ developers cannot control this Band technical framework freely, this is a natural barrier of IE extension technology. Tangram for IE provides a description layer for IE Band extension through XML technology, so that developers can avoid the underlying technical details of the Band framework and directly construct their own Band objects, this description layer has nothing to do with the developer's familiar development language, as shown in: (with the Tangram technology, developers can flexibly construct their own expressive IE sidebar system) (with double sidebar extensions on the left and bottom) in general, each sidebar object is a Band object and thus a COM Object with independent identifiers, each of these types of objects retains a location on a specific menu. Therefore, the traditional IE Band extension has an obvious defect, that is, when there are too many Band objects, the associated menu structure is complex. The Tangram framework provides a Protocol based on "Asynchronous Pluggable Protocol, you can input a specific URL in the IE address bar to load a specific Band object. This is one of the most interesting features of Tangram. The obvious change is that it expands the scope of IE browsing objects and changes the left and bottom of IE to the browsing area in a certain sense. However, unlike the browsing view in the center, the center is to browse "traditional Web Content Based on HTML and new content systems such as WPF", while "browsing" on the left and bottom is for traditional Win32/COM /. the content system developed by the NET technology with the characteristics of desktop software, which forms a natural combination of desktop software content and Web content, this makes IE-based development form a unique "B/C/S" structure. Of course, the "Asynchronous Pluggable Protocol" Protocol provided by Tangram is also Internet-based. The second key technical feature of Tangram for IE is the customized description solution provided for traditional IE customer regions. In addition to a large number of software content based on Web development, desktop software development is still a very huge market for software development, which is an indisputable fact. How to properly integrate desktop software development with browser-based Web development is a key technical topic, another thought point of Tangram for IE is to combine "desktop software development and Web development". Based on this consideration, tangram is committed to providing a flexible UI framework for IE, allowing developers to flexibly combine Web development and desktop software development based on their own needs. Due to the limitations inherent in the IE framework, the center position of the IE customer zone is completely occupied by the "browsing View". Therefore, the existing technology is basically incapable of solving the problem of sharing the "View" in the IE customer area with the software framework provided by developers. As shown in: (The Tangram framework makes desktop software development and Web development of IE naturally integrated) using XML-based description technology, desktop development and Web development can share the Framework Structure of IE, this can balance the advantages of desktop software with those of Web software. For example, a large number of desktop applications can naturally have the WWW function, at the same time, Web development can naturally interact and combine with desktop software technologies through Ajax-like technologies. Due to the complexity of the desktop software, Tangram's IE customized description scheme is also implemented based on the "Asynchronous Pluggable Protocol" Protocol. In this way, each description scheme naturally corresponds to a URL, each such URL is equivalent to a "copy" of "personalized" IE "and a" third-party Browser ". From this perspective, this feature of Tangram makes IE a "development framework" for desktop software development. A large number of mature Microsoft software technologies can be integrated into the IE framework in this way. A key technical component of Tangram for IE is the "Asynchronous Pluggable Protocol" Protocol, which has three orientations: "left", "bottom", and "client ", compared with the popular architecture of most desktop software, we found that the basic framework structure of most popular desktop software has similar structural characteristics. This Protocol makes the basic profile structure of IE extremely flexible, and also makes IE the most flexible software framework in desktop software. Unlike Microsoft's recent WPF technology, Tangram focuses on the construction of software development frameworks, making IE the basic starting point for most desktop software development and the most important feature of Tangram. Many popular technologies are aimed at IE browsing areas. Tangram extends IE's browsing capability to the surrounding area of IE browsing areas and its "Parallel" space, in addition to the IE Toolbar, Tangram can provide new software elements for IE, allowing traditional and emerging technologies to find a natural combination.