DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 18 and 29 recites the limitation "the application development platform". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 18 and 29 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. The claims recite “deploying at least one module of the application development platform to a demand side according to requirements of the demand side”. It is unclear to the examiner what the application development platform is as it I never mentioned in previous claims. It is also unclear what the module is and what the demand side is. Nothing in these dependent claims link back to their independent claim. The examiner believes the claimed “application development platform” is the platform that implements the method of claim 10 and that a module is part of that platform that can be deployed creating a distributed application. However, as currently claimed the limitation is unclear.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 10, 16-20 and 27-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Yang et al. (US 2014/0047409 A1).
As per claim 10, Yang teaches the invention as claimed including, “An application development method, comprising:
displaying a page editing interface; and generating a page program according to an operation of a user on the page editing interface, wherein the operation comprises generating a page layout using materials and components, and configuring page information for the page layout;
configuring an application mid-end for the page program; and” Yang et al. teaches an application development tool that allows users to select and modify widgets (material and components), map API properties to widget attributes and create application user interfaces using the widgets. To modify the widgets and create applications, the application development tool edits the source code associated with the widget or application based on input received from the user via the application development tool interface (0022). Also see 0028. User can determine whether the selected widget should interact with the backend via entity APIs (mid-end) or if the widget selected at block 1 should interact with the backend platform via controller APIs (mid-end) (0032). If it is determined that a backend entity API is to be used, entity properties are mapped to widget attributes. API properties such as “id”, “name”, percentage” of the selected backend entity are mapped to corresponding widget attributes. The application development tool maps the selected API property to the associated widget attributed by editing the source code of the widget using generated segments of code (0033-0036). Also see 0041-0042. A user can use the application development tool to generate a container having one or more widgets (0041). The application development tool allows a user to adjust a height, width, and page-level attributes (page information) associated with a container for deployment on various types of target platforms (0044).
“integrating the page program and the application mid-end to obtain an application
program.”
The applicant development tool may generate or select computer code to develop the application. Computer code may include program source code such as C or C++. The computer code may be used directly by the application development tool, such as by performing all or some of the steps necessary for creating a computer application. These steps may include interpreting, compiling, assembling, linking (integrating) and/or loading the computer code. The application development tool is used to design an application UI having one or more widgets, map API properties to properties of the widgets, edit source code of the application and widgets, modify settings of the application and widgets, and the like (0027).
As per claim 16, Yang et al. further teaches, “The method according to claim 10, wherein the page information comprises: page attribute information, page event information, page data information, page interaction information, page-to-page relationship information, or any combination thereof.”
A user can use the application development tool to generate a container having one or more widgets (0041). The application development tool allows a user to adjust a height, width, and page-level attributes associated with a container for deployment on various types of target platforms (0044).
As per claim 17, Yang et al. further teaches, “The method according to claim 10, wherein the application mid-end is configured to push page data, update page data, summarize page data, or any combination thereof; and configuring the application mid-end for the page program comprises:
determining page data to be pushed, page data to be updated, page data to be summarized, or any combination thereof in the page program.”
User can determine whether the selected widget should interact with the backend via entity APIs (mid-end) or it the widget selected at block 1 should interact with the backend platform via controller APIs (mid-end) (0032). If it is determined that a backend entity API is to be used, entity properties are mapped to widget attributes. API properties such as “id”, “name”, percentage” of the selected backend entity are mapped to corresponding widget attributes. The application development tool maps the selected API property to the associated widget attributed by editing the source code of the widget using progenerated segments of code (0033-0036). Also see 0026, 0036-0038 and figure 2. As can be seen in figure 1 data is sent from the platform database though a API (middleware) to a widget to be displayed.
As per claim 18, Yang et al. further teaches, “The method according to claim 10, further comprising:
deploying at least one module of the application development platform to a demand side according to requirements of the demand side.
See figures 1 and 8. A exemplary computing system is configured to perform any of the above-described processes (0048-0049). The examiner states that it would be inherent that the application development tool is deployed onto the computer system (demand side) shown in figure 8 in order for it to be run on it. Paragraph 0048 states the computing system may include circuitry or other specialized hardware for carrying out some of or all aspects of the processes. In some operational settings, computing system may be configured as a system that includes one or more units, each of which is configured to carry out some aspects of the processes either in software, hardware, or some combination thereof (0048). Therefore, the computing system can have different specialized hardware or unites are that configured to execute aspects of the application development tool.
As per claims 19-20 and 27-29, they contain similar limitations to claim 10 and 16-18 and are therefore rejected for similar reasons.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11-13, 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang et al. (US 2014/0047409 A1) as applied to claims 10 and 19-20 above, and further in view of Xie et al. (US 2018/02396621 A1).
As per claim 11, Yang et al. further teaches, The applicant development may generate or select computer code to develop application. Computer code may include program source code such as C or C++. The computer code may be used directly by the application development tool, such as by performing all or some of the steps necessary for creating a computer application. These steps may include interpreting, compiling, assembling, linking and/or loading the computer code” (0027).
However, Yang et al. does not explicitly appear to teach, “The method according to claim 10, wherein generating the page program according to the operation of the user on the page editing interface comprises:
editing interface into an intermediate component used to represent a page layout and/or page
information in the page layout, and generating a page program composed of the intermediate component.”
Xie et al. teaches, obtaining source code, compiling the source code to generate a plurality of intermediate files and linking the plurality of intermediate files to generate an object file (figures 2-4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Yang et al. with Xie et al. Yang et al. teaches performing steps on the source code, including interpreting, compiling, assembling and linking which are well known steps in program/application generation. Xie et al. teaches a compiling step that generates a plurality of intermediate files which are then linked in order to generate the object file. Compiling source code into an intermediate representation in order to generate a program (object file/machine code )is well known to one of ordinary skill and would have been obvious to try. Performing these different compilation steps are nothing more than a design choice.
As per claim 12, Yang et al. and Xie et al. further teach, “The method according to claim 11, wherein the conversion module is developed based on a cross platform framework; and the intermediate component is configured to be parsed into actual executable code under the cross-platform framework.”
Yang et al. teaches, The applicant development may generate or select computer code to develop application. Computer code may include program source code such as C or C++. The computer code may be used directly by the application development tool, such as by performing all or some of the steps necessary for creating a computer application. These steps may include interpreting, compiling, assembling, linking and/or loading the computer code” (0027). The development tool allows deployment on various types of platforms (cross platform) (0044).
Xie et al. teaches, obtaining source code, compiling the source code to generate a plurality of intermediate files and linking the plurality of intermediate files to generate a object file (figures 2-4). Refer to claim 11 for motivation to combine.
As per claim 13, Yang et al. and Xie et al. further teach, “The method according to claim 12, wherein integrating the page program and the application mid-end to obtain the application program comprises:
parsing the intermediate component of the page program into the actual executable code
under the cross-platform framework to obtain an executable page program; and
integrating the executable page program and the application mid-end to obtain the
application program.”
Yang et al. teaches, the applicant development may generate or select computer code to develop application. Computer code may include program source code such as C or C++. The computer code may be used directly by the application development tool, such as by performing all or some of the steps necessary for creating a computer application. These steps may include interpreting, compiling, assembling, linking (integrating) and/or loading the computer code” (0027).
Xie et al. teaches, obtaining source code, compiling the source code to generate a plurality of intermediate files and linking (integrating)the plurality of intermediate files to generate a object file (figures 2-4). Refer to claim 11 for the motivation to combine.
As per claims 21-24, they contain similar limitations to claims 11-13 and are rejected for similar reasons.
Claims 14-15 and 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang et al. (US 2014/0047409 A1) as applied to claims 10 and 20 above, and further in view of Klask et al. (US 20110214078 A1).
As per claim 14, Yang et al. do not explicitly appear to teach, “The method according to claim 10, further comprising:
displaying a material editing interface; and
according to an operation of the user on the material editing interface, generating a new
edited material based on an existing material.
Klask et al. teaches, a widget builder for the user to create a customized widget (new edited material) from a template widget (material) or create a new template widget (material). Template widgets are used in the GUI builder to create widgets in a GUI (0052). Also see 0047, 0057 and 0063. Also see figures 5-6.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Yang et al. with Klask et al. because both teach the use of widgets to generate a UI program. Klask et al. teaches a GUI that allows at user to generate and customize widgets that can then be used as templates to generate a UI. This known technique would improve Yang et al. allow it to create and customize more widgets for future use.
As per claim 15, Klask et al. further teaches, “The method according to claim 14, wherein according to the operation of the user on the material editing interface, generating the new edited material based on the existing material comprises:
according to the operation of the user on the material editing interface, by a basic material component pre-determined based on the cross-platform framework, converting a basic material component combination corresponding to the existing material into a basic material component combination corresponding to the new edited material; wherein the basic material component is configured to be parsed into a basic material under the cross-platform framework.
Klask et al. teaches, a widget builder for the user to create a customized widget (new edited material) from a template widget (basic material) or create a new template widget (material). Template widgets are used in the GUI builder to create widgets in a GUI (0052). Also see 0047, 0057 and 0063. Also see figures 5-6. Refer to claim 14 for the motivation to combine.
Yang et al. teaches an application development tool that allows users to select and modify widgets, map API properties to widget attributes an create application user interfaces using the widgets. To modify the widgets and create applications, the application development tool edits the source code associated with the widget or application based on input received from the suer via the application development tool interface (0022). The application development tool may generate or select computer code to develop application. Computer code may include program source code such as C or C++. The computer code may be used directly by the application development tool, such as by performing all or some of the steps necessary for creating a computer application. These steps may include interpreting, compiling, assembling, linking (integrating) and/or loading the computer code” (0027).
As per claims 25-26, they contain similar limitation to claims 14-15 and are therefore rejected for similar reasons.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK A GOORAY whose telephone number is (571)270-7805. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10:00am - 6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lewis Bullock can be reached at 571-272-3759. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARK A GOORAY/ Examiner, Art Unit 2199
/LEWIS A BULLOCK JR/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2199
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