AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON EXAMPLE SOURCE CODE
Google has patented the generation of client libraries and example code from API descriptions. 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.
QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before March, 2012 that discusses:
Automatically generating a client library for accessing a given API from a given operating system using a given programming language, together with sample code that uses the client library, and making the generated code available for download from the web?
If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question. Only one piece of prior art per answer below. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.
TITLE: Generate custom client library samples based on a machine readable API description
Summary: It’s common for a web application to provide a programming-language-agnostic HTTP API. It’s also common for web applications to provide example code for accessing the API from many different programming languages. Google wants to patent automating this.
- Publication Number: US8510762 B1
- Assignee: Google
- Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating March 2012
- Open for Challenge at USPTO: Open through Feb 13, 2014
Claim 1 requires each and every step below::
A method performed by one or more processors, the method comprising:
- Receiving a request for a client library for an API, the request including an API identifier, a target programming language, and a target operating system platform
- Retrieving a machine-readable description of the API based on the identifier for the API
- Building a model of the API based on the machine-readable description
- Generating an API library source code in the target programming language
- Receiving a sample template for a generic sample application
- Expanding the sample template by incorporating a data structure in the target programming language to generate one or more code samples using the API library source code
- Storing in a unique Web location the generated code samples for later download.
In English, this means:
- The server requests a client library for accessing the Foo API using the Bar programming language
- The server looks up a description of the Foo API
- The server parses the API description
- The server generates a Bar-programming-language client library for the Foo API
- The server looks up sample code for using the Foo API. The patent does not specify if this sample code is in the Bar programming language, or in some other format that is then translated to the Bar programming language.
- The server generates Bar-language sample code that uses the Bar-language client library. It does so by using the impossibly vague procedure of “expanding the sample template by incorporating a data structure in the [Bar] programming language.”
- The server returns a URL of the generated client library and sample code.
Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to March, 2012.
What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.
Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.