Patent ID: 7861167

Claim:
A method of switching between multiple views of a workspace frame window in a user interface of a dynamically extensible computer application, said user interface being generated on a display device by a computer associated therewith, said method comprising: providing at least one user interface element for the workspace frame window of the user interface of the dynamically extensible computer application via at least one view extension object of the dynamically extensible computer application, said view extension object corresponding to a view selection service object; integrating functionality provided by the at least one view extension object into the dynamically extensible computer application during execution of the dynamically extensible computer application via an application manager, wherein said application manager services requests during execution of the dynamically extensible computer application from the at least one view extension object to obtain the identity of other view extension objects that provide other specific functionality for integrating into the dynamically extensible computer application during execution of the dynamically extensible computer application; managing the view selection service object via a view selector object of the application manager for switching between the multiple views of the workspace frame window, wherein the at least one view extension object corresponding to the view selection service object manages the state of the at least one user interface element by maintaining said state during said switching; and servicing requests during the execution of the dynamically extensible computer application from the at least one view extension object to obtain the identity to other view extension objects that provide other specific functionality and user interface elements for integrating into the dynamically extensible computer application during the execution said servicing including instantiating the identified other view extension objects and identifying the instantiated other view extension objects to the requesting at least one view extension objects.