Method and apparatus for form automatic layout

• US 10,025,767 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2015
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Thomson, Nicholas James, Davydok, Dmitri, Lee, Anthony, Legler, Ian Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, CONG LAC T
• Application Number:
  US14/986,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20160117305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 929 Days
• Field of Search: 715223, 715224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for determining the layout of a form automatically to accommodate text in the form. Under the method and apparatus, a set of parameters define the sizing and alignment of elements of the form. Sizing and positioning instructions that are separate from the sizing and alignment parameters set the sizing and positioning of elements of the form based on the sizing and alignment parameters. The instructions determine the minimum size for the form, based in part on text in the form. The difference between the minimum size for the form and a desired size for the form is then distributed across the form to size and position the elements in the form.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a memory that stores executable instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least;

determine a size that satisfies a size limit of a form, defined by compiled form code, to be displayed on a display screen of the mobile device based on text entries to be displayed in respective elements in the form;

determine a difference between the size that satisfies the size limit of the form and a requested size of the form;

divide the difference into blocks of space;

change, according to the blocks of space, values of auto layout parameters representing respective sizes of the respective elements in the form and respective positions of the respective elements in the form, and

render the form in accordance with the respective sizes and the respective positions defined by the values of the auto layout parameters without recompiling the compiled form code.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least:

evaluate a language of the text entries; and

determine the size that satisfies the size limit of the form based on the language.

3. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the processor further executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least:

determine a maximum size of an element of the respective elements corresponding to the language; and

determine the size that satisfies the size limit of the form based at least in part on the maximum size.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least distribute the blocks of space approximately evenly between the respective elements in the form.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least:

define, using at least one first parameter of the auto layout parameters, a grid entity comprising rows of the form and at least one column of the form;

group, using at least one second parameter of the auto layout parameters, at least two of the rows comprising maintaining a same vertical dimension for the at least two of the rows; and

set the respective sizes of the respective elements in the form and the respective positions of the respective elements in the form based on the at least one first parameter and the at least one second parameter.

6. The mobile device of claim 5, wherein the processor further executes or facilitates execution of the executable instructions to at least designate, using at least one third parameter of the auto layout parameters, a row of the rows as being one of growable or non-growable.

7. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

compute a size constraint of a form, defined by form code, to be displayed on the mobile device based on objects to be displayed in respective elements in the form;

compute a difference between the size constraint and a target size of the form;

divide the difference into segments;

compute updated sizes of the respective elements and updated positions of the respective elements in the form based on the segments;

modify layout parameter values defining the sizes and positions in accordance with the updated sizes and the updated positions; and

display the form in accordance with the layout parameters without recompiling the form code.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the objects comprise text objects.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify a language associated with the text objects; and

compute the size constraint of the form based on the language.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

compute a maximum size of an element of the respective elements corresponding to the language; and

compute the size constraint of the form based on the maximum size.

11. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to distribute the segments evenly or approximately evenly between the respective elements in the form.

12. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

define a grid entity for the form based on at least one first parameter value of the layout parameter values, the grid entity comprising rows and at least one column of the form;

group at least two of the rows based on at least one second parameter value of the layout parameter values comprising maintaining a same vertical dimension for the at least two of the rows; and

size and align the respective elements in the form based on the at least one first parameter value and the at least one second parameter value.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to designate, based on at least one third parameter value of the layout parameter values, at least one of the rows as being one of growable or non-growable.

14. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon executable components that, in response to execution, cause the device to perform operations, comprising:

selecting a minimum size of a form, generated by form code, based on elements to be displayed on the form via a mobile device;

determining an amount of excess space based on a difference between a target size of the form and the minimum size of the form;

modifying, based on the amount of excess space, values of layout parameters defining respective sizes of the elements and respective positions of the elements in the form; and

displaying the form in accordance with the respective sizes and respective positions defined by the values of the layout parameters without recompiling the form code.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the selecting the minimum size comprises:

determining respective minimum sizes of the elements based on respective sizes of texts to be displayed on the elements;

selecting a maximum value of the respective minimum sizes; and

selecting the minimum size of the form based on the maximum value of the respective minimum sizes.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise distributing the amount of excess space on the form evenly between the elements.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise distributing the amount of excess space on the form around a periphery of the form.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise laying out the elements to be displayed on the form based on the amount of excess space.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

defining a grid entity that comprises two or more rows of the form and one or more columns of the form;

defining a group comprising at least two rows of the two or more rows, wherein the at least two rows maintain a same vertical dimension; and

setting the respective sizes of the elements and respective positions of the elements in the form based on one or more of the layout parameters that define the grid entity.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise designating at least one of the two or more rows as being one of growable or non-growable.